Circa's CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS Coming to Sydney

Australia's astonishing Circa perform their wondrous new fusion of circus, animation and music, Carnival of the Animals, at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne this September/October. Created by circus visionary Yaron Lifschitz, the production brings the joy of the animal kingdom to the stage in a sophisticated and visually stunning physical theatre extravaganza for children big and small.

Circa is world renowned for pushing artistic boundaries and creating powerful works of circus art that thrill, challenge and captivate as they constantly reimagine circus as an art form. Carnival of the Animals continues this, as a magical reinvention of the classic musical suite by French Romantic composer, Camille Saint-Sae?ns. Depicting creatures from land, sea and sky, seven Circa performers dressed in elaborate costumes take children and their adults on a sublime journey through the lives of the tortoise, the elephant, the kangaroo, the swan, and many other beasts of fur, feathers and fin. It's an exuberant celebration of all Earth's creatures, kindling delight at the power of our bodies to express who we really are.

Written in 1886, Carnival of the Animals has been adored by children and adults for many generations. It is a playful and magical work of music imbued with Victorian eccentricity whose fourteen movements each explore a specific or group of animals. For this production Australian composer Quincy Grant artfully reworked and extended the original suites, while on stage the Circa performers are accompanied by and interact with the sumptuously detailed animation created by UK-based Australian video designer Michaela French.

Michaela French said, "I wanted to re-create the feeling I had as a child when I'd read a book and there was the sense that it might just be possible to slip into that imagined world and discover that it was real. This idea, this possibility was how I imagined the world of Carnival of the Animals, almost as though one slipped into an alternate reality where elephants can dance, frogs ride uni-cycles, gravity is defied, where the magic of the circus is the most important part of life and the entire world can be carried in a small suitcase."

Since 2004, Circa has been at the frontier of new circus. Highly sought after across the globe for their innovative blend of movement, dance, theatre, music and acrobatics that boldly reimagines circus as an art form, they have performed at the world's leading venues and festivals and garnered wave after wave of critical success, leading The Guardian (UK) to cite Circa as "the Australian circus company who may be well on their way to world domination." Their majestic productions have been hailed as a "masterpiece of circus arts" (La Presse, Montreal), "astonishing physical mastery" (New York Times), and "a revolution in the spectacle of circus" (Les Echos, France). Carnival of the Animals is one of ten mesmeric productions that Circa tours in 2015, part of a program dedicated to exploring the breathtaking possibilities of circus art and new artistic territories.