Centennial showcases 'Cirque' featuring theater's 'circus artistry'

Photo courtesy of UApresents.

A performer in Neil Goldberg's "Cirque" demonstrates her proficiency with a hula hoop - or rather, hula hoops. The show runs at Centennial Hall through Sunday.

While finals tie your mind in knots, others tie themselves in knots - for the sake of entertainment.

Neil Goldberg's "Cirque," now running at Centennial Hall, features contortionists (they look how you feel), acrobats, dancers, singers and more in a single theatrical performance of what is termed "circus artistry." Yet "Cirque" is different from other well-known shows of this type, such as Cirque du Soleil or a traditional circus.

"Our show was made as a theatrical piece, and it has all the elements that you would see on a Broadway-style show, with set pieces moving in and out," said Richard Kilman, business manager for the show. "Circus shows perform in tents."

While no people shoot out of cannons and there will be no lion taming, "Cirque" offers plenty of spectacle. One act in the show is the German wheel, a 6-foot metal frame of a wheel, where "the performer is the spokes, if you will," Kilman said. A triple-wide trapeze act is also featured.

Some of the acts seem a bit more death defying - such as one called the Russian bar. It involves three performers, two of whom hold each end of a 16-foot, flexible balance beam while the third performs acrobatics on the bar.

These performances, obviously, can be dangerous, but Kilman said there have been no serious injuries among the show's 20 performers.

"We have been so incredibly fortunate in that area," he said.

That the performers remain injury-free amid routines like "a death-defying masquerade atop 24 feet of chairs," as a press release stated, is a testament to their intensive training.

"These are some of the most disciplined performers on earth," Kilman said. "Not only are they working on their craft but also working out, stretching, working on their flexibility. Not to take anything from an actor that's done a movie, but there is no comparison. It is a huge amount of time and devotion."

Most of the routines in the show are developed by the performers themselves, and are then costumed and choreographed to music by the show's artistic creators. The performers come from all over the world - from Canada to Mongolia (the premier training site for contortionism, Kilman said).

"There are a lot of performers out there. I don't know what motivates them to become what they are, but we get videotapes from performers all over the world that want to perform with us," Kilman said. "We've been very fortunate to have some pretty wonderful cast members."

While "Cirque" does contain these circus-like acts, it has incorporated a narrative structure, which makes the show more theatrical. Its lead character, Ringabella, begins as a member of the audience, but when he can't find his seat, the performers bring him on stage and he becomes a part of the show.

This theatricality is part of the creative philosophy of the show's creator, Neil Goldberg, Kilman said. In 1993, Goldberg founded Cirque Inc., the first American company of its kind to produce this type of artistry. The company's first show, "Cirque Ingenieux," has toured the United States since 1996, including a run in Tucson two years ago. "Cirque" contains some of the same elements as that show, but "the costumes are all new, the set is all new, (and) the music is all new," Kilman said.

"Cirque" runs at Centennial Hall through Sunday. Tickets range from $30 to $48, with student and faculty discounts available. For show times, call the box office at 621-3341.