Sequence 8 is a seamless performing arts patchwork that showcases the talents of eight very talented acrobats. The show mixes upbeat music with choreographed dances and effortless comedy. This is definitely not your regular save-the applause for-the-end kind of theatre. The acrobats feed off the audience’s energy. The show is alive with applause at every thrilling moment that is put on display by the acrobats. It would be unfair to call the acrobats just acrobats. Not only do they put a contemporary spin on traditional circus acts, but they also act, sing and dance equally well. This team is indeed multifaceted in the truest sense of the word.
The show is split into eight separate performance pieces that let each acrobat bring their unique talent into the spotlight, along with a few team pieces peppered here and there. Each performer gets his or her own mood, music, story and lighting. The stage is set to give the performers ample room for their acts. In the background is an array of large empty painting frames. These, along with the changing colors of the lights, provide an elegant and subtle backdrop for the performances. It sounds like a lot to pay attention to but really it is a simple and genuine endeavor. The music ranges from sweeping ballads and indie folk, to dubstep, hip hop and even a bit of Miley Cyrus. Besides an ironic play of “Party in the USA”, the music appears to be all-original.
The circus artists belong to 7 Fingers (7 Doigts), a Montreal-based creative collective. Colin Davis is the show’s emcee of sorts. He gives it direction by acting as a host that jokes with and jostles the audience. Davis later performs in an intricate series of hoop jumping tricks. This particular night he missed a few marks but with encouragement from the audience he went on to recover heroically from his slip-ups. Davis also got a lot of laughs from the audience for his witty one-liners. Ugo Dario brings trapeze to the stage. He performs a dance that involves using reactive energy from the rest of the performers’ dances, for his own tricks. Dario and Maxim Laurin later do a teeter-totter routine where they catapult each other up in the air, to each land on a mattress or a tall wooden block. Laurin’s solo involves a dance through a maze of black sticky tape that connects all the performers together. The result is a touching representation of disappointment in human relationships as he tears through the tape with his dancing limbs.
Camille Legris and Tristan Nielsen are the dancers of the group. They pull of some of the bravest contemporary dance spectacles you have ever seen. Their high jumps, throws and catches had the audience gasping in fear for the pair’s safety. Eric Bates, the juggler cheers the audience up with an unparalleled juggling act set to an uplifting, guitar-twanging indie song. In his act Bates ensures that three medium-sized blocks of wood, dance through the air without ever touching the ground. Bates’ act is joyful and I can be sure that this night it was especially well liked by the children in the audience.
Devin Henderson climbs up a three story metal pole and scares the audience with his sudden, seemingly breakneck drops and slides, down the pole. His athletic ability and elongated leaps and jumps, show his finesse as a dancer. The highlight of the show undeniably is Alexandra Royer. She appears to be one of the more experienced acrobats of the group. Her opening sequence involves a flexible plank walk, much like a tight rope walk but with jumps and somersaults with perfect landings back on the plank. Her opener won the audience’s heart in the first 15 minutes of the show. She also concludes the show with a beautiful trapeze-ish piece on a hanging silver hoop, on which she poetically twirls and dances into a maddening frenzy.
Together the acrobats complement and enhance each other’s unique talents. The script relies very much on the physicality of the actors but there is a lot of wit thrown into the few lines of the show. Themes leap out of the choreography of the acts and dances, as vividly as written words off of a page. The choreography is plain brilliant and highly detailed.
The show uses Carl Jung’s theory about the beauty and importance of both action and reaction as it’s central theme, as “[t]he meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” The dances make the performers bounce off of each other’s bodies, and use impact as a means of gaining momentum for subsequent movement to bring this theory to life. The result is a living, breathing and constantly moving production. Ripples and waves through the acrobats’ bodies always remind the audience about the beauty of reactions, which can many a times be even greater than the beauty of the actions themselves. The acrobats’ drawing on the energy of the audience also drives home this simple theory. The show is all about cause and effect, and the beautiful unpredictable chaos of these effects. Sequence 8 is an absolute must watch. It has a philosophical message under all the giddy fun.
This circus is in town to move you.
Séquence 8 runs January 22 to 24, 2015 at 8pm, plus the added performance at 2pm on January 24, at the Vancouver Playhouse.
-Prachi Kamble
(Printed with the permission of Fame Blog Canada where it was initially published).