FEATHERS FLYING

DANCE

21 Jan

Recently landed: Feathers Flying

Gracia’s written response to Circa’s Duck Pond, especially for Fjord Review.

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In a world where Tchaikovsky meets Hans Christian Andersen, circus meets dance, ducks transform and hook-up with swans, and of course a different outcome emerges. And, of course, it is fun as it does so, grafting elements of classical ballet’s Swan Lake and the fairy tale of The Ugly Duckling in Duck Pond. Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa ensemble, the 14-member cast appear to derive pleasure from the tail-feathered hijinks such a melting pot of waterfowl references yield. On opening night, by the make-believe pond on the stage of the Princess Theatre, the family Anatidae (comprised of ducks, swans, and geese) quack-quack, peep-peep, and soar through the air.

As per the fairy tale, the ugly duckling transpires to be neither ugly nor duckling but a beautiful swan. A beautiful white swan, who, having been, as Anderson described, pecked by ducks and beaten by hens, finds an undreamt-of happiness when they unlock their true form. When Sophie Seccombe sheds her Ugly Duckling costume and becomes the White Swan she has always been, the assuming of one’s true self feels like the heart of Duck Pond. Re-spun and altogether aerial, in this tale of personal discovery, growth, and identity, the reason for the White Swan not ending up with Adam Strom’s befuddled Prince differs. In a place not so ‘of pretend’ nor ‘far, far away’ after all, transitions are joyful in every sense, be they characters destined and entwined, or acrobatic feats of intensity and prowess.

Run away, join the circus. Don a pair of webbed yellow feet to enable you to pad about. Sport a yellow visor for a makeshift bill. If one part of Duck Pond is an affirmation of following your heart, another part invites you to play. And so a mop can become monkey bars in the playground, and a crumpled pile of ducks in a row can become a hillside for Seccombe, still as an Ugly Duckling, to scale. With a broom in hand, in the midst of sweeping up feathers after a pillow fight which went a little too hard, she ascends, playfully finding her footing, step by step. Transformations are at home in the circus.