“This is for you,” said director Bence Vági, handing me a printed paperback book whose cover showed blurred black and white images of human male forms in motion. It bore the title of the show we were meeting to discuss, Recirquel’sNon Solus (Not Alone). The book is full of artful production imagery and peppered with poems that Vagi wrote throughout the process. Metaphor abounds in  Non Solus, and the multiple dualities represented in and of themselves demonstrate the sentiment that no one person, or for that matter idea, is alone.

Coincidentally, Non Solus was not alone in representing current approaches to circus to New York audiences when the show presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).  Non Solus  is as much about its subject, the body/soul duality, as it is an experiment combining formal dance and circus traditions. So while this article will focus on the details of Non Solus, to me the show is best appreciated in relationship to the shows that neighbored its visit to New York. During the same February weekend, at The New Victory Theater, Australian company G...