Curled on the floor next to a blue gym mat in a capacious ex-loading dock, wearing neon legwarmers, Kate Law Hoflich describes the circus apparatus she invented.
“I thought of things I’d want to do in the air first,” said Hoflich about how she invented the aerial shell, a white circle crisscrossed with white bars. Then, she said, she designed the shell to fit the proportions of her body.
Hoflich, a Needham resident, is co-artistic director of aerial dance company Bow and Sparrow, which will perform for the first time in the Boston area on Friday, March 9 in Somerville. Bow and Sparrow is a bicoastal company, with the other half of the company based in California, and the March 9 performance, called “Helos,” will feature both New England and California performers.
Hoflich said it will also feature circus arts never before seen in the Greater Boston area, such as her aerial shell and the aerial pole. The aerial pole, she said, incorporates fabric and pole dancing.
“It’s beautiful, sexy and aesthetically pleasing,” she said.
According to Hoflich, “Helos” relies on a contemporary circus tradition promulgated by European circuses in the 1980s. Traditional circus incorporates animals, alongside trapeze, fabric, rope and tightwire, but since the 1980s, circuses such as Cirque de Soleil focused on pushing human aspects to the limit. Now, contemporary circus performers continue in the European tradition, inventing new apparatuses such as Hoflich’s aerial shell while continuing to perform on traditional apparatuses such as the trapeze.
“[European circus] pushed the human aspects to become more extreme,” said Hoflich.
Another of Hoflich’s specialties is another new apparatus: the cyr wheel, a series of concentric circles invented six years ago.
“It’s like magic,” said Hoflich of the cyr wheel.
Some of the performers in the circus use more traditional devices. Joanne Verginio, also of Needham, was a gymnast in high school and has been involved in circus for three years. She specializes in traditional circus arts such as tumbling, trapeze and another apparatus called the lyra, although she is also learning the aerial shell.
“My dance teacher had a trapeze in her house, and I got hooked,” said Verginio of how she first got involved in the circus.
When they’re not performing, Hoflich and Verginio both also teach summer classes at Simply Circus, a youth circus program in Newton.
“Dancers and gymnasts are drawn to it [circus] because they’re used to being able to do things the first time they try,” said Hoflich, but circus challenges them to push their limits and attempt stunts outside the bounds of their ability.
Simply Circus also teaches classes for adults.
“The adults [in the classes] probably never outgrew wanting to run away and join the circus,” said Verginio, laughing.
But for people who don’t have time or inclination to take a full circus class, “Helos” will give a taste of circus performance, as some acts draw in the audience or encourage attendees to get up and dance.
“For $25 you’re getting a show,” said Hoflich. “But you’re also going to a music show, having a fun night out with your friends, and dress up if you want to.”
Watch this video and this video of Bow and Sparrow’s performances.
“Helos,” by Bow and Sparrow, Friday, March 9 at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. $25 in advance, $35 at the door. Tickets available through www.BrownPaperTickets.com. Visit www.bowandsparrow.org for more information.
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