Circus Center’s 2006 Holiday Show features ‘7Fingers’ circus troupe with the U.S. Premiere of TRACES December 14, 2006

A collective creation from one of the most exciting new circus theatre companies in the world, TRACES offers an ethereal, surreal and unreal multi-media contemporary circus experience. TRACES combines stunning acrobatics with an urban hip-hop flavor, all imbued with a poetic reflection on memory and survival. Directed and choreographed by ‘7Fingers’ founding members and Pickle Circus alumni Gypsy Snider and Shana Carroll, TRACES is performed by five talented young actor-acrobats fresh out of Montreal’s École Nationale de Cirque, most of whom received their early circus training from Master Lu Yi at Circus Center.

The clock is ticking - a countdown towards an unknown fate. The performers are thrown straight from a whirlwind catastrophe onto a stage that feels like a junkyard. Anticipating the worst, they’ve cobbled together a makeshift shelter, with an eclectic array of useful items: a piano and classical music scores, a basketball, skateboards, a well-thumbed book, an armchair, and two tall poles for holding up the world—and for climbing, five at a time. TRACES is performed by Héloïse Bourgeois, Francisco Cruz, Raphael
Cruz, Brad Henderson and Will Underwood, who combine high-level circus skills with a jet-fueled urban street energy—soaring, somersaulting, contorting, balancing and catapulting as they move from one skill to another, using anything and everything that comes to hand.

Since forming in 2002, ‘7Fingers’ (in Montreal, Les 7 Doigts de la Main) has taken the world by storm with its disarmingly eccentric and intelligent re-interpretation of circus theatre. Bay Area audiences and critics raved about the company’s first production "7Fingers," Circus Center’s 2003 Holiday Show. TRACES extends ‘7Fingers’ unique and engaging concept of a new, accessible circus where astonishing acrobatic feats illustrate much more than physical prowess: they’re poetry expressed in gestures, ideas translated into movement.

The U.S. premiere of TRACES arrives in San Francisco on the heels of performances at several prestigious venues around the world. The show just completed sold-out runs in Berlin at the famed Chameleon Cabaret, and in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to opening at the Palace of Fine Arts, the show will have a month-long run in Montreal at recently opened circus venue, Tohu.

Performances of TRACES are at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco.

Performances of TRACES are:

Thursday, Dec. 14, 8 pm
Friday, Dec. 15, 8 pm
Saturday, Dec. 16, 2 pm and 8 pm
Sunday, Dec. 17, 2 pm
Wednesday, Dec. 20, 8 pm
Thursday, Dec. 21, 8 pm
Friday, Dec. 22, 8 pm;
Saturday, Dec. 23, 2 pm and 8 pm
Sunday, Dec. 24, 2 pm
Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2 pm
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2 pm
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2 pm
Friday, Dec. 29, 8 pm
Saturday, Dec. 30, 2 pm and 8 pm
Sunday, Dec. 31, 2 pm
Monday, Jan. 1, 2 pm

Tickets for pre-Christmas performances (Dec. 13–24) are $36/$30 for Adults; $32/$25 for Students/Seniors; and $20/$18 for Children 12 and under.

Post-Christmas performances (Dec. 26–Jan. 1) are $45/$38/$35 for Adults; $40/$34/$30 for Students/Seniors; and $22/$20/$15 for Children 12 and under.

Tickets are available from City Box Office by calling (415) 392-4400, or online at www.cityboxoffice.com.

For more information, visit www.circuscenter.org/performance/pickle.html or www.7fingers.com.

Official Website: http://www.circuscenter.org