International Circus Festival: Thinking outside the rings
Photographed by Ali Abdel Mohsen ....traditional circus conjures certain images--fearless lion-tamers, gravity-defying tightrope walkers and trapeze artists, accident-prone clowns, maybe a bear driving a tiny car. A traditional circus has big tops, balloons, bright lights and cotton candy, enormous elephants sitting on tiny stools, perhaps a cat leaping through a ring of fire.
Contemporary circus, of the sort featured at the Cairo International Circus Festival, focuses on dance, gymnastics, and acrobatics and seems but a distant relative of the storied three rings--less Ringling Bros. than Ringling Third Cousins Once Removed. This might be a welcome change to some people, like grown ups and animal rights activists. To others, it could be a disappointment.
Friday night’s performance at Al-Azhar Park’s open-air Geneina theater consisted mainly of gymnastic feats and acrobatics, as well as one children’s entertainer who lacked makeup and recognizable clown attire (over-sized shoes, red nose) but did, at some point, skip around in a flowery dress. Others of the night’s performances were likewise difficult to interpret.
The night’s program featured three separate acts, starting off with CirkuSzínház, a Hungarian troupe specializing in interpretive dance. The performance began with a young man, dressed entirely in white, slowly snaking his arms and sliding around the stage to a somber soundtrack of Gregorian chanting, before being joined by a similarly dressed female counterpart. The two circled each other for a while, occasionally stroking each other’s faces with the backs of their hands and twisting their bodies around as if to convey some state of emotional discomfort. The pair was then joined by another couple for some more symbolic writhing. Eventually, one of the girls climbed and wrapped herself around a curtain but, overall, the four performers spent too much time jogging around in circles, literally. It probably all meant something, though decoding it would have required more attention than seemed possible.read more at: Home » Culture » ArtInternational Circus Festival: Thinking outside the rings
Friday night’s performance at Al-Azhar Park’s open-air Geneina theater consisted mainly of gymnastic feats and acrobatics, as well as one children’s entertainer who lacked makeup and recognizable clown attire (over-sized shoes, red nose) but did, at some point, skip around in a flowery dress. Others of the night’s performances were likewise difficult to interpret.
The night’s program featured three separate acts, starting off with CirkuSzínház, a Hungarian troupe specializing in interpretive dance. The performance began with a young man, dressed entirely in white, slowly snaking his arms and sliding around the stage to a somber soundtrack of Gregorian chanting, before being joined by a similarly dressed female counterpart. The two circled each other for a while, occasionally stroking each other’s faces with the backs of their hands and twisting their bodies around as if to convey some state of emotional discomfort. The pair was then joined by another couple for some more symbolic writhing. Eventually, one of the girls climbed and wrapped herself around a curtain but, overall, the four performers spent too much time jogging around in circles, literally. It probably all meant something, though decoding it would have required more attention than seemed possible.read more at: Home » Culture » ArtInternational Circus Festival: Thinking outside the rings
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