BRATTLEBORO — “Physical theater is more than what most people think when they hear the term,” says Ben Grinberg, co-founder of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre. “It is not just mime or red-nose clowning.”
The genre also pursues storytelling through primarily physical means which rely on motions of the performers rather than (or combined with) text to convey the story.
“As we do Almanac, performers talk through hand gestures, body language, thought track [when a character speaks aloud inner thoughts], and many more physical features,” adds Grinberg.
On July 25 and 26, the Philadelphia based contemporary acrobatics company will perform its latest work, Leaps of Faith and Other Mistakes, a piece of dance theater that includes “feats of balance, strength, and flexibility,” according to its publicity materials.
But this show has more than that.
Created and performed by an ensemble of award-winning emerging artists - Grinberg, Nicole Burgio, Nick Gillette and Adam Kerbel, with words by Josh McIlvain and music written and performed by Patrick Lamborn - Leaps of Faith combines “equal parts dance, circus, story theater, and music.”
Developed in part through a residency in Montreal with Cirque du Soleil's Jerome Le Baut and Cirque Eloize's Robert Bourgeoisie, this 75-minute evening of theater, in the words of the performers, is “an absurd and contemplative tapestry of sublime human idiocy, isolationist seafarer cults, and the kinds of people that devote their lives to becoming acrobats.”
The narrative concerns four hobbyists who, finding one another alone “in a world of weirdos, push themselves to be exceptional in every moment.”
“As they purify themselves and adopt an all-white uniform, their trusty sofa becomes a portal for exploration and they set out on the high-seas and leave the world of fast-food and normal people behind,” the actors describe.
Circus, dance, and theater meet
Leaps of Faith is the second major work of theater created by Almanac Dance Circus Theatre.
“Almanac straddles ensemble-driven performances that include circus, dance, and theater,” says Grinberg. Fusing acrobatics, storytelling, and daring physicality, the company “produces both ensemble-prompted and commissioned works, develops educational partnerships for students of all ages, and leads an open-ensemble circus gymnasium for professional performers,” according to the company's materials.
Almanac was founded in 2013 by Gillette and Grinberg, graduates of the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training, with Kerbel, a graduate of the Headlong Performance Institute.
The players were selected as 2013-2014 Fresh Tracks artists at New York Live Arts, as the resident company at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and as artists-in-residence at Mascher Space Cooperative.
Their work has been presented by the Tyler Arboretum and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Circus Now!, New York Live Arts, and many other places.
Almanac's roots began five years ago when Grinberg and Gillette met as students at Pig Iron School, “the only graduate physical theater program in the country,” Grinberg said.
Grinberg, who originally did not plan to dedicate himself to physical theater, graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in classical studies. But at the same time he continued to pursue his love of theater - all kinds of theater.
“I have been performing since I was 11 in community and professional theater companies,” says Grinberg. “Beyond traditional theater, one of my early inspirations was Pilobolus dance company, which had headquarters in my hometown. I took workshops and even performed with them. Circus came later.”
Grinberg has directed or written and directed more than a dozen full-length circus and theater productions, including Inventions!, a showcase for new ideas in contemporary circus in collaboration with Cirque du Soliel's Rachel Walker.
Shows include Reefer Madness, Mr. Marmalade, Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters, and Euripides' The Cyclops.
To help put on a commedia dell'arte version of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, Grinberg took an intensive course at Pig Iron to learn the 16th-century Italian form of improvisational theater.
“I was so taken with the place that I jumped on the idea when they started a school,” Grinberg said. “I am proud to say that I was in its first-ever class.”
After graduating, Grinberg and Gillette wanted to create a physical theater ensemble based on total collaboration.
“That includes everything, from structure and power to the way all our decisions are made,” says Grinberg. “All of our works at Almanac, including Leaps of Faith, were created that way.”
A piece at Almanac often starts with improvisation.
“But when we find something that works through improvisation, we hone that nugget until it becomes a perfect piece of the puzzle,” explains Grinberg. “Our finished works are set pieces, although sometimes there might be a short section that remains improvised.
“Many of our other short and longer works use dialogue, but Leaps of Faith is the first time we are working with a writer, Josh McIlvain. While most of our work has a clear storyline and all of our characters carry their own history, here we are adding an extra element with a definitive text.”
Grinberg has often found the revue structure of a circus arts show a bit dull.
He says, “We are challenging that cabaret structure, because we feel continuity through narrative and character is important, even though all stage performance is character driven to some degree. I think that once onstage it is impossible not to become some kind of a character.”
Music also plays an important role in Leaps of Faith. Composer Lamborn has created a partially improvised score that uses upright bass, singing bowls, and electronics.
“Almanac performs all the time, but to do so we must be adaptable,” says Grinberg. “Our company has created many different kinds of works for varying occasion, in venues as different as theaters, dance halls, beer gardens, restaurants, and avant garde performing space. We have even been the entertainment at award ceremonies.”
Almanac has numerous small works in its repertoire, but Leaps of Faith is only its second evening length piece.
“A work like Leaps of Faith takes much time and effort to put together, “ says Grinberg. “During our time free from performing, we have worked on it 20 hours a week for most of the past year.”
After its acclaimed world premiere last June at the Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia, Almanac is taking Leaps of Faith on a New England tour, with stops in Connecticut, Providence, Maine, and Brattleboro.
New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) is “a big reason” the company is performing in southern Vermont, Grinberg said.
“We have a lot of friends and acquaintances in Brattleboro because of NECCA,” says Grinberg. “One of our members, Cole DellaZucca, is a graduate of that circus school.”
An Almanac company member since 2014, Nicole Burgio (a.k.a. Cole DellaZucca) is “an internationally recognized acrobat and aerialist, specializing in partner acrobatics and static trapeze,” according to the Almanac website.
“She is primarily a circus artist who has worked with major companies throughout the world,” said Grinberg. “It is challenging to find artists for our company because they need so many skills that include dancing, circus arts, and theater.”
Before DellaZucca began performing with Almanac, “she had never acted, and never had been in a work longer than 5 to 7 minutes,” he said.