BeeVancity

It was a warm, breezy and welcoming spring evening on Friday, May 3rd and Vancouver's Art Gallery was just opening its doors for the popular and much talked about FUSE night.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect-an evening of local art, music, dance, live performance, improv and special events.  I was definitely intrigued and from the looks of the eager line-up awaiting entry I knew something good was in store.  I decided to start by making my way down to the aptly named FUSE lounge.  Cool, modern and sophisticated defined the space.  Classic elements like hand-painted paper-covered walls adorned with an ornate design added a unique and creative feel to the room and was reminiscent of old hotel decor.

On Tuesday May 9 around, a friend and I entered a world of a circus in wonderland and were charmed by the Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum. They displayed amazing talents of circus artistry and guiding Alice and her cohorts through the topsy-turvy circus wonderland.

Alice and her friends battle the giant stilted Jabberwocky, outsmart foes in a giant chess game with crafty circus ingenuity, and reach new heights in a bizarre world where up is down and front is back.

The sets were simple but the whole show was a million vignettes of individual performances of different circus.  So the behind the scene staff and their choreographed movements of the padding were crucial. 

The costumes were colourful and the track to the performance was sublime, but best of all were the passion and enthusiasm displayed by these highly skilled youth.  There was humour, amazing feats of height and the magic of storytelling.  The show is a myriad of acts ranging from aerials to juggling to unicycling to tightwire to human balancing and acrobatics --- just to name a few.