CINARS - CIRCA

The first company to present their work was Australia's CIRCA. I've got to say, I'm somewhat on the fence about them. Technically, they were very good. Very, very good. The artists moved with fluidity and maturity. They were strong, performed skills that were both impressive and creative, and clearly mastered their technique.

I particularly appreciated the way the women were represented in the show (well, the sample of the show I got to see, anyway). The women were just as powerful as the men, sometimes more so. For me, this was most apparent in the sports acro dance piece where both men and women acted as both porters and flyers. Often, I see women perform more skills that I can only describe as fluff, but these women were skilled, strong, and feminine acrobats. It was a pleasure to watch.

That being said, here's what leaves me on the fence: the skills were there, but for the vast majority of the presentation, nobody on stage gave me anything.

What I mean is, they were far too neutral. Of course, being neutral is a very possible state of being on stage, but the audience should still feel that the artist is present and fully engaged. There were many moments where I felt like the artists were just standing there, completely detached from what was going on around them or worse, oblivious to the fact that people were watching them. This was most apparent in the sports acro dance piece. There were many moments where I felt like the music was doing all the work.

There was a wonderful moment where a woman in sparkly red spiked heels walked all over and physically manipulated one of her male colleagues. The idea is spectacular, and while there was definitely more feeling that in the previous moments on stage, I still felt that the artists were holding back and that they could have gone much further with what they were doing/feeling. If the woman in the heels really was going all out, she wasn't able to fully transmit that to the public. If she can find a way to do that, that number would go from good to brilliant.

I would like to see this show in its entirety. Since I can't do that at this time, here's a video!