Trying Again and Transferring Ahead

The latest show from the 7 Fingers collective (Les Sept Doigts de la Main), “Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story”, opened to the public on October 12th at Club Fugazi in San Francisco. The show, in some ways, signals a return to for the Club Fugazi itself and for 7 Fingers co-founders Gypsy Snider and Shana Carroll return to their San Francisco roots. In other ways, the show defies previous forms of performance. TThey set out to define the City by the Bay – and what the city means to them – through an innovative contemporary circus. To give you all a glimpse into the production, we looked at reviews and articles about the show and rounded up the best sources on the internet. Here are the summaries:

Behind the curtain

In conversation with HearSay media Gypsy Snider describes the show as a “love letter” to the city and says: “We want to … celebrate”. [San Francisco’s] Complexity and say, ‘Look how lucky we are to be here’ – and look at some of the more fragile aspects of the city that need to be celebrated to preserve it. ”It relies on sophisticated storytelling techniques through abstraction of 7 Fingers: the audience feels that narrative beats in the history of the city are felt and not told through the movements and emotions of the performers on stage. That way, the cast and crew will capture the essence of San Francisco, both in historical memory and in the present moment – and the show will evolve as the city’s moments march on to the next. Snider hopes to “keep the audience as deeply rooted as possible in the city – or this moment in the city”.

Townspeople

“Dear San Francisco” is not just the history of the city; it also reflects stories of its cast, says Bay Area Reporter’s Jim Gladstone. It may be a story of the return of San Francisco-born Snider and Carroll. Before starting The 7 Fingers in Montreal, both women began their circus careers as part of SanFrancisco’s Pickle Family Circus, and they “have long hoped to bring their work and philosophical foundations back to the city that inspired them”. The show also draws on the experiences of its performers: newly arrived circus artists who are building their careers in the City by the Bay. In Snider’s words: “We didn’t hire circus performers and put them in a review. We create original material that is built [sic] about the artists we work with. “

Read Gladstone’s full article, “Air Supply: ‘Dear San Francisco’ revives Club Fugazi,” in the Bay Area Reporter

Come “next”

The show has big footsteps to fill as the newest resident production from Club Fugazi, according to Jim Harrington of Mercury News. Club Fugazi has a significant place in the history of San Francisco: on its stage everyone has seen from Beat Poets to Italian pop stars. In addition, his last resident production was the long-running revue Beach Blanket Babylon, which closed after four decades in 2017 – quite a tough act, most would say.

Instead of being intimidated by the challenge, The 7 Fingers seem eager to keep going. Shana Caroll calls it an honor to follow Beach Blanket Babylon [to] and feel like they taste San Francisco We hope to have a similar bridge to really do justice to the city. ”They inherit the Club Fugazi stage with a new vision: one that reinvents the space while respecting the actions that preceded them.

Read Harrington’s full article, “Dear San Francisco Opens in Former Beach Blanket Babylon Venue” on Mercury News

Then and now

In fact, “Dear San Francisco” is full of messages into the city’s past and present.7 × 7 club Writer Shoshi Parks mentions several outstanding momentsillustrating the history of San Francisco: “Scenes of earthquakes and fire, and scenes of boom and bust” as well as an innovative homage to the Beat Poets, in which “the performers simultaneously perform acrobatic feats and recite beat poetry with heartbreaking urgency. ”

Read Parks’s article, “The Show Continues at Club Fugazi with a soaring circus tribute to San Francisco” at the 7 × 7 Club

The theater critic Lilly Janiak reviewed the premiere on October 12 and commented on tShe calls the topicality of the production “a suitable flagship for the reopening of the arts” after pandemic lockdowns. It brings the audience into the experience and uses love letters they wrote to the city as “smart transitions” into dance acts, trapeze, diabolo, and hand-to-trap. Fugazi’s venue is small enough that you can feel the reverberation of an acrobat’s movements from your seats. Overall, the show will be “a love letter not only to the city, but also to the human body”.

Read Janiak’s review, “Review: New Circus Show ‘Dear San Francisco’ is a Love Letter to the City and the Human Body” on SF Datebook Chronicle

Outlook into the future

This wasn’t the first time Lilly Janiak had mentioned The 7 Fingers lately: in an earlier Thinkpiece forcalendar, processed “Dear San Francisco” into a discussion about the current circus landscape. With industry pillars like Ringling Brothers and Cirque du Soleil struggling, smaller circus companies – like 7 Fingers – have become key figures in change. Contemporary forms give the circus credibility as an art and not just as a “spectacle”.

The same goes for “Dear San Francisco”. Janiak mentions that “the show … ‘ta-da!’ razzmatazz for the dark, edgy aesthetics of modern dance or performance art “in an unpretentious way. She speaks admiringly of 7 Fingers for her creative ambition. In one quote, Shana Caroll notes that her shows always try to “express” it [circus] on a human scale. ”If Janiak’s full review of the show is anything, Snider and Caroll accomplished their goal with flying colors.

As Janiak argues, the moment of the industry is one of change. So let’s let “Dear San Francisco” mark the “next chapter” for Club Fugazi – and maybe for the rest of us as well.

Read Janiak’s full play, “New Show ‘Dear San Francisco’ Opens at a Tipping Point for Circus as an Art Form” in the SF Chronicle Datebook

Carolyn Klein is a writer, poet, and circus fan from the Washington, DC area. Writing stories about the circus has been a dream of hers since she was introduced to circus literature in 2014. She recently completed her BA in English and Creative Writing, magna cum laude, from George Mason University. As a new member of the Circus Talk journalism team, Carolyn looks forward to learning as much as possible about the industry and the people behind the circus.