KEY POINTS:
Running away to join the circus ain't what it used to be. Once upon a time this romantic gesture may have entailed joining a haphazard caravan trawling from town to town and occasionally mucking out the elephant's trailer.
Today's jet set circus people, such as frequent flyer Simon Painter, associate producer and co-creator of Le Grand Cirque, inhabit a world of airports, hotels and famous theatres. Painter made 130 flights last year alone. "There is rather a lot of flying to be honest."
Le Grand Cirque has been selling out Sydney's Opera House and is due in Auckland this month for a season at Auckland's The Civic, running from January 31 to February 8. For the 30-year-old former classical violinist, Auckland is just the latest stop on a seemingly endless world circuit. Not that he's complaining. "I could carry on forever," he says. "I've loved every minute of it."
A key part of Painter's job is auditioning and signing new talent for the show (or shows; there are four versions of Le Cirque running around the world). It can take him to some far-flung places to view some, frankly, far-out acts. "Mongolia was pretty wild," he says, with typically British understatement. He'd been tipped off about an impressive chair-balancing act in which a Mongolian performer would build a 10m tower of chairs, with himself at the pinnacle. "We landed on a dirt air-strip way out in eastern Mongolia. I wasn't entirely sure we were supposed to be there. The airport building was like a cow shed." Apparently, on that occasion, it was worth the trip. Other auditions have not been quite so successful.
Painter says one of his weirdest scouting missions was in China where he was sat down to watch a performance which featured 30 kids dressed as pandas riding unicycles. "They were slightly odd-looking pandas. It was a bit surreal, really. You do see some things which are really odd, almost ludicrous, to the western eye. I guess they thought we would like it.
Some of the animal acts are unbelievable. There was one in Russia with normal house cats, trained to jump and flip on parallel bars. They were climbing up poles and doing back flips. It wasn't a very enjoyable act to watch. I went to see it because it was really far out. I thought 'oh my god, that is really odd'."
The days of circuses featuring bears riding motorbikes and elephants playing cricket may be history, at least in the west, but Painter says he is not entirely against animal acts, if they are done well. "Some animal acts are fantastic. It's a shame it has fallen out of favour in some ways. But, number one, it would be impossible to tour with them. This show is about the agility of the human body." Like other modern touring shows, such as Cirque du Soleil, Le Grand Cirque is a showcase of the almost unbelievable human feats of strength, balance, athleticism and artistry. From plate-spinning to pyramids of people on bikes, breath-taking acrobatics, swinging, bouncing and flying, the circus, says Painter, is first and foremost about a beautiful spectacle.
There are other, darker versions of circuses which explore the limits of the human body, freak shows of contortionists and exhibitionists able to lift prodigious weights with their body piercings. That's another world says Painter. "Those freak shows are quite popular and I've seen some pretty amazing stuff. It's done in a way to get a reaction. With our show it's more beautiful.
Although a girl is balancing burning candles on her body in an almost impossible position, it's done elegantly rather than in a freakish way. The last thing we want is to scare the kids off." Le Grand Cirque is a United Nations of artists, the 40-strong cast hailing from all over Asia especially China and Mongolia Russia, South Africa, the UK, Monte Carlo, Canada and elsewhere. China is the source of more circus performers than any other country.
Painter has travelled there 45 times visiting numerous circus schools, scouting for talent. There is no other place in the world like it, he says. "You have to go where the talent is, and that is often Asia. They are the best of the best. There are hundreds of schools and they are like Olympic-class athletes. Some of the schools go back 300, 400 years. But it's due to the Communist state really; you couldn't do it without that Government backing.
Some people could be a little bit shocked by it, but they treat the kids very well." Painter says despite having to organise such a multinational cast, communication problems are a minor consideration, because circus people understand each other so well. "There is a circus code that everybody goes by, they all know it because they have been there. They have a great respect for each other. It is a different level to other performers. I used to play the violin and there was never that close bond which unites circus performers. So the language barriers are less than you would think."
Some of the cast hail from circus families going back nine generations or more. "They will say to each other 'Oh, your family worked with my family in Russia 80 years ago'," Painter says with a laugh.
Despite modernisation creating a slick and professional multi-media extravaganza, Painter believes the future of circuses is assured. And it's for one reason: "People will never get bored seeing amazing people do amazing things."
* Le Grand Cirque is at The Civic, The Edge, Auckland from January 31 to February 8.
