First it’s one, then it’s two, then three, then it’s four… From individualism to collectivity, The pulse evolves on stage to demonstrate that union makes strength. “One, two, three, four, five…”, sings the Cor de Noies de l’Orfeó Català just before the start of the show by the Australian acrobat company Gravity
Darcy Grant, the director, got this show during the coronavirus. “It was created in the depth of the pandemic, cause and effect, it is like a wave, a heartbeat. This inspiration is like these waves of things that make us feel more organic”, he explains.
There are 60 people on stage, who stay there for the hour and a quarter that the show lasts. There are 36 singers from the girls’ choir, directed by Buia Reixach, and 24 acrobats. 12 is a particularly malleable number because it can be divided by 2, by 3, by 4 and by 6, but if instead of a dozen acrobats you put two, then you can also divide this amount by 8 and between 12.
With these combinations, Grant creates infinite chain numbers, combining the acrobats in pairs, in towers of three, in groups of four… And everything evolves towards collectivity. The singers wear black, each in their own style, and the acrobats wear light grey, with wide trousers or a kilt, with tights or with a top and shorts or bare-chested, each one as they wear it. And everything is harmonious, thanks to the music of Ekrem Eli Phoenix.
The movements between acrobatics are pure dance, and the coordination between the two groups, the singers and the acrobats, is a perfect choreography. Despite the fact that at some moments it may seem like chaos, there is no need to suffer because in a second everything is put back in place.
On the stage there is no added element, not a springboard to propel oneself in the jumps, not a mattress to stop the blow when an acrobat falls from a height of three people. The trampolines are them, and their muscles are the springs that propel the jumpers that do the pirouette. They are also the matlassos, who with the play of their arms entomb their companions when they throw themselves from the top of a human tower. The coordination is perfect. And the feeling of happiness between the artists is sublime, like when they give the audience a complicit gesture and one of the acrobats flips.
Only a bunch of strings appear, which they manipulate with great fuss. Everything suggests that some of the acrobats will stop and do acrobatics like those seen in a circus tent. But here the circus is more conceptual and the ropes serve to fill the stage with an effect that comes close to the circus image that the audience has in their heads, with the effect of the lights and to symbolize the message of the strength of the collectivity
The director of the choir explains that they have adapted the pieces they could into Catalan: “We couldn’t find a version of the children’s song Mary had a litlle lamb, until a singer from Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà showed us ‘La Maria té un chaiet que he goes with his head straight’, and that’s the version we sing”. The acrobats also say a few words in Catalan.
But is what was seen yesterday at the Grec really a circus? Grant explains his process: “I think the Australian circus is so powerful because 30 years ago this more anarchic, more irreverent circus started to be set up. In the 2000s we incorporated many elements of contemporary dance. And in my case, 15 years ago everything changed and all physical forms began to interrelate. I was interested in choral music and the whole thing is a pollination of the different disciplines”.
The show premiered in Adelaide, with the Aurora Choir of young voices from the Australian city. The collaboration with the Cor de Noies de l’Orfeó Català has been thanks to the support of the Ramon Llull Institute and marks the beginning of an international tour that will take the 24 acrobats, the 36 singers and a dozen technicians to perform in Montreal (Canada), Galway (Ireland) and Graz (Austria).
As in all opening nights of the Greek Festival, there were many well-known and popular faces and, of course, the authorities. The ex-mayor Ada Colau, who has presided over the premiere for eight years, did not want to miss the gala, but yesterday it was Jaume Collboni, the brand new mayor of Barcelona, ??who occupied the preferred place. From the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, was not absent and, among the politicians, there were also Xavier Trias and Ernest Maragall.
The synchronicity of the dazzling balances of Gravity’s Australian acrobats
