Epiphany (becuase Dave is stupid and can't spell)

[tankboy]

Through lots of banter with some circus folk over tribe....i have reached a conclusion.

What seperates a professional show (any show, but especially circus) from an amature show is how well rehearsed and coreographed it is.

Professional circus runs like a dance number in some big musical, like the fiddler on the roof dance number....

amature circuses can have some of the most talented performers in the world, but will come across as amature unless they have this quality.


I dont know the exact quote, but there is a quote that i have butchered and use a lot that goes "Clowning is the most intricate form of dance".....flip that CIRCUS is the most intricate form of dance, and should be rehearsed as such....timing is important, transitions are important, story is important but SPECTACLE is important to...it can be a 3 person circus, but they have to be bigger than life. they can be artsy as they wanna be, but they have to be bigger than life. and everything has to be rehearsed down to perfection.




otherwise....its amature.....




but thats just my opinion.

[tarapeze]

i think you make a good distinction between professional & amateur, but i don't think being amateur is necessarily a bad thing. in fact, sometimes having that impression can be an conscious artistic decision. bread & puppet, after all, seldom come off as polished and rehearsed, because they aren't. one of their goals is to connect with audience by involving the community, and one of the ways they do that is by having member of the community in which they perform be in the show. volunteers are prepared the day of, and then are integrated into the performance! i think it depends on the troupe's mission, and the aim of the show. if you want to impress, it's true that then careful preparation and rehearsal is necessary.

if you want to get across a message, a lot of thought is going to be necessary in any case, and you're going to need practice and an outside view to make sure that the show works the way it was intended (something Circus Folk Unite! hasn't really managed to have yet). but you need to avoid being unreachable and therefore hard to connect with. one of the things we've discussed in the EPEC course is the importance of the connection with the audience, and that the essence of that is that audience members identify with the humanity of the performer. if everything is perfect, it can be alienating and distancing for an audience. it can lack personality - for instance, i think cirque is incredible but sometimes one of their shows won't really resonate with me.

but that's just *my* opinion!

dave, are you gonna be around here janterm at all???

[tankboy]

I couldnt agree more.

and that means the first thing you have to do either as a circus, or maybe (if you want to be that maliable) at the beginning of planning for each show, you need to figure out what your goal is.


and cirque, i love, i have tremendous respect for, but i dont think its circus, because it lacks that connection, i feel that it is avante guard theater that uses circus skills, and amazing circus skills and i have so much respect for them and their performers, but its not circus. (i believe iv voiced that opinion on this board before).


and im sure i can find my way out there a little durring janterm, why, whats up?