You can forget all you've learned about traditional circuses like the Ringling Brothers with its red and white canvas big top, its lion tamers and red nosed clowns, as Sweden's leading circus troupe, Cirkus Cirkor is set to expose Taiwan audiences to a new and far more exciting style of circus when it brings its latest creation, 99% Unknown, to the stage of Taipei's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall this weekend.
As one of Europe's leading contemporary circuses, Cirkus Cirkor doesn't parade caged animals around the ring and has no need for red-nosed characters in baggy pants. The Scandinavian act relies instead solely on the gravity-defying acrobatic skills of its nine very flexible and highly athletic members in order to electrify the audience.
Part acrobatics, part movement and part modern dance, Cirkus Cirkor performances are both breathtaking and meditative affairs that beg audiences to think outside the box. There's very little dialogue, which enables the troupe to defy language barriers and be understood anywhere in the world and, while there is a rough story line to each show, audiences are left to use their own imaginations when it comes to interpreting the energetic and gymnastic on-stage antics of Cirkus Cirkor.
"Sure, there is a story line, but we let audiences step out of it if they want," said the troupe's acro-balancer, Ola Granli. "Our performances are so visual that you could see the same show more than once and still find and see something new in it. Audiences can get totally different interpretations of shows every time they see them."
Established in 1995 by Tilde Bjorfors, Cirkus Cirkor's started as an under-funded underground act performing at small, low-cost and predominantly alternative venues in and around Stockholm. Within a year, however, the troupe had managed to build up a sizable following among Swedish fans of contemporary circus and was propelled to the forefront of the new circus movement following the success of its 1996 production, Everything Derives From Chaos.
The troupe has come along way since its early underground days. It is now one of Sweden's favorite exports and has toured extensively throughout Europe and Asia. Along with taking its own half-dozen productions on the road, the troupe has also performed specially commissioned works at international events. In 2002 Cirkus Cirkor was invited to perform at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm and earlier this year it wowed audiences in Japan when it performed at the Aichi Expo 2005.
Cirkus Cirkor is no longer simply a touring circus troupe. Its Cirkuspiloterna (circus school) receives applications from thousands of people every year who wish to pursue careers as acrobats, jugglers and high-wire acts. The school is now ranked as one of Europe's leading circus schools and is even considered an equal of France's prestigious circus school in Chalons sur Marne.
For its latest production Cirkus Cirkor has set out to take audiences on a sometimes comedic, sometimes thoughtful, yet energetic and fast-paced journey through the human body, where circus meets science in a mind-numbing and psychedelic head-on collision.
The show follows the exploits of its nine core performers as they acrobatically bring life to nerve ends, stem cells, sperm, viruses and just about all of the other microscopic components that make up the human body. Performers approach and tackle their roles in a different manner.
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