The free adaptation of the Swan Lake by the Australian company Circa, was announced as the highlight of this 15e edition of Completely Circus. However, strange artistic choices end up ruining an acrobatic ballet that could have been grandiose.
It must be said that when Circa arrives in Montreal with a new creation, expectations are high. Very high. The company, masterfully directed for twenty years by Yaron Lifschitz, has offered us several gems of circus art over the years.
Since their debut in Montreal in 2008 with Wonder room until HumansPassing by S, Opus, Beyondetc. Circa stood out clearly from other contemporary circus companies by pushing the limits of what was humanly possible to do, with little or no circus apparatus.
With this free adaptation of the Swan Lakepunctuated at certain moments only by the sublime music of Tchaikovsky, we manage to reconstruct the broad outlines of the famous ballet.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Another successful scene from the acrobatic ballet imagined by Yaron Lifschitz that can be seen in Duck Pond.
As a reminder: Prince Siegfried must choose a wife, someone wants to impose one on him; angry, he goes into the forest at night with his crossbow, and comes across a flock of white swans. But when he is about to shoot, he realizes that it is a group of women covered in white feathers… One of them delights him more than the others: Princess Odette.
These swan women have been given a bad spell by the sorcerer Rothbart: during the day they are swans, and at night they become women again. By marrying Odette, Siegfried could reverse the bad spell.
All this is represented in Duck Ponda magnificent acrobatic ballet in which we recognize the main protagonists. The dramatic crux of the piece is also reproduced in this slightly offbeat circus variation. Namely: to foil Siegfried’s plans, the sorcerer transforms his daughter Odile into a double of Odette, who can be distinguished by her black clothes.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
An aerial silk number punctuates the acrobatic ballet with skill numbers.
If Circa had maintained this artistic direction in a coherent manner, and even with its finale, created from scratch (which we will not reveal!), but which does not correspond to the dramatic ending usually represented – namely that by marrying Odile, Odette is condemned to remain a swan until the end of time; or that devastated, she throws herself into the depths of the lake – we could have witnessed a masterpiece.
But from the first third of the show, the acrobats intersperse this circus ballet with acrobatic numbers…
Three-person turn, smiles, applause. Pyramid figures, smiles, applause. Aerial silk number, smiles, applause. A bit like a Cirque du Soleil show. Which is not a fault in itself. But then you have to choose… Because these asides are poorly aligned with the basic proposition.
In addition, during these skill numbers, some of Circa’s acrobats – who are usually almost perfect in their execution – appeared hesitant and unsure. We even feared when one of the acrobats landed…
To add to this unfortunate mix of genres, the final scene – nice and rather successful – does not end the show. A false ending after which the artists pack up the set of the Swan Lake and offer us other numbers of skills in pasture. We are then in a completely different show…
So here we go again. Cyr wheel, smiles, applause. Hula-hoop, smiles, applause… The artists also make appearances inside the metal equipment boxes, striking sexy poses. In short, we are elsewhere and in truth a little confused. A very unfortunate way of taking the spectator out of the Swan Lake. Above all, a way of doing things from Circa that we didn’t know they had.
Duck Pond
At the TohuUntil July 13