Performance / circus criticism – weightless bodies

In a white, but not too bright, light cone there are ten performers or artists who first lie on the floor and then set their bodies in motion. Dressed in black T-shirts and different earth-colored shorts, they begin to build human pyramids, calmly and minimalistically staged by Yaron Lifschitz. As if there was no gravity, as if it were completely natural and harmless: one hand grasps the other, the tempos are adapted to the soundscape. It is almost a dance of perfectly coordinated movements to reach the climax, for example the pyramid.

The performer artists of the Australian Circa Contemporary Circus will show “Humans 2.0” as a stream on the website of the Festspielhaus St. Pölten until March 26th. The Brisbane-based ensemble should actually have performed “Leviathan” in March. The recording of a past production must help out in pandemic times. This can certainly also be achieved by an audience that is not enthusiastic about “circus” in the conventional understanding of the genre. Circa is different.

You can see a mix of performance and unexcited representation of outstanding acrobatics, which could, however, use a bit more theatricality. Here the scenes flow into one another. Some pose disappears again without being able to study them more closely and discover the difficulty behind them as a viewer. The performers excel not only in building fascinating physical constructions, but also in the skillful way in which they dismantle them. Their bodies seem infinitely elastic. A performance circus that also amazes in front of the TV set.