Cirque du Soleil does nothing on a small scale, but Monday night’s opening performance of “Saltimbanco” at the Broomfield Event Center is about as close as the company gets to “intimate.”
The 14-year-old show, which runs through Thursday and again Dec. 10-13, was adapted from the traveling Grand Chapiteau tent to arenas, allowing the performers to swing their bicycles, bolas and spandex-clad toes within feet of the front row. It makes for a more brow-moppingly personal, if slightly less grand, spectacle.
Performers milled about in the audience beforehand, engendering a whimsical mood among the mostly full arena.
Truly, “Saltimbanco” feels like a kid’s show, with brightly colored floral motifs and loads of emphatic clowning. Of course, during the first few acts, it also felt a like a stereotypical modern-dance piece, backed by an overzealous smooth jazz band.
Things picked up once the acrobatics and tricks kicked in, the performers creating impressive symmetry while hanging from Chinese poles in skintight pastel body suits. For all its pseudo-European pomp, the same basic circus pleasures remained — the “will they/won’t they” death-defying aspects, in particular.
Cirque paced the show by building to the more skilled bits with dancing and music from the five-piece band.
After a mime engaged the audience (literally), a balancing bicyclist took the stage, leaving more than a few in the front row gritting their teeth as the act seemed within inches of flying off the stage.
A juggler nearly defied logic, bouncing handfuls of white balls up and down orange, plastic steps. A Spanish-flaired percussive dance duo swung bolas at dizzying speeds and angles, flamboyant enough to make most flamenco dancers look like couch potatoes.
The second half of the show built on the first by diving into the acrobatics almost immediately, including bungee acts, a Russian swing and, most riveting of the night, a duo trapeze. That last one proved that Cirque really does employ some of the world’s most talented, practiced athletes.
The female pair was brought out as an intertwined ball, eventually unfolding to take a trapeze high above center stage.
The audience seemed to stiffen, as well it should have, as a safety mat and spotters arrived.
The trapeze duo swung out high over the crowd, flipping and climbing, catching each other by ankles and wrists, and causing some audience members to scream. You couldn’t take your eyes off it.
The show was at times overly cutesy and repetitive, and really, “Saltimbanco” is basic when measured against most Cirque productions.
But it nonetheless presented a uniquely compelling evening that’s impossible to find outside the minds of these modern masters of spectacle.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
