Todd Babiak hangs from a trapeze at Firefly Theatre's A Taste of the Circus course at the Phoenix gym. Shaughn Butts, the Journal
Firefly Theatre trains aerialists and plans ambitious fall show
Todd Babiak, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 2:05 am
Todd Babiak hangs from a trapeze at Firefly Theatre's A Taste of the Circus course at the Phoenix gym. Shaughn Butts, the Journal
The large stretching mat at the Phoenix Gymnastics Club smells suspiciously like old corn chips. This may or may not have something to do with the fortune cookie and noodle manufacturing plant next door. Either way, it's a comforting smell at a potentially uncomfortable time. I am surrounded by 12 strangely calm females in tight yoga outfits, instructors and students of A Taste of the Circus -- Firefly Theatre's introduction to the aerial arts.
"I wish there were more men," says Annie Dugan, Alberta's queen of the circus, as we move from warm-up mat to the trapeze. "It would be so much better to have a mix, just for the dynamic. In other cities, there are way more guys. The girls in Edmonton have just gravitated to it. Maybe men think it's girly? I challenge them if they think it's girly."
It isn't girly.
Dugan and her fellow instructors, Angie Perkins and Lyne Gosselin, are all muscle, power and grace. If an insane bear or a gang of angry kangaroos were to charge into the gymnastics club, I would confidently hide behind my teachers. And it isn't just their impressive arms; the advantage of circus training over other exercise activities is that it's a marriage of fitness and creativity. Circus is art. At least two of the women in the class tonight are here because they saw a Cirque du Soleil performance and fell in love. The Cirque, arguably Canada's most important cultural export in a generation, has marked Montreal and Quebec. Dugan, who ran away to join the circus in New York City and wound up here after years of training and performing across the U.S., hopes to do the same for Edmonton and Alberta. As Firefly Theatre begins working on its most ambitious show ever, Duck Duck Bang, due at Fringe Theatre Adventures in October, Dugan is already looking long-term.
Firefly's training program (go to www.fireflytheatre.com) is a bonafide circus school, and Dugan appreciates the smell of old corn chips as much as the next aerialist, but she would love her own building. Phoenix isn't an ideal environment for aerial training and rehearsal.
"There isn't a building west of Toronto dedicated to circus," she says. "Look what it's done for Montreal. I kept seeing these big spectacle shows -- Cirque and De La Guarda -- and we have people with the same skill set here in Edmonton. What we also have is a very, very strong tradition of narrative theatre. So that's what we'd like to add, with Duck Duck Bang and into the future: a narrative, a through-line, a story."
Before the story can begin, the training must begin.
And with other beginners, I hang from a trapeze, first with my arms and then with my legs. We go one at a time, and witness each other's small triumphs and failures. There is a teenage gymnast among us, and she moves like a cat. By contrast, I move like a dying moose -- veins popping out, involuntary grunts and creaks, the occasional yelp. From the trapeze we move to the rope and the silks, where I have seen Dugan perform magical feats with elegance and superhuman strength. I'm happy enough to make the ribbons of stretchy polyester into a nice chair and not fall out.
We juggle, with Gosselin, and jump on a trampoline with Perkins. Perkins competed in gymnastics, worked as a stunt performer for Disney in Tokyo, and fell in love with the aerial arts. Gosselin, an acrobatic aerialist, comes from Quebec, where the circus is quite reasonably part of the school curriculum. Both are in Duck Duck Bang.
"To this day, I love both the circus and the theatre, and I think that's reflected in my work," says Dugan. Duck Duck Bang is taking Firefly Theatre to a new and very ambitious level, and people are beginning to inquire about the show in Alberta, nationally and internationally. The performance will include aerialists, dancers, wire fighting, explosions, multi-media and a live band. "I don't think there's another show that has all of these things, and a great story. I'm so excited, and scared. A show like this isn't cheap."
Quality is never cheap, a maxim that is widely accepted in the NHL but not in the provincial cultural scene. There is some philosophical work to be done, and Dugan is the right person for the job. As for her students, it will be years before any of us -- cat, moose and waterfowl -- will be ready for the big top.