“Amaluna In Seattle: Remembrances of a
fun, long February weekend”
By: Steve Long – West Hartford, Connecticut (USA)
The age of big CirqueCon gatherings has likely passed but there still
are opportunities for those who’ve met through CirqueCon to invite
people for smaller gatherings near their homes. Such was the case when
Keith Johnson and wife LouAnna Valentine (also known as Lucy) invited
people to come and see Amaluna’s first visit to a U.S. city. I needed
to get away from snowy Connecticut and I was also interested in this
Dinner – Cirque event Keith kept talking about, Teatro Zinzanni. I’d
travel alone but meet up with Bob Gross and others while there.
The first full day of my first visit to Seattle the weather was
uncharacteristically sunny and clear so, heeding advice, I did a bus
tour of the city to get a feel for the sites. Well Duck Tour actually,
running around on land and water in a World War II amphibious vehicle.
They’ve got them in Boston but it took me traveling to the West Coast
to finally ride one. Great fun. Then I went to the top of the Seattle
Space Needle, and as further proof that you can’t do anything bad in a
new place because there’s always someone around who knows you, I’d
just stepped outside to take in the view when I heard, “Steve Long!”
It was Karen Farmer, her husband and a couple of friends. They were
scoping out Seattle so just had time for our common viewing of
Amaluna. It was wonderful to see her and it meant that I didn’t have
to ask a stranger to take my picture against the wonderful vista
around Seattle.
Friday night was Teatro Zinzanni (dreams.zinzanni.org), “Dinner at
Wotan’s” “Party like its Ragnarock (the end of the World)!” Teatro
Zinzanni uses a traveling German spiegletent that’s now found its
permanent home as a cirque-style cabaret theatre in Seattle. They
create dinner shows meant to run a few months at a time, sometimes
with specialty menus for holidays. More recently they created a
special program just for St. Patrick’s Day. Keith had often talked
about this place, especially because he could use old Cirque du Soleil
programs to spark conversations with artists who had left CDS and were
now involved in a Teatro Zinzanni production. Based on what I saw that
night I’m really jealous of Keith and Lucy, living so close and having
such easy access to something as wonderful and creative as Teatro
Zinzanni.
A ring of booths that began and ended at a small stage surrounded a
collection of tables which had aisles for the various acts. We were
seated at the booths right next to the entrance to the space, which
opened on the main performance aisle. Very nice seats indeed. Though
as with any theatre-in-the-round experience you’re going to be looking
at the backs of some bits. Keith and Lucy were delayed by traffic so
Juli Crompe of Teatro Zinzanni saw that we got properly settled. The
evening was a collection of circus acts wrapped inside a loose plot
involving Norse gods, with the meal courses in between. This works out
well, meaning you can enjoy the food while it’s still hot or cold and
enjoy the performances, no need to split your attention.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall as the creative team was putting
“Dinner at Wotan’s” together, the gags and puns and rewritings of
popular songs to fit the theme of the show were fantastic, it’s been
ages since I’ve laughed out loud so many times because of such
spectacular language bon mots.
The format calls for a great deal of audience participation and lead
performer (“Wotan”/”Wotan’s Mother”) Geoff Hoyle guided his chosen
performers marvelously. There were two highlights of the night though,
besides the food, Christopher Phi and Vertical Tango.
Christopher Phi’s act was a combination of hand balance and
contortion, something I’ve rarely seen done by male artists. What was
impressive was the fact that, while many contortion acts seem to just
point the feet, his movement seemed to extend to and through his toes.
Vertical Tango, (Sam Payne and Sandra Feusi), were Keith’s targets
this night with a Saltimbanco Tent Version program. Sure enough they
recognized themselves in those pages. This, to me, is a perfect ice
breaker – how does one talk to artists, what do you say after, “Nice
show”? We got to talk a little with Sandra at the beginning and with
both of them a little at the middle and finally with Sam after the
performance was done. The act was a tango done on the floor and using
a Chinese Pole. Spectacular! The movement and sensuality of the dance
carried through in both planes of performance. It was worth the price
of entry and made me wish that I was staying longer in Seattle or
living closer so that I could see them perform again.
The next afternoon was a gathering at Keith and Lucy’s house. There
were only six of us total but it was a nice quiet gathering, sort of
like the coffeeklatches would be if we weren’t just stopping by
between check out and heading home. The most unique memory of the
gathering were two books of Cirque du Soleil wallpaper samples (!),
the history of the wallpaper, and the stories behind how Keith got
them. It’s no longer being produced but they did purchase some of the
borders and used them in their newly-constructed Library Room. Such
unique interesting objects, I checked E-bay after I got home, no luck.
Since there was a Home Depot connection I tried to nonchalantly walk
around the local Home Depot to see if I could find their wallpaper
samples just in case there was a book hiding there. No luck. They’re
more pieces of Keith’s unique collection of Cirque du Soleil
memorabilia.
Then on to Amaluna. I’d seen the show when it premiered in Montreal
last April. As usual I’d bought two tickets then, the first time to
just sit back and enjoy the show, the second time to ‘watch’ the show,
if you will. I was so impressed with what Diane Paulus and her
Creative Team were doing that I jumped at a chance to see the show a
third time. In July 2012 I saw Amaluna again as part of the 3rd Annual
Montreal Completement Cirque festival and was disappointed. It had
lost energy, perhaps it had become routine for the cast. In going to
see the show on Saturday I was hoping for a return to the energy of
the Premiere while expecting a ‘routine’ level of energy. In seeing
the show I was presented with a third, for me, less pleasant option.
There now is a set of artistic sensibilities being imposed on the work
of Diane Paulus. These artistic sensibilities are not necessarily
complementary to her work. I found that they consistently drained the
show of its magic, added bits that detracted from what I perceived as
the artistic intent of the original and seemed to set the whole show
into an overdrive mode.
For those interested I’ll go over my thoughts and observations in
detail in another piece.
In short, as I go over that Saturday evening show again in my mind it
makes me sad to feel that Cirque du Soleil does not have, in-house,
the creative talent necessary to ensure that Amaluna would realize its
full artistic potential throughout its run. It wasn’t bad; The
audience around me enjoyed the show, laughing and applauding, and
there was a gradual standing ovation at the end (as opposed to the
near instantaneous reactions of the hometown Montreal crowd at the
Premier). Those who hadn’t seen the Premiere probably had no sense of
the differences. The team responsible for the ongoing artistic
integrity of the show apparently understand entertainment and the
positive reaction of the audience proved that they knew what they were
doing from an entertainment perspective, even if their choices took
away from what I felt Diane Paulus had intended for a scene. For me,
having seen the show at the beginning, as Diane Paulus had intended
it, this version of the show was artistically so much less than it
could have been. It will sell tickets for sure but where I was ready
to purchase tickets to once again see what I’ll call “Amaluna – The
Original Version,” I’m not sure I’ll be spending my money on “Amaluna
– The Entertainment Version” tickets again, not when I can use that
money to travel to Montreal to see Cirque du Soleil show premieres, or
attend the annual Montreal Completement Cirque in July and see
companies from all over the world or, hopefully, travel to Seattle
again to see the next creation of Teatro Zinzanni.
Long weekends are always too short and Sunday afternoon saw me headed
home after a quiet morning and Bob Gross’ kindness in driving me out
to the airport. Thanks again to Keith and Lucy for being the catalyst
for this gathering. Let’s do it again sometime soon!
(I’ve been informed that there is another gathering in the works,
“Cirquesters 2013: Amaluna in Denver.” Here’s the Facebook link for
anyone interested: http://goo.gl/l3pp9).
