[ad_1]
The art of circus acts is ancient – it extends over thousands of years across cultures and kingdoms. And in January 2018, the modern circus, now part of the cultural landscape, celebrated its 250th anniversary. The contemporary circus (Cirque du Soleil in Montreal, although there are many other notable ones, including Australian Circa and Swedish Cirkus Cirkor – both at BAM's Next Wave Festival this year) continues 'blossoming with the vision of enhancing artistic form the realms of great art are opposed to the idea of being perceived as mere low value entertainment.
But last year, in 2017, the best-known traveling circus for nearly two centuries and the brand synonymous with the word, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus – presented as "The greatest show on earth" – they have definitely demolished their tents and bowed to the crowd for the last time after nearly 150 years of entertainment and enchantment (not without a good deal of controversy from the beginning). This marked the end of an era for the traditional circus that most people associate with craftsmanship: clowns, acrobats, daring and provocative cascades and exotic animals, all under a travel tent. The same year, the film The biggest showman has shone the spotlight on this larger-than-life circus creator – P.T. Barnum – by giving his life the Broadway-style theatrical treatment that is presented on the big screen instead of the Big Top or Great White Way.
To celebrate these different monuments of circus history, as well as their own 20th anniversary season, the adventurous string quartet (whose musicality could be described as a sound equivalent of acrobatics and rope tricks) stiff) ETHEL presents Circus: wandering city, a musical and multimedia journey offering a more intimate exploration and a tender homage to the tradition of the itinerant troops and the public who adored them. Supporting a gold mine of materials from the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum, including: photos, interviews and film clips, they create a visual story that complements the musical accompaniment .
Like many circuses, it starts with a clown. But this clown was not a red-nosed person wearing creaky shoes, it was nothing but Corin Lee, ETHEL, stumbling over his score and struggling with his desk. It was the perfect opportunity to set up a standard and correct common misunderstandings – because the heart of a clown is not in makeup or outfits, it's humor, excessiveness and ridiculous that one finds in all the situations too human and too relatable.
ETHEL is composed of Ralph Farris (viola), Kip Jones (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello) and Corin Lee (violin), but when they get closer, their strings with a feather breathe into one. Two decades together may have given birth to this camaraderie, constancy and maturity, with a bold and rebellious touch of nature present in any typical young man of twenty. Their sense of desire to play (between themselves and with the audience) is alive and well, but only becomes deep when it is associated with their discipline and outstanding skills. Like circus artists – they are content make it seems easy when it is anything but.
The performers are dressed in a Vaudevillian outfit slightly inspired by the steampunk style (creating the costume of Beth Goldenberg) reflecting both the wandering and gypsy lifestyle of the itinerant artist and corresponding to the rundown charm of the Harvey Theater from BAM (Note to BAM: please – never renovate update – you are glorious as you are!) who lent a heavy hand atmosphere.
The video and projected images (John Narun's drawing) on the blank canvas are obscured, cleverly and poetically, by strings (thanks to the scenographer, Jason Ardizzone-West), creating a textured abstraction and evoking the diverse circus – stiff ropes, aerobatic acrobatics and even pitching tents. Video montages with excerpts from interviews of circus artists such as: La Norma Fox, Margie Geiger, Ward Hall, Dolly Jacobs, Jackie LeClaire, Pedro Reis and Victoria Cristiani Rossi (entered the circus at days old) was originally presented at the Ringling Museum (which co-commissioned the piece with BAM), hosted by Dwight Currie, as part of their "Collecting Recollections" series. It was quite remarkable to see and hear circus stars who may or, more likely, have never had a real large-scale recognition, sharing their stories – tales of aerial terrors, on a tightrope or raised trunk of intelligent elephants tigers tails tame.
But the real show was the music and the musicians behind this masterful work. Not that you know it or never heard it. There is a superb humility and almost a reverence on the part of ETHEL, based on the topics they explore so deeply – again – breathing as one entity, to the point that their chains pull the strings of their own heart and arouse emotions in such a way that they become truly true. deep not despite but because of its subtlety. Never have four artists been so convincing and commissioned the scene in this way. (Well, maybe the Beatles, but ETHEL – a contemporary string quartet – was twenty years after everything that started at the height of the madness of groups of boys and girls).
The circus, especially that of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, now missing, may have been considered sometimes as an unsophisticated and overly sophisticated form of expression and entertainment, but this brilliant and beautiful exploration of Circus: wandering city ETHEL strips everything of its simplest, most sincere and human qualities (even when it's about animals), perhaps asking the public to see the circus as something other than their perceptions initials – but to consider it as a place where the inhabitants of society not only gathered but welcomed, accepted and made useful (many years before the theater industry set up a color cast or sex without distinction) or that inclusion is taken seriously by employers). .
Whether through history, storytelling, drama, comedy or simply the score that elevates to an aerialist or trapeze number, the exquisite expression and masterful musicality of the quartet fantastic ETHEL certainly know how to shoot again on the heart. and even.
Related Articles
Show more
Brooklyn stories
Shows
From this author
Cindy Sibilsky
[ad_2]
Source link
