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Last updated: June 20. 2007 3:14PM
JOURNEYS
Le Grande Cirque's World of Wonder
The top twangy singer in four states or a group of leggy ladies who can clog in step to a classic Hee-Haw anthem have no place here. No, Le Grande Cirque offers tourists much more than just a few corny jokes and downhome charm for their vacation dollars.
Le Grande Cirque’s talent comes from the east. And when you start in Myrtle Beach, east means a trek across the Atlantic.
And of course, it’s worth the trouble. Le Grande Cirque’s dancers are some of the finest Britain has to offer.
They provide delightful background scenery in nearly every act, but they could just as easily be moved to center stage and the audience wouldn’t be disappointed. Whether they’re dancing in unison in a mesmerizing black-light display or perfectly recreating the head-and-hoof movements of a grazing zebra, the dancers keep the eyes busy, darting from center stage to the dazzling sideshow.
Dennis Ignatov brings his performing dogs and cats from even farther east. The Russian’s backflipping dog was named one of America’s top animal acts by National Geographic Kids magazine, and his dogs will even play leapfrog and form a conga line – but the kids will barely remember that once they’ve seen the dog and cat wedding party in full regalia (ticket holders, it must be noted, can even have their picture taken with the animals at intermission).
And from the Far East come men who can run and leap through hoops seven feet off the ground and teenage girls who contort their bodies so effortlessly that one might be convinced that an X-ray would reveal no spine whatsoever.
When a chair balancer ascends into the rafters, the audience alternately applauds and cringes. Then two daredevils on The Double Wheel of Death perform so flawlessly that they have to fake some slips just to heighten the sense of danger.
The performers’ talents are complemented by a dazzling display of lights and mood-setting music that heightens the drama and infuses energy into the performance. Sometimes, the performers seem to materialize out of nothing but the fog that encompasses the stage.
As the show becomes more interactive, heed this advice: Beware the mime. He’ll revel in your inability to clap in rhythm and, if you turn your head, he might even kiss your girl.
But it’s not all fun and games at the show. For instance, when a basketball player twists an ankle, the referee stops the game and one of seven substitutes runs onto the floor to take his place. Le Grande Cirque dancers wish they were so lucky. With 10 dancers performing two shows (they also perform in the Dean Martin tribute show) six nights a week, injuries from sprains to strains are inevitable. There are no understudies waiting behind the curtain, says Kirsty White, the dance captain and assistant choreographer.
If you’re on the wings of the stage, she says, you can sometimes make a somewhat graceful exit. “If you can carry on, you finish the number,” she says. “It depends on how badly you’re injured. Sometimes you just have to carry on with a strained smile.”
In early April, the dancers had to reblock the show when a dancer went down with an ankle injury. And for symmetry’s sake, most of the dance routines were cut to eight dancers. Injuries more serious than an ankle sprain are possible for the dancers, but especially for the acrobats, who fly, tumble, swing and balance more than 20 feet above the stage.
The acrobats spinning and singing on nets high above the stage are among White’s favorite acts. She’s also a fan of the contortionists.
“I really love the hand-balance act,” she says, mentioning the teenage girls who balance side-by-side on one hand, contorting their bodies in such unimaginable positions that you’d think their spines would get dizzy. White and her fellow dancers wouldn’t dream of replicating those moves, for fear of ending up in traction at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.
But White also enjoys watching the girls spinning umbrellas on their feet. Maybe, she thought, I could do that. So she laid on her back, grabbed an umbrella, and ...
“It’s not nearly as easy as it looks,” she says.
These artists use every inch of the stage and beyond, turning a brilliant stage show into a surprising interactive experience.
By the end of the night, you can literally feel the excitement raining down on you.
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