The Idaho Falls Arts Council is pleased to present Cirque Mechanics Birdhouse Factory on Tuesday, March 23, 7:30 pm in the Civic Auditorium. Tickets are $29/$25 and available by calling 522-0471. A factory may seem like an unlikely setting for a circus, but Cirque Mechanics Birdhouse Factory is a magical place where workers are acrobats, the machines power high-flying trapeze stunts, and trampoline-launched workers defy the laws of physics as they seem to walk on air. The whole family will be giggling at the antics and enchanted by the story of laughter, love, flight, and, of course, the making of birdhouses. With a cast that includes members of Cirque de Soleil, the Pickle Family Circus, and the Moscow Circus, The Birdhouse Factory transforms the mundane into the magnificent.
Inspired by the industrial murals of Mexican-born artist Diego Rivera, the outrageous illustrations of cartoonist Rube Goldberg, and the gentle political slapstick of Charlie Chaplin’s film “Modern Times”, Birdhouse Factory springs to life with a cast of acrobats, dancers, and clowns drawn from the ranks of Cirque du Soleil, the Pickle Family Circus, and the Moscow Circus. While its inspirations make Birdhouse Factory artful, nostalgic and funny, the true essence of the show comes from the circus. A true cirque nouveau, Cirque Mechanics combines the athleticism and physical prowess of traditional circus with a thoughtful – often poignant – story.
Chris Lashua, Creative Director/Artist: Chris Lashua has spent his life on or around wheels. After nearly a decade of professional bicycle freestyle competitions and performance, he found himself at China’s famed “Wu Ciao” festival in ‘92, where he won a bronze medal and a place on Cirque du Soleil’s Japan tour of Fascination. Chris’s obsession with wheels led him to perform inside one, a German Wheel and as the opening act of Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam in 1996. During the six years Chris toured with Quidam, he began work on a mechanical contraption he called the trolley which allowed him to roll in place and be able to perform his act in a smaller space. The trolley was the start of an idea to build other machines that would interact with circus acrobatics. He decided early on that the place to showcase these machines would be a factory floor, a place Chris called
Birdhouse Factory. By adding a winch to the trolley and inviting fellow artist and friend Aloysia Gavre to experiment, a duo act emerged, a study not only in acrobatics, but in the relationship between man, woman and machine. Next
Chris modified four unicycles, which power a turntable, a mobile, yet static enough platform to host a more conventional ground act. In keeping with the factory floor setting, a conveyor belt driven by a giant turning wheel, a rola-bola driven fan and an overhead crane with a traveling high bar were born.
Birdhouse Factory was growing. In order to complete and realize his vision for the show Chris teamed up with talented and experienced friends, graduates of the Circus School of San Francisco and former Pickle Family Circus members – other former members of Cirque du Soleil and artists from the Nanjing acrobatic troupe. BirdhouseFactory is the result of their tireless, combined efforts.
Sponsored by Idaho Commission on the Arts/National Endowment for the Arts, Russell & Pam Johnson, Western States Arts Federation, KIFI News Group, Le Ritz Hotel & Suites, Post Register, and Sunny 94.3
