Auburn will have a unique opportunity to see Seattle-based dance and aerial troupe The Cabiri perform “Carpathian Dawn”, a piece written specifically for their performance at the Auburn Performing Arts Center.
Show time is 7:30 p.m. April 24.
An offshoot of the Anunnkai Project, an organization dedicated to keeping alive mythology and folklore of extinct cultures through art, The Cabiri use theater, dance aerial arts as well as fire performances, stilt walking and puppetry to get their message across to audiences.
“We focus a little more on the obscure side of mythology, rather than the more obvious ones such as Greek mythology,” Charly McCreary, the ensemble’s marketing director and one of their performing aerialists, said. “We are just trying to broaden the public’s awareness with dancing and the arts.”
“ ‘Carpathian Dawn’ will focus on the mythology and folklore of the Slavic cultures of Eastern Europe,” McCreary added. “We’re depicting things about everyday life, like gathering at the bath house, which was a big part of life for these people. And then we have big stories like the beginning of the world.”
The show will feature seven separate pieces, with all but one featuring aerial performances.
“It’s heavy on that, but there is also modern and contemporary dance in them,” McCreary added.
The cast for the show will showcase the core troupe of about a dozen dancers, along with several guest artists and students, bringing the performer total to about 20.
The Cabiri began in 1999, McCreary said.
“When we first started, we did lots of street theater, stuff like stilt walking,” she said. “It was mostly guerrilla theater stuff, so we could perform and take off.”
According to McCreary, when the group finally acquired a space of its own the aerial aspect became a part of the performances.
“One of the members said, ‘I have a trapeze I think you would love it’ and set it up,” McCreary said. “Then we started traveling and studying with world- class aerial artists. We really took to the aerial stuff.”
The Cabiri performed in the air for the first time on Halloween of 2001, and the aerial performances have been a mainstay of their shows since.
“They (audiences) love it, it’s so exciting to see dancers off the ground,” McCreary said. “It’s what draws people out to the shows. We’re depicting larger-than-life characters, deities actually, and it’s really neat to take them up in the air and make them larger than life. It’s really unique to what we do in our storytelling.”
====
ON STAGE
• WHAT:
• WHEN: Saturday, April 24, 7:30 p.m.
• WHERE: Auburn Performing Arts Center, 700 E. Main St.
• TICKETS: $18 regular, $16 student-senior. Call 253-931-3043, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Group tickets also available. For information and online tickets, go to www.auburnwa.gov/arts.
