Cirque Éloize’s Hip-Hop Streetfight Circus Comes To Connecticut

Why is Connecticut so circus-savvy? Well, there’s the legacy of Bridgeport icon P.T. Barnum and his “Greatest Show on Earth” bombast. Traditional three-ring circuses continue to visit the state regularly. But it also helps that we’re just a hop skip and a flying triple-flip leap from Montreal.

Montreal is circus central. It’s the home of the National Circus School, whose graduates are snapped up by the dozens of professional companies that have fostered a major circus entertainment industry in Canada. Montreal’s the city where Cirque du Soleil began, and where that renowned company still has its international headquarters.

There’s now a second generation of “Cirque Nouveau” or “Contemporary Circus” acts, some of whom have set themselves up as aesthetic alternatives to Cirque du Soleil’s slick, polished, high-tech and design-rich concoctions. Some of these younger troupes perform in street clothes and act streetsmart. They base shows around such concepts as post-apocalyptic ruin, mortality and computer technology.

Cirque Éloize was founded in Montreal in 1993, over a decade after Cirque du Soleil and years before such acrobatic upstarts as Les 7 doigts de la main. The company seems to be neatly in the center of the New Circus maelstrom. Its shows are purposefully polished and neatly paced, but modern in their thinking. They have storylines and characters. One of the most popular works in the current Cirque Éloize repertoire, “iD,” comes to the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard for a monthlong run Aug. 1 to 30.

“iD” has been touring internationally since 2009 and has played over 800 performances in nearly 90 cities in over two dozen countries, according to Maxime Charbonneau, Cirque Éloize’s director of business development and communications.

While some places in the U.S. are only starting to appreciate New Circus acts, Connecticut has been attuned to the form for decades. Cirque du Soleil has set up tents in Hartford several times, and its stadium tour has played Bridgeport. New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas has been a major New Circus booster for the fest’s entire 20-year history, welcoming everyone from the French troupe Cirque Baroque (who created circus events out of literary works by Voltaire and Mishima) in the 1990s to Montreal’s Les 7 doigts de la main (with their signature piece “Traces” as well as the later work “Sequence 8”) and this year’s attraction, Machine du Cirque. Arts & Ideas’ programming poobahs scout the latest circus sensations at Montreal’s annual Completement Cirque festival, where cutting-edge circus shows can be found in theaters, dance clubs, city parks and other venues for 10 intense days every July.

This is Cirque Éloize’s first time at Foxwoods — a relationship that both sides hope will turn into regular visits (perhaps biannually) in the future — but the troupe has visited Connecticut before, including shows in New Haven in 1999 and 2003 and Hartford in 2002. Being able to settle down at one venue for a month (three dozen performances) is a real boon for Cirque Éloize, which does a lot of one-week bookings elsewhere.

Cirque Éloize has a major reputation in the Cirque Nouveau realm. In 2003, the company organized the first major circus arts festival in North America. It also runs a foundation that helps “underprivileged youth through an introduction to circus arts.” Cirque Éloize shows have played major international theater festivals, not just circus festivals; when the show “Typo” played New York, it was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards. One of Cirque Éloize’s co-founders, Daniel Cyr, created the Cyr Wheel — the large metal hoop that has become standard apparatus for New Circus performers. Another name associated with Cirque Éloize’s illustrious history is Daniel Finzi Pasca, who directed such acclaimed shows as “Nebbia” and “Rain.” Pasca started his own troupe, Compagnia Finzi Pasca, which creates not just circus shows but theater pieces and operas.

“iD,” which kicked off a new post-Finzi Pasca era, is directed by Cirque Éloize co-founder Jeannot Painchaud. The show won the Grand Prix award at the Conseil des Arts de Montreal in 2010.

Painchaud, who as a performer won a prestigious award from France’s Festival Mondial du Cirque de demain for his trick-bicycle skills, is known for melding acrobatic routines with other live performance disciplines, such as music, theater and dance. “iD” is infused with original hip-hop music and freshly choreographed breakdances. It takes the form of a streetfight between rival gangs. “It’s cool. It’s hip,” says Charbonneau. “It’s full of energy, with two gangs battling each other. It has a story, with a plot. It’s about these characters trying to find their place in this world.” The score was composed by producer/percussionist Jean-Phi Goncalves and keyboardist Alex McMahon of the Montreal electronica/rock/jazz trio Plaster.

As for the circus stunts, “iD” features a “trampolwall” bit, in which acrobats jump from a trampoline onto a nearby wall, disappearing through holes in the structure. There’s also an intricate rope-skipping routine, juggling, pole-climbing, trick cycling, aerial acts and a contortionist who contorts to B-Boy break beats.

“Some of our shows are more poetic, theatrical,” Charbonneau suggests, noting that another currently touring Cirque Éloize show, “Cirkopolis,” is “more dramatic” and a touch darker than “iD.”

“This one is full of energy. We take these shows very seriously, but we are also going to have fun.” Which sums up the New Circus movement nicely. These shows have modern themes, emotions and attitudes you recognize from real life. But they’re also fantastical feats of balance, daring and discipline, flights of fancy that will have you gasping in awe. Cirque Éloize enlightens, elevates, and jumps through walls.

CIRQUE ÉLOIZE’S ID, directed by Jeannot Painchaud, plays the Fox Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard Aug. 1 to 30. Performances are Sunday at 7 p.m., Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m., with an added 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Aug. 30. Tickets are $40, $65 for VIP-reserved seats and $30 for children. foxwoods.com.