list.co.uk/festival Reviews | F E S T I VA L DA N C E
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XOXO MOONGIRL Comic storytelling and circus skills unpack childhood trauma ●●●●● LIMB(E)S Dark, quietly riveting gem of aerial drama ●●●●●
YUCK CIRCUS All-female Australian troupe with bags of strength, agility and humour ●●●●●
A glass of milk teeters on a table edge as Nicole Burgio walks backward in its direction. Soon she will clamber down to look at it, nudge it over the edge, and catch it before it spills. This precariousness is woven throughout xoxo
moongirl. Burgio’s account of her father’s rage and her mother’s retreat into booze and pills is depicted through acrobatics, aerial dance and comic storytelling, with a live score by Mel Hsu.
A bare stage and stark lighting are just about all the theatrical elements Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes need to create this quietly riveting slice of aerial circus. The work arose, at least in part, from the pair’s desire to satisfy deeper creative urges than they had derived from performing in Cirque du Soleil. Fair warning: this slow-burn show makes no concessions to populist impulses.
That tension comes not just from the story, but The visual focus is a cluster of looping black
also from the audacity of attempting to explore childhood trauma through such a mishmash of artforms. The glass never quite clatters to the ground, but while Burgio is a vivid, charming storyteller, and a skilled aerialist, xoxo moongirl sometimes suffers from a dissonance between its themes and its largely comedic approach. It all stays aloft thanks to the moments when
Burgio takes flight on silks and trapeze. The closing routine, in which she lives out her escapist fantasy of flying to the moon, before facing up to the realities of adult life, is a glorious tumble through space. (John Lyndon) n Assembly Checkpoint, until 25 Aug (not 13, 19), 7.50pm, £13–£15 (£12–£14).
ropes of varying lengths, suspended above the centre of the stage. Either together or alone, Martin and Hughes hoist themselves up into this device, curving round or climbing upon each other with a precision that can be taut or tender. Their suggested relationship – of desperate struggle and disappointment, occasionally relieved by a cradling solace – follows a thinly elliptical, ambiguous narrative path.
It’s all set to an evocative soundscape of ticks, hisses and booms. Limb(e)s may be newish and is still, so to speak, finding its feet, but it has pockets of uncommonly mysterious beauty. (Donald Hutera) n Assembly Roxy, until 25 Aug (not 12, 19), 9.25pm, £13–£15 (£12–£14).
Big on macho posturing and even bigger on laughing at the same, the seven strong YUCK circus troupe struts out onto the stage in nothing but black crop tops and big knickers. Bold, it may be, but it’s the pair of socks down the front of those big pants and the double smear of black make-up across their upper lip area that sets the tone for the tightly choreographed opening acrobatic routine. In full-on drag king mode, the performers pull
their Australian bloke poses and get laughs for their lascivious winks and leers at the audience. But there are proper shows of strength and agility amid the comedy and at least one balance routine that no male could pull off, no matter how toned they were. The reason for the show’s title becomes clear in a dance sequence, performed to a comic monologue about periods which also reveals that there aren’t just socks down the front of those big pants. And that is just the start, as the show hits topics such as alcohol boasting, lady gardens and a unique presentation of the old nail up the nose trick, before ending on the high of lip-synching to ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’. It’s a ripper. (Thom Dibdin) n Underbelly’s Circus Hub, until 24 Aug (not 12, 19), 4pm, £13.50–£15.50 (£12.50–£14.50).
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DNA Impressive circus skills exploring gender politics ●●●●●
A refreshing alternative to old-fashioned circuses, where the female acrobats’ only chance to shine is looking cutesy or being artfully thrown around, Casus Circus always likes to bend stereotypical gender roles just as much as limbs.
This Australian troupe brought Knee Deep to the Fringe in 2012 not long after the company formed, then followed it with Driftwood and last year’s You & I, focusing on a male couple.
DNA features the most humans on stage so far, with four female
and three male performers dressed in shades of red, wowing the audience with human origami routines on the trapeze, graceful balancing on towers of chairs and skilful aerial rope tricks. A woman balances people on her head, a man gets flung through the air and the traditional sexy-lady-on-a-swing bit gets a nice twist when Sarah McDougall hangs off metal chains in red stilettoes, clowning as she pretends to make a clumsy mess of it all, tripping over her huge, cumbersome, frilly pantomime frock.
The staging and choreography is creative, making spinning playground roundabouts from people and showing how much trust and cooperation is needed for each routine, with someone literally left dangling at one point.
There is a little gilding of the lily in places, with some distracting mingling among the crowd and a few too many routines going on at once, taking the focus away from individual performers. And one section, where Jesse Scott does a menacing lip sync to ‘Tear You Apart’ (a song about a predatory crush that sounds like a dark incel anthem) seems to be commenting on unwanted male attention, but ironically keeps the audience’s eyes on him, rather than the four women doing cool stunts. Still, it’s impressive stuff, using circus skills to explore 2019 gender politics. (Claire Sawers) n Assembly George Square Gardens, until 25 Aug (not 12, 19), 3.15pm, £14–£15 (£12–£13).
7–14 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 69