Urban

Overview

It was obvious from the start that the contemporary circus performers involved in Urban were a tight-knit team. Why else would anyone dream of somersaulting to and from platforms made of each other's outstretched arms with no safety net to catch them?

It was only during a couple of risking manoeurves that ropes were attached. The Colombian performers' skill, strength and agility was so startling that there were moments when I almost forgot about the level of difficulty and risk involved. That is until a dramatic trick or turn pulled me back to reality. I lost count of the number of times I felt myself holding my breath, Urban is pure exhilaration.

The 13 men and 2 women worked seemlessly together to put on an extremely professional show, finding ever more ingenious ways to show off their acrobatic skills. The muscular Latinos relished in taking the mickey out of thier own stereotypes by posing provocatively, twitching their muscles and grinning madly.

There was tight rope walking, a dance off, jump rope battles, and in a scene reminiscent of a cartoon show two performers dropped repeatedly from a high platform onto a see-saw catapult, each time shooting a team mate up into the air, causing them to spin furiously before landing feet first onto a mattress.

The driving beat throughout was Latin hip hop. Performers sang and rapped in Spanish. For me that was fine because I speak Spanish. My friend doesn't so it was only about half way through that she understood there was a unifying theme to the show. These young people come from disadvantaged families and all trained at the National School of Circo Para Todos (Circus For All).

"Reach for the stars, don't give in to desperation," they chanted in Spanish. At one point a performer paused and much to the audience's delight, let out a tentative "kia ora". He spoke briefly of the life they had left behind and how far they had come together. But perhaps this could have been made clear earlier on for the non-Spanish speakers.

About halfway through the performance a young man, aided by English subtitles displayed on a screen behind him, explained that they had all grown up in Cali, Colombia. His life was backbreaking misery, until he met the circus crew. As astonishing as the acrobatics were, I would have liked more of their stories to have been interspered with the athleticism. It would have strengthened the narrative and no doubt most of them would've had compelling stories to tell.