Updated 04/26/2010 12:55 PM
New Brooklyn Circus Show Offers Intimate Experience
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While most circus shows these days promote how big they are, a Brooklyn-based troupe offers a much smaller and more intimate experience. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report on Suspended Cirque.The performers of Suspended Cirque are "swinging from the rafters" at Galapagos Art Space. But instead of wowing you with just how high and far they are, these aerialists prefer to be just over your head. Sure they've been inspired by the big acts but this is definitely not Cirque Du Soleil.
“What we wanted to do is to draw off of that and create our own version with an intimate quality, where we are right over your head and where you almost reach out and touch us – well actually at times you could reach out and touch us,” says Ben Franklin of Suspended Cirque. “We wanted to bring it down, intimately, right in front of the people, no spectacle, no flash, just the art, and a lot of art, and create something that would inspire and entertain at the same time.”
Suspended Cirque is a year old and was born after the Zipper Factory closed, leaving many of these artists with no place to perform or rehearse in Manhattan. Since then, Suspended Cirque has created four shows including the current one, "Swinging at Jack's."
“'Swinging at Jacks' is based in the 1940's. It uses music from anywhere before that time period and it's all live music,” says Suspended Cirque’s Kristin Olness. “We have a great jazz band and live singers, so it’s all live, which is great, something we’ve been wanting to do and it also incorporates being interactive with the audience. [Co-star] Angela and I both are cigarette girls. [Co-star] Michelle is a French maître d’. So it’s very interactive along with the aerial, along with the singing and dancing that we do.”
As for the renewed interest in circus shows, the folks at Suspended Cirque say, everyone wants to fly.
“I think aerial work is always going to be exciting, to have someone stretch the boundaries of what’s humanly possible,” Angela Jones of Suspended Cirque says. “So I think that really people want to see that in every capacity and there is definitely not only a renewed interest in learning aerial work, but also seeing it. It’s becoming the new dance or movement art form.”
"It’s a new way of dancing, dancing in the air, so to speak, and it’s very creative," says Olness.
Suspended Cirque will be dancing from the ceiling at the Galapagos Art Space (15 Main Street, Brooklyn) through the end of April. For more information, go to SuspendedCirque.com.