Salt Fire Circus explores Tarot

by Ted Holteen
Arts & Entertainment Editor

Article Last Updated; Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:01AM

Photo by GREG THOMAS/Special to the Herald

Minna Jain plays the saw while Colin Rooney accompanies on the keyboard during a rehearsal for The Salt Fire Circus’ production of “A Halloween Sideshow” on Sunday night. Two shows nightly will run Wednesday through Saturday at the Durango Arts Center.

Click image to enlarge

Photo by GREG THOMAS/Special to the Herald

Ringleader Michael Rendon opens the show, accompanied by Maya Sol Dansie and Jamie Pittman.

Photo by GREG THOMAS/Special to the Herald

Ringleader Michael Rendon opens the show, accompanied by Maya Sol Dansie and Jamie Pittman.

Photo by GREG THOMAS/Special to the Herald

Michael Rendon as Pan watches while, from left, Maya Sol Dansie, Chrissy Mosier, Jamie Pittman and Erika Golightly dance to a piece by Talia Bamerick.

If you go

The Salt Fire Circus presents “A Halloween Sideshow” at the Durango Arts Center. Shows will be at 6 and 9 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and are available at Southwest Sound and the Arts Center.

The circus is back in town, but don’t tell the kids.

One of the surprise smash hits of 2009, The Salt Fire Circus, has a new show just in time for Halloween. “A Halloween Sideshow” is the local troupe’s follow-up to the Bare Bones Burlesque show that sold out four nights at the Durango Arts Center in May.

Many of the original cast members are back, and once again the show will feature songs, dancing and acrobatic stunts that rate somewhere between PG-13 and NC-17 on the audience scale of appropriate entertainment. For the grown-ups, it’s a can’t-miss show.

This time around, Minna Jain takes over the creative reins vacated by founding co-director Julie Hudak, who is moving out of town. Jain envisioned a circus-heavy program, and the addition of contact juggler Mark Stampfle, along with veteran Erin Stephens, is evidence of the shift.

“Sideshow” also has a more-centralized theme – the cards of the Tarot – than its predecessor, which also was Jain’s idea.

“We thought the Tarot was perfect. It has a lot of the archetypes you see around Halloween, like the Devil, the Trickster and some of those darker images,” Jain said. “But with this show, we get to bring them forward and really look at them closely.”
“Sideshow” consists of 13 acts: three are revamped versions from the May show, including Maya Sol Dansie’s “Toymaker,” Erika Golightly and co-director Chrissy Mosier’s lyra dance on hoops suspended from the ceiling and Stephens’ juggling act. The next 10 are all new, and follow a plotline as a mysterious Tarot card reader (Tami Graham) reveals the cards to ingénue Candace Jenkins and the cast acts them out.

It’s done in the same turn-of-the-century traveling circus style, with even more oddballs than before, although the cast is slightly smaller.

The Bare Bones Band also is smaller but just as good, with Jain and Colin Rooney handling all accompaniment with some help from Michael Rendon, who doubles as Ringmaster and the half-goat Pan in one scene.

Graham said there’s more of an emphasis on the circus side than pure burlesque, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

“There are still some super sexy burlesque pieces, but it’s not a full burlesque show; it’s a circus,” Graham said.

Kind of like Halloween in Durango. Come one, come all.

ted@durangoherald.com