Cirque En L’air performing Rapunzel at Calgary’s Grand Theatre

Cirque En L'air is going airborne this weekend with its adaptation of Rapunzel, and incorporating a number of genres into the show.

Forget about a dance floor. With Calgary’s Cirque En L’air, the sky -- or maybe the ceiling -- is the limit.

Cirque En L’air is a semi-professional company, where dancers range from 12 to 32 years old and it hosts major productions twice a year at Calgary’s Grand Theatre.

The company’s latest performance is based on Disney’s Rapunzel.

Cirque En L’air artistic director Chantelle Marlatt said that lately she’s worked with adaptations of movies or books to create two-hour long shows featuring a variety of dance genres, including aerial acts.

“I kind of write the script, I make the scenes how I want and decide what dance would suit that best and what music would suit it best and then go from there,” she said.

“Sometimes there’s dialogue associated,” she added. “Sometimes I like to use pantomime -- so basically saying what you want through your movement instead of words.”

What makes this company stand out is its ability to dance vertically through aerial apparatus.

“Cirque En L’air just means circus in the air, it’s just what we do,” said Marlatt. “Some of our dancers started with aerials and some of them started with dance, I personally started with dance and I found when I transitioned to aerials, it was pretty simple.

“(It’s) and just a lot of upper body strength,” she added. “It’s very fun and different than traditional dancing-- but I like to incorporate both of them into my shows.”

A green chameleon

The dancers auditioned for various roles in the production and began rehearsals in January. Kiera Leong, who’s 13 years old, plays a green chameleon named Pascal in the show.

She’s said she’s excited to show off the skills she’s learned to the young audience members.

“I think it’s going to inspire a lot of little kids that they can dance and they can do like the things that we’ve been doing in our show,” she said.

Safety for aerial component

Leong says safety for the aerial component in the show is key and while everyone of the dancers have fallen at some point, she says they all learn how to fall.

“You always have to have your chin tucked down so you’re not falling on your neck,” she said. “And there always has to be a mat underneath you so if you do fall, you’re on it.”

Adyson Thompson, 13 years old, has been cast in the lead role of Rapunzel. Thompson said she watched the Disney movie to learn about her character before her audition.

“I’m the girl in a tower and then I break out with Flynn Rider and go on an adventure,” she said. “This is going to be so cool after seeing the cartoon and now seeing how we’ve interpreted it.”

Bree Evans, 13 years old, plays Flin Rider. She can’t remember when she started dancing but knows she was very young. Now she likes to be on stage in front of an audience.

“We learn the pieces and then we start running them together and then we start to add interludes, costumes, props, like everything, it’s really cool,” she said. “I find it really fun to perform but I find it really cool to perform when people are watching me.”

Megan Sessford, 21 years old plays Mother Gothel. She started dancing at 13 and now teaches but also enjoys performing.

“There’s no other studios in Calgary that offer aerial performances,” she said. “This group does two shows a year so we work like four months for an entire two-hour show, whereas a lot of people in competition dance, you work months and months for a two and a half minute piece, whereas I really like being able to do the full shows.”

Sessford said being a part of this company allows her to continue to perform when most dancers her age have retired.

“It’s great on a resume,” she said. “I’m going to keep going with teaching as much as I can.” “Eventually my goal is to go into physiotherapy for circus artists and for dancers who have range of motion that’s further than the average human and this really just inspired me.”

Rapunzel shows at The Grand Theatre March 15th from 5 -7pm and then March 16th with two shows, the first at 11:30 and the second in the evening starting at 4:30.

Learn more about En L’air Academy Of Dance and Aerial here: