FIRST TIME ANYWHERE? Ethiopian Acrobats Ablaze in Virtual Gold at Monte Carlo Circus Oscars

Of the 195 nations that make up the world, only 21 of them can lay claim to holding  Monte Carlo Gold Clown winners. There would now be 22, had I been able to sway, badger, or bribe  the judges at this year’s Monte Carlo Circus Festival.  To wit, I give you ...
    
From the Horn of Africa, The Kolfe Troupe — great-to-be-here! acrobats who take the ring with hand clapping, foot stomping joy.  Which is just what the circus needs. They raise the tent through a fast-moving array of teeterboard lift-offs and landings, then  lift us even higher with a genuinely perfect payoff: One of them lays back across the feet of a risely under-stander, and is whirled over and over two dozen times. Not just for the number, but better yet, for sustaining a perfectly composed posture that is mesmerizing.  Risely is rarely quite this finished.  And it finished me off on a high. The crowd rose to its feet. The crowd was the world making a statement: Yes, you deserve our highest acclaim,  YES! 

Reality check: Okay, I told myself, a few days later after watching the video, you had better ftake a second look for a second opinion, just in case you over-reacted. OMG - they were much  more exciting the second time around, there was so much going on. Bordering on madcap comedy pacing, they zoom over and around and on top of each other, like frantic pedestrians at jammed intersections. Between the flying feet of one and the hands of the waiting under-stander, a third one sneakily sails through like an arrow in flight!  Hilarious.  First Time Anywhere?  They will be appearing this next season with Circus Charles Knie in Germany (not to be confused with Circus Knie) **

The Silver Clown they were awarded was declared history-making And  I had better learn how to  spell   e t h i o p i a.

Here in the USA, I was lucky to get a sampling of these African firecrackers at the Zoppe Family Circus in 2024.  That notable year, the Hawaz Zewde Troupe, seen above, had been  touring  the world for nine years, from Singapore to England, and were making their first appearance in the States. I gave them high marks for both juggling and risely. I can thank  Giovanni Zoppe, to whom had been sent a video from the troupe’s, leader,  Zwede, seeking a spot in the show.  Giovanni and his wife, Jeanette Prince-Zoppé,  were “amazed”
   
“He’s never done anything in his life besides circus,” she told  a writer. “So for him to say, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before,’ is a telltale sign this is an incredible act.” 

Over at New Ringling. Take 1 (Take 2 has just hit the rapping road), a troupe of three-high jump-roping Ethiopians made another splash, but were minimized on a platform off to the sides.

Back to the  The Kolfe kid being whirled around like a circular stream of light -- He  reminds us that in mere  moments at the circus, something unexpected can happen that will that take our breath away, pull us back in, and send us off believers once more.  Like when  Harold Alzana, jumping a very short rope on the high wire, then suddenly added another turn of the rope to double the trick — a split second thrill telling me why I still enter tents both big and small with hopes flying high.

Princess Stephanie's rich discoveries — North Korea to Ethiopia — bring to mind the response I got from John Ringling North when I asked him what he looked for when scouting the world for new acts.  Answered he thoughtfully, in full-second summation:  “Something I haven’t seen before.” 

END RINGERS:  ** Beware if you go looking for a video of the Kolfe Troupe. I found one that is nothing like what I describe, which is why I almost accidentally came upon another, the one reviewed above ... Princess Stephanie is, indeed, the one who selects the acts -- 25 to 30 in number.  And beyond that, I read, she also personally attends rehearsals, helping to better prepare each for maximum impact. Her father and famous mother, Princess Grace, were both good friends of  John Ringling North  ... The international jury this year deliberated for three hours.  One of the acts astounded so, that in a first for the festival, they awarded it both a Golden Clown and a Golden Junior Award:  The Suining Acrobatic Troupe of China, three young  contortionists ranging in ages from 12 to 17 .... Angelically athletic: Quad star Juan Cebolla Gasca, above, of the Flying Fuentes Gasca, may start out higher in the tent than others, for he seems to sail down through his glorious four into the hands of his catcher, which may make the feat easier to follow, thus more enjoyable  ... Circus around the world is alive and thriving at Monte Carlo.  We can thank Princess Stephanie for giving these magical mortals a reason to dream and excel --- and for the glamorous "Circus Oscars" celebration they all deserve a crack at.   

  Nations holding Gold Clowns

Argentina
Bulgaria
Canada
China
England
France
Germany
Hungary
 Italy
North Korea
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Spain
Switzerland
Turkestan 
Ukraine
USA/Columbia
USA alone Elvin Bale, Anthony Gatto
USA / Mexico
USSR

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SUNDAY OUT OFTHE PAST: Cirque du Soleil’s Intensely Creative Kurios Works Overtime to Win Us Back: Give Them High Marks for Trying ...

Where are they now?  So much time has passed.  Let me take you back to 2014

 
Circus Review
Cirque du Soleil - Kurios
San Francisco, December 5

In its most infections frames, what the latest offering from Cirque du Soliel seems the most happy doing is simply dancing.  Being a little goofy and off axis juggling and tumbling, making magic and riding upside-down bicycles — and dancing.  It's happy heart is that of a free spirited Italian variety show romping through the streets of Rome.  Fellini would have loved filming it all.

The agreeable spirit of quirky invention can make the more standard circus turns (two of them attached to lifelines) seem a tad secondary, or make that obligatory (a touch of Corteo comes to mind).   Even slightly passe, as if we have somehow left the big top rather than entered it, and are on our way for other worlds to conquer and charm. The attractive revelers, who engage more directly with the audience this time around, have a ball cavorting about on ingenious rigging devices that lift and drop them with terrific force and agility.

Directed by Michel Laprise, the party begins at the wacky control panels of a whimsically mad-scientist character, who is very funny just to watch waddling about, puttering through a maze of gadgets, turning knobs to test lights, ridding oddball contraptions to prove his obscure genius – all of which gives the company ample sanction to flex its abundant creativity.  That’s about the gist of the first half.

It is not until after a long intermission, only lacking a pony ride to make the merchandising orgy complete (there is free water this year, but no cups – they cost a buck), that Kurios turns itself into a high powered circus spectacular, and here the Montreal monster proves that it can still rise gloriously to the occasion when it has to, as here it surely must.  Public patronage has been ominously on the decline in recent seasons, a fact even acknowledged by the Cirque King himself.

First to soar are troupe exploits over a super-large trampoline, followed by a couple of fellows working straps in a clean efficient fashion.  After more audience clowning and dancing, and a rather drawn out finger puppet show, big top gusto resumes on the ground, where the company develops vaulting acrobatics in fantastically thrilling ways.  Much too marvelously complicated to explain, nor have I at hand a program to name names.  On principal, I refused to invest $20 in one. 

So, whatever you may think of the part that came before the break (I recall a blur of phantasmagorical stage pictures) , you are sure to go out singing at least half the show’s praises.  And the captivating special effects alone may haunt your imagination.   There were a large number of kiddies in the audience who sounded tickled.   I keep thinking movie.  I also keep thinking another cinematic bomb.   Antonioni might get it right.   Is he still alive?

On film, it would certainly be far easier to take in and comprehend.  When Kurios is working its many optical illusions, it is a campaign that demands meticulous attention, which can make being a patron to this party a bit of a workout, doubly so if your view is partially blocked by one of the four imposing tent poles – or if you are not particularly fond of craning your neck to peer deeply into a cosmos through an opening at the top of the tent. Bring binoculars.

Another question mark in my mind is the featured clown, who took up plenty of time with the audience being enormously clever and drawing ample laughter, or so I heard. Yes, it's that kind of a circus, too.

This is the Cirque du Soleil that some of its most devoted critics are calling the “comeback" edition, perhaps responding to Guy Laliberte's promise to return the company to its roots.  Strange, this is hardly a return to the ingenious simplicity that marked the company's first efforts under a smaller tent with virtually no special effects.  Kurios is really an extension of a habit for ever more clever high-tech stage wizardry that the Cirque King can't seem to break himself of.

So as for “comeback,”  I’m not so sure.  And given the swaths of empty chairs under a fairly near-full tent pitched in a city perhaps best suited by liberal bent to embrace what is on parade at the moment — San Francisco may not be so sure, either.

Overall rating (out of 4 stars tops):  3 stars      

First posted: 12.13.14   

1.26,26: Founder and Creative Guide Guy Laliberte (the John Ringling North of his time)  sold 90% of his stock  to TPG Capital and Fosum  in  April, 2015.  And that may have marked a critical turning point in the show's checkered history. Kurios, whose rousing second half still  resonates with me, was probably the last Cirque show I saw.  I remember walking out of the tent in San Francisco, across a cold Giant's baseball parking lot, and quibbling about it, and then asking myself, but how did it make you feel? Yes, yes it did! -- it sent me floating out of the tent. I am reminded of the defining  role the man at the top plays. The last Cirque show I saw may well have been the last one that the Cirque King himself produced.

SHOWBIZ DAVID'S FIRST CIRQUE DU SOLEIL REVIEW

In 1987, I was in good stead with Variety, having been a free-lance contributor to the "bible of showbiz" for fifteen years, filing occasional circus reviews and major state-of-the-circus reports in their annual  January anniversary issues. That year, in the 226 page edition, I profiled three circus producers --- Paul Binder, Kenneth Feld, and Cliff Vargas --- under Variety's heading, Big Tops Back in Form. 

Eight months later came a new circus to Los Angeles from Canada, making its first appearance in the states, in-fact anywhere outside the country.  I watched the show in Japan town, and sent off this notice.  Not a word has been changed here. 

Circus Review          Special for Variety

by David Lewis Hammarstrom

Cirque Du Soleil, Guy Laliberete, President and General Manager Guy Caron, Artistic DirectorRene Dupere, Composer; Benoit Jutras, Music Director Luc Lafortune, Lighting Designer;; Andre Caron, Set Designer Michel, Costume Designer, Richard Bouthillier; Technical Director; Debbie Brown, Choreography Michel Barette, Ringmaster Features Marc Proulx and The Children; Benny Le Grand, Catitan Cactus, Amelie Demay and Eric Varelas, Masha Dimitri, Christopher Suszek, Luc Dagenais, Roch Justrus, Alain Gautheir, Andre St. Jean, Nathalie Sabourin, Nicolas Dupere, The Andrews, The Shao Family, Denis Lacomee ,At the Los Angeles Arts Festival, September 7 (1987). $17.50 top.

 And from so tiny a tent, oh what wonders filled it!

One of the hottest tickets of the Los Angeles Arts Festival, Cirque Du Soleil is a wow of a show and the talk of the town.  The youthful company, based — along with a burgeoning circus school — in Montreal, and sponsored by Canadian Airlines International, offers a revelation of the infinite viability of circus art.  They take it to new heights with deft creative direction incorporating a bold original score played on synthesizer, a sax and drums. Dry ice effects and fine lighting schemes add further to the magic and mystery of the performance.  Unlike some other companies, which have undertaken to “reinvent’ the circus along similar lines but have failed for lack of real talent, this organization has at its core a number of gifted performers.  Together, they make it work, and results are fairly miraculous.  Sometimes she show resembled a stark sensual ballet, other times a hip video in the making

Massive government aid and backing, combined with hefty corporate and private donations, has no doubt helped   So, too, has the extraordinary artistic vision of the company, lead by director Guy Caron.  The program is woven around a scenario of simple charm that has a group of locals — grotesquely masked — wandering into the tent to discover they are at a circus..  They take advantage of the audience by indulging their own amateur antics until, through a misty surface, the actual circus stars emerge. Some of the locals are transformed into participants, one of them becoming the ringmaster, another, the lady on the stack-wire.  When it's over, the ringmaster is turned back to himself, the common man, but given the hat to take with him as a souvenir. He sauntered off enchanted, having lived out a wonderful fantasy.

What happens along the way is a theatrically  wrought circus, the program skillfully assembled so that each act seems to top the previous.   In the first half, Christopher Suszek and his acrobatic associates offer entertaining gymnastics on tables and chairs.  A group of teeterboard tumblers enter dressed as penguins, and effect some novel movements off the springboards, all the while sustaining a sort of penguin strut.  Masha Dimitri wins high plaudits with her work on the slack wire, manipulating an umbrella in the tip of her foot.   Her number is backed by several dancers, and by the enthusiastic antics of Marc Proulx, a magical jester-like character who dances and tumbles through the show, striking poses at the opportune moment to intensify audience reception.

The second half builds further, Eric Varela and Adelie Damay starting off with a head and hand balancing act, marvelously placed in context of a tango production number.  The two demonstrate a finesse and accuracy, not a single motion wasted, normally associated with Chinese artistry.  Show’s one aerial number, presented originally by Andrew Watson and Jacqueline Williams, is a cradle act of spellbinding novelty, only the payoff being a standard cloud swing breakaway.  Then, to whip up a rousing conclusion, come the Zhao Family, trick cycling wizards, augmented effectively by more cyclist from the company at large. The thirteen person pyramid on a moving bicycle is a marvel to behold.

Given the show's remarkable overall standards, one could argue that the mechanics (safety wires) used during the table and chair number are out of place.  And they are.  One could also argue that the clowns, Catitan Cacitus and Benny Le Grand, are only very good, being a mischievous blend in a broad, bawdy way, and delivering some funny enough spoofs of, among others, escape illusionists to Karate Kings. There’s also the hilarious example of Denis LaCombe, satirizing an overly frenetic, half smashed musical conductor at the podium.

The score is a fabulous accomplishment, a rich and varied jazz/rock fusion ever sensitive  to the changing moods. Michel Barrette is a charming ringmaster, unconventional in the sense of not announcing all the acts. That would bot be proper considering the dramatic fluidity of the program. It’s undeniably affecting as an epic entertainment event, and it proves what a superior art form circus can be especially when it draws from other forms to glorify its own essential magic. Cirque du Soleil, which has only been in operation for four mere seasons, is already a company of world class stature that bears watching closely.  It’s likely to have an impact on the way others circuses are produced and directed, and on the way they’re perceived by the public.

                                  End    

 

Variety dd not respond to my submission, and so, after taking in another performance of the show in Santa Monica, I sent them a slightly revised version of the review, toned down a little. Still not even a simple rejection note from their end. My best guess was to wonder if the lavish advertising the Felds were spending on Variety for full-page and gorgeous wrap-a-round ads had anything to do with it.This marked my last submission. The magazine was undergoing management upheavals and would gradually focus in on movies, television, and Broadway. Oh, too have "the bible" back as it once was!