The Circus Collective of San Diego had a preview performance of their new show "Specific Gravity" on Sunday in City Heights. The next stop for the show will be in Washington, D.C.
The Circus Collective of San Diego describes itself as "a contemporary circus troupe comprised of artists who work together to create original shows which blur the lines between circus and contemporary theater."
Danielle Berg, director and aerialist, believes that circus has always pushed the envelope, and what that looks like today for the Circus Collective is to do shows with a social message that engage the community.
"'Specific Gravity' is a multi-disciplinary performance art piece that fuses contemporary circus with spoken word poetry, physics principles and live music, and the whole purpose of it is to explore the experiences of displaced persons through the metaphorical framework of Archimedes’ principles of displacement, buoyancy and specific gravity," Berg said.
This past Sunday, the Circus Collective staged a free preview performance of "Specific Gravity" at the City Heights' Weingart Branch Library and Performance Annex. The house was packed with audiences of all ages.
Prior to the show, there was a lineup of guest artists including Arthur Kayzakian (poetry), Angel and Jaami Waali-Villalobos (dance), DeLaVina (singer/songwriter), NomiS (spoken word) and Crystal Ellefsen (poet/songwriter).
"Specific Gravity" includes three refugee poet collaborators: Dhaha Nur, of Somalia; May Thaw, who is from the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand; and Joseph Dasilva, of Venezuela.
The Circus Collective submitted "Specific Gravity" to The Atlas Intersection Festival in Washington, D.C. The work was accepted and will mark the Circus Collective's national debut this weekend.
