Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble, Circa reimagines “Swan Lake,” the world’s most romantic ballet, as a circus spectacular—full of the company’s signature physicality, cheeky humor and thoroughly contemporary energy. Be swept away by this tale of swans and hapless princes, sparkling with quirky touches like a sequinned flipper-wearing duck army and a burlesque black swan. There are sumptuous aerials, jaw-dropping acrobatics and—of course—feathers! Touching, funny and utterly entertaining, “Duck Pond” is a tale of identity and finding your true self.
Swan Lake
Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Ugly Duckling” was published in 1843. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky began composing “Swan Lake” in 1875. What it might portend that the two fairy tales arose out of the waning of Romanticism and waxing of modernism would likely intrigue Yaron Lifschitz, artistic director of Circa. After all, those fables meet cute and clever in the circus-inflected company’s rousingly inventive “Duck Pond” which opens the Artist Series on October 5.
For an artistic company, Circa is splendidly acrobatic. “They bend; they lift, they fly through the air, they land,” Lifschitz once said, distilling the essence of the artistry. With “Duck Pond,” Circa has created a piece that takes on identity—mistaken and doubled—with gravity-courting and gravity-rebuffing skill. And quite a few winks.
Thanks in part to decades of Cirque du Soleil spectacles, audiences are evermore conversant with the lures of circus artistry. Circa, founded in 2004 in Brisbane, recalibrates that wow factor back in favor of the very bodies creating it. There’s an intimacy and artistic ambition to its performances that invites awe at the tensile strength of bone and sinew but also trepidation at the without-a-net feats.
In “Duck Pond,” the circus accoutrements—the Cyr wheels, aerial silks, and ropes—are all in play as the ensemble of 10 dives into Odette and Odile’s story with winking aplomb. (Circa was here last with “Sacre,” a reimagining of “Rite of Spring,” in 2022.) There is the sorcerer, the famous swan and her vexing doppelganger, the pining prince. But hold on. There is also a raft of performers wearing bright yellow waders and just as sunny flippers wielding red-headed mops. And to throw a stone into the pond, comes a winsome Ugly Duckling in a light golden leotard and wearing a pleated collar.
For a swift 70 minutes, feathers will be ruffled; swans will take flight; and, if all goes as designed, audiences will fall for “Duck Pond.”
Blue Curtians Brisbane says “Boldly dramatic in its chaos and also charmingly magical in its whimsy” For more than 85 years, the Artist Series has brought the globe’s finest jazz, classical, world music and dance performers to Boulder. Many of these performances sell out; order your tickets today to guarantee the best seats. Performance is scheduled for Saturday, October 5, at 7:30 pm at the Macky Auditorium Concert Hall, 1595 Pleasant St in Boulder. Ticket prices range from $22 for students to $99 for adults. Purchase tickets at the box office or online at cupresents.org.