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Le Vorris & Vox Circus: Circa 2003 Photos of 2003 Participants of 2003 Back to Past Performances Circus 2003 Outline In the beginning, in the Circus Maximus, the first circus, player was placed against player. To survive, each strived to outstrip the other. Although less bloody, for the modern circus, the acts are still impelled forward by a tension between high and low, grace and bufoonery, equestrians and clowns. This year the Le Vorris & Vox Circus pushes to the fore these conflicts and dangers that create the circus. On another world, two races, one red one blue, display their respective skills to secure the approval of judge and audiences that will save their race. The red race is bufoonish and inelegant, wizened: jugglers, clowns, strongmen, tumblers... The blue race is refined and clean-of-line: dancers, trapeze, fire-fighters... In addition to the red and the blue, there is a set of mysterious black-clad technicians. These technicians create the space and externally shape the action. They will make up the ring, they will play the music, they will judge the action. The audience become constituted as single organism, yellow in color, name tags and eyestalks. The acts of the red and blue may be structured in a variety of ways. The most simple are disconnected, discontinuous acts. A second approach is object or task oriented acts, wherein each race is assigned to accomplish some task but fufill it in very different ways. Alternatively, we could structure as one responding to the other. The red race breathes fire and the blue race follows with a water act would be a crude example. The black technicians will, at times, interfere with the acts: speeing up the music, introducing new objects that the performers must deal with.
At the end, the races are judged, and one race dies.
Spring 03 Circus write up Final Report to the University of Chicago Arts Council regarding the Le Vorris and Vox Circus, 2003 On a cool, windless night in mid-May, Ringmaster Captain Zorghoff and a large, purple, seadragon puppet led a parade of performers through the main quads and into the shadow-filled amphitheater of the Regenstein Library. For the next three hours, an audience of hundreds were dazzled, terrified, and overjoyed by a succession of virtuosic performances, and a white horse We estimated that 400 people saw some portion of our show, and that the crowd never waned below 300. Students, faculty, and a large number of families from the community came to the show. The crowd was perhaps our biggest misstep. Due to the density of the standing crowd, many people had a difficult, if not impossible, time seeing the action. This year, we are hoping to secure a space that will satisfactorally acommodate many more people. Fifty-seven performers appeared in the show. They included students from every division and department of the University Theater, even a Business School student. They represented University Theater, University Theater Techstaff, Capoeira, J.E.L.L.Y., Stick and Move (Breakdancing crew from Kenwood Academy), University of Chicago Gymnastics Club, University of Chicago Cheerleaders, UC Dancers, and a number of student musical groups.
The acts included:
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