At VAULT Festival, "Cirque du Temps" is Contemporary Send-Up to Circus Classics - CircusTalk

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At VAULT Festival, “Cirque du Temps” is Contemporary Send-Up to Circus Classics

Created for the UK’s VAULT Festival later in February, “Cirque du Temps” is an aerial circus show produced by Air Dance Productions and My Aerial Home. Every 100 years, the Circus of Time appears looking for a young soul. Each famous, long-dead performer showcases their act to persuade the new soul to join the circus. The show is directed by Amanda Miles and consists of an all-female and non-binary creative team and cast.

During the pandemic, the professional aerial teachers at My Aerial Home—an aerial circus school based in southeast London—were desperate to perform. One artist used to get her flatmates to clap when she walked into a room, just to remember the adulation. As soon as COVID allowed, Cirque du Temps was created for these love-starved performers.

Cirque du Temp recreates famous aerial circus acts bringing them back to life. One young soul is plucked from the crowd and reignites the circus. Each act uses its performance to tempt the new recruit to run away and join the circus…forever. You will meet contortionist Muriel Gaunt, conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, tiger tamer Mabel Stark, high diver Annette Kellerman, and trapeze artist Ludmilla Shecchenko (played by Ukrainian artist Iryna Korniichuk, who arrived in the UK during the first lockdown). Bring your children along, but be warned: you may not take them home—the circus is in town and looking for souls. Director Amanda Miles describes the show as “fun, imaginative, beautiful, and skillful, with a hint of menace.”

Pocketsize Theatre Review gave the show five stars, stating, “Cirque du Temps is an electric and fun-filled evening, as evidenced by the roaring applause from the sold-out venue and the genuine smiles on the performers’ faces. This is a company of performers who are not only exceptional at what they do but absolutely love every second of it.”

Cirque du Temps

• 24, 25, 26 February 2023
• 18:45 24/02, 14:30 & 18:15 25/02 and 18:15 26/02 (1 hour runtime)
• The Flairground @ The Forge
• £20.50
• Tickets: https://vaultfestival.com/events/cirque-du-temps/

About Air Dance

Air Dance Productions was founded by Amanda Miles in 2022 as the production arm of My Aerial Home (founded 2009). Our in-house training programmes through My Aerial Home aerial circus school have allowed us to find, enhance, and develop the talent we want to work with. We create new work with the people we want to work with and who want to work with us.

About VAULT Festival

VAULT Festival is the UK’s leading independent showcase of live performance and artistic talent; featuring thousands of sensational performances across Theatre, Comedy, & Live Entertainment, made by the most exciting and boldest artists of our time. Set in bespoke venues across the heart of Waterloo, the festival bursts to life for eight glorious weeks of joyous creativity, adding vibrance and colour to the otherwise dreary deep winter months. We’re the most accessible, sustainable, affordable, and welcoming performance festival in the UK.

We value art and entertainment equally, creating a safe-space environment where artists and audiences feel welcome, surrounded by culture created by, and for, them.

Main image and press release courtesy of Amanda Miles

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