(Courtesy of CU Presents)
Eager attendees filled Macky Auditorium on Oct. 5 to watch “Circa: Duck Pond,” a show from the Circa circus company based in Australia. “Duck Pond” takes inspiration from the classic ballet “Swan Lake” through its characters and music but gives the show new life with the creativity of circus.
The performers of “Duck Pond” flipped and tumbled their way onto the stage as the story began. From the very first flip, the experience of each of the performers was clear. The Ugly Duckling, who was contrasted in white from the other performers wearing all black, didn’t fit in. The performers drew the audience members into the story as we met the Prince, the Black Swan and Cupid.
The longer the show went on, the more daring the feats were. Flying with silks, balancing on each other’s shoulders stacked three people high, using unique parts of the body – like bent elbows and the backs of calves – as stairs and throwing the Ugly Duckling from person to person, the audience never knew what was coming next.
The audience responded with gasps, groans of disbelief and applause as one performer did a one-handed handstand on another’s head and when the White and Black Swans performed a contortion duet, bending and balancing on each other in ways that didn’t seem possible.
Audience member Arlene Cutlers has been attending CU Presents shows for ten seasons. Even though she is familiar with gymnastics, as her husband is a gymnast, she was in awe with how everything came together.
“Unfortunately [my husband] is not here, but I think he would have loved it, just to see the strength that was put into it. I mean the costumes, the design, the whole program was just so well, you could feel it,” she said.
The show, while jaw-dropping, was also hilarious. An on-stage pillow fight scattered down feathers all over the stage, and performers tended to the mess with oversized brooms, quaking and a distracted effort at cleaning up all the feathers.
Troy Thornberry, also a long-time CU Presents attendee, chose to come to this show because its relation to dance interested him. He knew the storyline, but something that stuck out to him the most was the joy and humor that oozed from the stage.
“I think what really came through was how much fun [the performers] seem to be having and I think that really just makes it even more fun for the audience,” Thornberry said.
Despite the show’s creativity, there were odes to the classic ballet found in the music. Remixed versions of “Swan Theme” and more were used throughout the show.
The most unique part of the performance came after the ‘story’ ended and the performers took their bow. It was time for the third act. This section of the show took a completely unconventional approach to the end of a performance. Instead of having the curtains close on a perfect stage, viewers got a glimpse of what the cleanup work looked like, first by performers tearing down the set, and then the floor, and then rolling out the theater trunks, and finally by showcasing a few niche specialties, like the Cyr Wheel, that didn’t find their place in the storyline of “Duck Pond.”
“It was good to see all of the different art forms that they brought into it, and then they used that sort of extra window to show you what cleaning up looked like to throw in a few more,” Thornberry said.
One performer danced with six hula-hoops at once, on her leg, torso, neck and arm, while another performer worked to detangle his friend who had wrapped himself head to toe in the heavy-duty tape that had held the padded floors together.
Beth Lehrer watched the performance with her sons. Her sons nodded in agreement as she described the most exciting part of the performance.
“How stable [the performers] were, how seamless they were and how they held each other – was really incredible,” she said.
Leher said she couldn’t pick one favorite part.
“It was ballet, it was acrobatics, it was circus, it was beautiful,” she said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Addisson Pribble at Addisson.Pribble@colorado.edu.
