Review

by Theater & Dance & Circus magazine of Finland (Viewed online).

-Translated Text from Finnish

“This text was supposed to be talking about the performances at the circus festival Festival UP! taking place in March. As you might guess, the festival was canceled due to the coronavirus, and at the same time several premieres were moved into the future.

However, some of the performances that had premiered earlier have been viewed in one way or another. One of these is “Hands some Feet”, which would have been one of the most interesting performances of the international festival in Finnish terms. This performance has visited NÄYTTÄMÖ -theatre in Joensuu in 2018.

The beginning of Hands some Feet’s performance is accompanied by the playing of a kantele (a traditional Finnish string instrument) and singing by Tampere-based circus artist Liisa Näykki. It is calm and beautiful. In contrast, the movement of Australian-Swiss juggler Jeromy Zwick is fast, even hectic.

Zwick is undeniably a skilled ball juggler, but even more interesting is his expressive body language. Often in juggling, the juggler may disappear into the background and the centre of attention is intentionally the movement of balls or other objects thrown. In Hands some Feet it is the opposite: no matter how many balls are flying through the air, the attention is drawn to the intense presence of the juggler, which exudes from both the face and the body movements.

A strong inner emotional world seems to swell out of the nostrils and fingertips. As the juggler moves fast back and forth, even jumping, his breathing accelerates. The transmission of breath, in turn, brings a sense of presence to the viewer while watching the recording, and balances out the fact that the changing, delimited angles of view of the performance recording are not always ideal. Sometimes, due to the image cropping, you can't see everything you want.

On the other hand, you can get close to the performance through close-up images.

The tension of the performance is initially built between the vibrancy of Zwick’s movements and Näykki’s stylised staticness. Zwick glides and spins around. Näykki stands still - she then turns her head accented, it’s impressive.

In the show we also see duo acrobatics, tightwire dancing (then it is Näykki’s turn to be rhythmic and jumpy, and Zwick’s turn accompany with a tube that sounds like didgeridoo), skipping ropes, humour, small and delicate. Maybe because of the light coral coloured dungarees, it would make sense to talk about cute, but that’s not the whole truth, as the feelings of the performance are big, awe-inspiring.”

Written by: Evianna Lehtipuu

See original article here: http://www.teatteritanssi.fi/10654-sirkuslahikuvia-etana/ or in your paper copy.