Crowds would gather to see high-flying trapeze artists soar above the rink, clowns tumble in colourful chaos, and animal parades march across the floor where hockey greats had once skated. For many Torontonians, the circus at Maple Leaf Gardens was a magical tradition, sparking wide-eyed amazement in children and nostalgic joy in parents who remembered their own visits years before.

Though the circus eventually faded from the city’s entertainment calendar, its legacy at Maple Leaf Gardens remains. The arena may now serve new purposes, but its history of joy, spectacle, and shared wonder is still celebrated today.

The post Old Photographs of the Circus at the Maple Leaf Gardens (1940-1945) appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

-Written by Evan DeRushie

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Which ’hood are you in?

East Bayfront. It’s a new, developing neighbourhood and a bit weird. I feel equally grateful to live so close to the water and downtown with easy access to so much of the city, and also out of place in a neighbourhood that’s dominated by luxury condos while I am in affordable artist housing. But it’s also interesting to live in a place with so many dichotomies and I love being able to walk to the St Lawrence Market.

I also spend a lot of time further east in Leslieville/Riverdale where the circus spaces I train at are.

What do you do?

I consider myself a multidisciplinary-circus-theatre artist, which means my practice is equal parts athletic training, creative dreaming and administration. I tend to spend my mornings training my circus technique (mostly aerial arts and handstands) and my afternoons rehearsing or dreaming up the next project, which includes grant writing and administrative planning. My creative process revolves around my training in Pochinko Clown and works from a sort of dream space which then manifests into images, drawings, writing and choreography. In addition to my personal projects I’m also the co-director of Hercinia Arts Collective, a contemporary circus company that mostly creates public spaces, so there’s always lots of dreaming and admin to do towards those larger projects as well.

What are you currently working on?

I just finished a run of my solo circus-theatre show Goodbye Esther, which was about 4 years in the making, and contemplating whether the show has touring potential. In the aftermath of that, I’m mostly dreaming of explorations of mushroom clowns – I have ideas about an immersive circus-theatre installation with these mushroom guys as the guides. It’s somewhat related to explorations I’ve been doing for the past few years around the handstand body as a tree. So we’ll see if that manifests and if maybe those ideas will blend in some way.

With my company, Hercinia, we are also in the midst of development of a larger offering, The Chaos Project, directed by Kirsten Edwards, which I’m helping to produce as well as acting as choreographic lead for one of the three sections.

Where can we find your work?

We’re in that downtime of winter right now where I’m waiting to see what 2024 will bring! My regular collaborations include performing with AP Events as a clown in their all-ages circus productions, and with Femmes du Feu Creations in their early years of circus-theatre shows. You can also find archives of some of my past work, including several film projects, on my website and check for updates on anything upcoming there on the calendar, or on my Instagram.

The post “A Day in the Life” with Toronto-based Multidisciplinary Artist Emily Hughes appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

The long, proud tradition of instantly forgettable Cirque du Soleil stories continues in Koozå, which borrows liberally from Where the Wild Things Are to tell the story of a child (played, awkwardly, by an adult man) drawn to a mysterious land. (Yes, an oversized crown figures prominently.) Really, it’s all just an excuse to (barely) thread together a succession of jaw-droppingly impressive human circus acts, some of which return from last year’s Kurios. Also, there are clowns. The clowns are awful. But they’re part of the package.

Not that any of that really matters: each time I attend Cirque, I come in excited and walk away with my mind properly blown. This time out, highlights include a quadruple highwire act, teeterboard acrobatics, and Cirque’s famed wheel of death, a giant rotating apparatus with what appears to be a hamster wheel affixed to each end.

Also, compared to previous Cirques, this one is just a teeny bit spookier. While it never goes full-bore horror, the second act, which begins with a highly entertaining skeleton dance and transitions into the aforementioned wheel of death, does include a few moments that genuinely had me gripping the edge of my seat. Which, all things considered, is a good thing: while I enjoy the traditional contortionist/acrobatic feats, every once in a while, you need a good jolt of “oh my god is he going to fall” to get the blood pumping.

At the risk of spoiling the experience, it’s worth the reminder of what generally to expect at a Cirque performance.

To begin with, there are the godawful clowns. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the art of the clown – just ask Chip Baskets – but the Cirque du Soleil idea of a joke is to have grown men run around on stage pretending to strangle an imaginary cat. The audience participation bits are a bit better – it’s never not funny to see some poor suburban dad try to keep up with a couple dorks in silly costumes – but on the whole Koozå would be better off without all the clowning.

The meat of the show is, of course, the feats of strength and gymnastics that never cease to be anything less than amazing. While there’s some fairly standard stuff, including the contortionists and chair balancing acts which seem to be part of every Cirque show (albeit, still impressive in every show), there are also a few exciting wrinkles.

The quartet of highwire acrobats, whose escalating antics lead to audible gasps from the audience, is particularly good, hinting at danger even as any potential fall is protected by some well-placed netting. The same goes for the wheel of death, which spins faster and faster while a pair of acrobats compete to see who can do the most terrifying leaps or flips from their “hamster wheel”.

Cirque has also long been lauded for its magical aesthetic, with beautiful flowing costumes and evocative lighting. These aspects are particularly present in Koozå’s aerial silks performance, all glowing red and undulating waves of ribbon, and in the surprisingly elegant hula hoops act, thanks to the sparkling decorations on the metallic hoops. In these moments, Cirque most clearly resembles the wonderful work of Canadian director Robert Lepage, who has designed a handful of Cirque shows over the years, albeit not Koozå.

Those with fond memories of Cirque, dating all the way back to its earliest performances here in the 1980s, will find much to love about Koozå. It’s not quite the magical spectacle of the Lepage shows, but then not every director is Robert Lepage.

Admittedly, some may balk at the cost of entry, with tickets running upwards of $300 for the “VIP experience”. However, prospective audiences should know that, thanks to the “in the round” setup, there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Even those at the very back and to the side, where tickets run at a slightly more respectable $100, will have a great view of the action on stage.

And they won’t run any risk of being tormented by clowns.

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For tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza, on now until June 18, 2023, click here.

The post Cirque du Soleil is back in Toronto! (Review) appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

KURIOS has been getting enthusiastic press wherever it lands, heralded as a return to “classic” Cirque. In the meantime, upturned cars and one Very Big Top can now be spotted, beckoning curious Torontonians to check it all out. The now-iconic profile of the Big Top is easily visible along Lake Shore Blvd E., looming some 65 feet above Ontario Place and giving the old IMAX dome a run for its money. It took six days and a crew of 100 to get the Big Top up, no lions in sight.

For remarkable timelapse footage of the fabled Big Top going up, click here.

Tickets for Cirque du Soleil’s KURIOS can be found here. On from April 14, 2022 – July 17, 2022

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