Emerald City Trapeze Arts in performance. Photo: David Treadwell
“Chamber music and circus arts seem like an unlikely pairing. But two local performance groups have come together … to create ‘Dances in the Sky,’ an aerial circus arts show with flying trapeze accompanied by live chamber orchestra,” writes Gemma Alexander in Tuesday’s (11/16) Seattle Times. “ ‘Dances in the Sky’ is Emerald City Trapeze Arts’ first in-person professional performance since the pandemic began. The event is a collaboration with Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, which will perform with ECTA on Nov. 19 and 20 at ECTA’s venue in South Seattle. The show will include aerial performances on silks, rings, chains, pole and cyr wheel. There will also be a flying trapeze act…. Geoffrey Larson, SMCO music director, and Deon Fox, ECTA artistic director, matched each act with classical dance music…. The cyr wheel is paired with Dvořák’s mesmerizing ‘Slavonic Dance,’ while waltzes by Johann Strauss II will match the pendulous rhythm of the trapeze.… Larson says he has admired ECTA for a long time and thought they would be a good fit…. ‘Traditionally and historically, circus was sort of “the common man’s entertainment.” Symphony and classical music was more highbrow. Now in modern times we’re mingling all the genres,’ said [aerialist Jessica] Perry.”
