Source: Radio New Zealand
Swan Lake was ripe for reinterpretation, says the leader of Australia’s premier circus company.
Circa’s latest production Duck Pond blends the classic ballet and Ugly Duckling stories into a high-energy, acrobatic visual feast.
“Somewhere in the back of my fetid imagination, it got melded into the story of The Ugly Duckling, both tales of birds and emerging into identity,” Yaron Lifschitz told RNZ’s Nine to Noon .
Circa is bringing its version of the classic ballet Swan Lake to the Auckland Arts Festival next month.
Pia Johnson
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“There’s not a lot of people who come out of a performance of Swan Lake and go, geez, I wish that was longer.
“So, I want to make theatre that doesn’t bore audiences. It’s one of my obsessions.”
Circa is bringing its version of the classic ballet to the Auckland Arts Festival next month.
The production pays due respect to the traditional art form, he says.
“I wanted us to get under the hood of ballet, to understand some of what it was doing, to pay homage to it. This is great music. It’s an amazing performance tradition.
“And then from inside to learn how to be joyous, but also cheeky and playful.”
Audiences can expect plenty of athleticism in Duck Pond , he says.
“It’s got acrobatics in it. So, you know, ballet’s got plenty of lifts, but we do the lift and the throw and the catch on the other side.”
This however is no ballet parody, he says.
Australian circus company reimagines the classic Swan Lake Nine To Noon
“I think we would be remiss if we didn’t pay homage to and respect to the deep traditions and the long traditions of this form, both its basis in fairy tale, Tchaikovsky, ballet practise, these are beautiful things, but that doesn’t stop us being contemporary.”
Duck Pond is demanding on the 30-plus ensemble performing it, he says.
“Because it needs a maximum of control, precision and kind of abandon at the same time, and those two things can very often get confused.”
Lifschitz who has been at the helm of Circa for more than 20 years, wants to create performances that move beyond traditional circus tropes, he says.
“People stand on each other’s shoulders, they jump off, they catch each other. They hang on trapezes, they tumble improbably, they bend into weird pretzel shapes.
“But what we’re trying to do is convert that into something that’s thrillingly deep. So, something that brings you in touch with ideas, with feelings, that takes you on a journey.”
If theatre is a team sport, circus is even more so, he says.
“In a company of ten acrobats, you have 100 toes. If one of them is sore, it affects everything you do.
“So, you are absolutely mutually interdependent and reliant, and I think that’s part of the real joy of what we do.”
Circa’s production of Duck Pond.
Pia Johnson
Australian circus company reimagines the classic Swan Lake Nine To Noon
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
