cycropia

last night, i went to see cycropia for the second time (in three years) at the orton park festival. this is the group that people casually refer to as, “oh, those people who fly around in the trees?” because that is what they do. they hook up trapeze bars in a sprawling tree right there in the park and after dark, they turn on stage lights and come out in beautifully simple costumes and fly through the trees. it is mesmerizing. it is fantastical. i don’t think you can fully understand the gracefulness of it until you see it for yourself. last night, one of the dances had four dancers stacked up on the same swing (there were four separate bars, like ladder rungs). another one had a bar about 4 times the length of a normal bar so that two dancers could dance side-by-side with lots of room to be dramatic in. it’s simply magical.