Performance | santafenewmexican.com: The centerpiece of Cirque Mechanics’ new touring production, Zephyr: A Whirlwind of Circus, is a 20-foot windmill. Chris Lashua, creative director and co-founder of the circus, likes to build such things. This windmill is also a portable crane on a pillar, designed as a base for various feats of daring by the acrobats in the show.
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I have only seen one true circus-esque acrobatic performance, and it was Cirque du Soleil Drawn to Life in Disney Springs last year. This show in particular blew me away, because it not only had outstanding technical elements that I never even knew were possible, but was combined with stupendous acrobatic acts and performances that were so much fun to watch. In this article, they talk about how Cirque Mechanics is similar but different from Cirque du Soleil in many ways. It is super cool to see how they take a steampunk and realistic circus approach to this show, and incorporate a windmill! “We offer the steampunk ethos, but we’re people-punk and pedal-punk. We open up the clockwork, show the gears, use people to power the machines, and integrate our love of performing with our love for scenery, rigging, and gadgets.”
That's so cool, these group of people basically improved upon steam punk by making it more easily accessible and more based in reality of a style. Like, someone could imagine themselves in a confident outfit hanging out and running away with these circus folk! They really seem like they're trying to incorporate the circus life into a more cruel free and progressive way. It's really cool that its attached to Circque and the founder is part of like the national circus association or something equivalent to that. They just want to bring the magic of cirque to everyone, everywhere just the way the circus was intended to be. And the plus side is, there are no clowns! With all of their big stunts and their detachment from the former thoughts of what circus used to be, I hope I see a lot more of them in the future on this page.
I am super excited for this new show, and although it doesn’t look like they’re scheduled to come to Pittsburgh yet, I will be getting tickets when they do. A version of birdhouse factory (which the article says was first created in 2004) came to the Byham theater last year and it was a great show with some really high level of talent. Thom Wall - a very talented juggler who performed for many years with Cirque was in the troupe and so was Chase Culp, who I trained with in high school. I really liked that show because it not only showcased world-class talent, but it was clever, funny, and theatrical with a story-line the whole way through. The large circus machines they build look super interesting to work on and I'm gonna have to drop them a line when it comes time to find a job because the work they do is so cool. Too bad they’re based out of Las Vegas.
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