Circa’s ‘Duck Pond’ Is a Delightful Soup of a Show

Duck, duck, wow! The acrobatic, entertaining dancethletes of Circa were back in town this month with Duck Pond, a humorously unique take on the classic Swan Lake and The Ugly Duckling mashed into a quirky and delightful duck soup of a show. 

This contemporary dance and modern circus group from Brisbane, Australia is a UCSB Arts & Lectures favorite (see my review of last year’s Humans 2.0 show here) for good reason — they are funny and clever and utterly entertaining, not to mention full of flying feathers and daring acrobatics.

Their cheeky Aussie style humor was in stellar form at the Granada on October 18, as an all-ages crowd (the troupe spend the day before entertaining the kids at Harding School) was swept into the time-honored tale of swans and hapless princes, punctuated by rope tricks, aerials, silks, acrobatic stunts, and tumbling escapades galore. 

One of my favorite numbers was performed by a sequinned, flipper-wearing army of ducks, clad in yellow waders quacking at each other to a soundscape remix of Tchaikovsky’s “Danse des petits cygnes” with electronic influences. The ducks are armed with red mops that become props for feats of balance, for an effect that’s quite hilarious. 

The flying feathered pillow fight was pretty remarkable too. I was also quite impressed by the high heeled Black Swan. Dressed in all black and shockingly high heels, her acro-balance routine included stepping on soda bottles, as well as her dance partner’s chest, for a slightly erotic and definitely tense effect that had to be seen to be believed. 

There’s also a dramatic scene of the White Swan perched high above the stage, engulfed by a sea of flowing black cloth as an enormous skirt, as we saw in MOMIX’s ALICE riff on Alice in Wonderland a few years ago (story here). 

Another favorite bit was seeing the company’s road cases become mini stages, as performers danced between dramatically suggestive poses and then spun 360 degrees to return to a menu of comedic poses, which is a pretty good metaphor for the vibe of the whole show. Funny, sexy, edgy, and thoroughly enjoyable. I’ll be eagerly waiting to see what Circa brings next.