Événement

A Length of Rope U.S. Tour with Tiny Cities by Esther de Monteflores

A Length of Rope U.S. Tour

A Length of Rope Tour is a 501(c)(3) non-profit tour sponsored by Anchorage Community Works. This tour will circle the United States offering donation based performances and workshops across the country.

A Length of Rope by Ariel Schmidtke

A Length of Rope explores the significant choices we come to in life, with a rope and trapeze suspended on opposing sides of each intersection. These two circus apparatuses represent the struggle of choosing between different directionsbe it a choice of place, identity, friendship, or love. There is no fourth wall in this show, spectators can see Schmidtke's hands tremble from physical exhaustion and some portions are performed among the audience members. The shows relatability and vulnerability invite spectators to project their own choices on the performance and explore for themselves their lost possibilities. In this way, the work is innovative, it pushes beyond circus, beyond drama, to a place of intimate connection.

Tiny Cities by Esther de Monteflores

Esther de Monteflores is a circus artist, physical performer and choreographer based in Bellingham, Washington. Esther is one of a tiny handful of circus performers in the USA specializing in slack-rope walking.

In her latest project, Tiny Cities, Esther de Monteflores is engaging with some of the images that our popular culture has of wire-walking and the romanticizing of the circus artist in general and the high-wire artist in particular. Tiny Cities builds on her fondness for simple cardboard props and sets and for animating everyday objects. This project also furthers her exploration of the slackwire as an object, a location and a partner.

Esther developed and produced her first solo performance piece, Equilibrium, in 2014, which was funded in part by a Grants for Artists Projects award from Artist Trust (Seattle, WA). In collaboration with writer Meredith Hambrock, Esther created CLIMB, a 45 minute work of contemporary circus theater.

In her work, Esther seeks a balance between technical skill and expressive movement. Circus arts allow her to create work that is both intimate and spectacular, using the inherent element of risk to focus attention and spark imagination.