• country:
  USA
• region:
  North America
• style(s):
  Burlesque Circus
• label:
  own cd's release
• gender:
  male, female
• instrumentation:
  instrumental, vocal
• artist submitted by:
  Smog - Produções Culturais

STEP RIGHT UP

Founded in 1998, Circus Contraption, the Northwest's premiere one-ring traveling circus began with performances two years in a row at the Seattle Fringe Theater Festival. Circus Contraption mixes traditional circus skills such as trapeze and aerial dance, acrobatics, juggling and clowning with elements of cabaret, vaudeville and physical comedy. The troupe also creates its own fantastical masks, costumes, puppetry, props, sets and banners. Created with a leaning toward the surreal, Circus Contraption juxtaposes the dangerous with the whimsical, the exotic with the absurd.
Circus Contraption has performed at the Seattle Art Museum, Benaroya Hall, On The Boards, High Sierra Music Festival, Oregon Country Fair, San Francisco's CELLspace, House of Blues "Sasquatch" Festival, Denver's Ogden Theater, New York City's Theater for the New City and numerous other festivals, parties and events around the country. Their "Bracing Curative" and "Eat Circus" tours in 2001 and 2002 were both critically and popularly acclaimed throughout the West and Midwest. Circus Contraption's self-produced performances in 2000, 2001 & 2002, "The Beer, Bread & Cheese Cabaret", "A Raree Show" and "Gallimaufry- An Evening of Jiggery-Pokery" played to sold-out houses at Magnuson Park, their home in Seattle. In Winter 2003 and 2004 they toured locally as part of the King County Performance Network, bringing circus arts performances to small community audiences usually underserved by touring companies. Their newest production, "Circus Contraption's Grand American Traveling Dime Museum," debuted in Seattle May 2004 and traveled to San Francisco's CELLspace in 2004 and New York City's Theater for the New City in 2005, earning resounding audience and critical praise in every city. Circus Contraption's Grand American Traveling Dime Museum re-opened in Seattle in July 2006, and travels to to Theater for the New City in New York City for a seven-week run in August and September.
The Circus Contraption Band rouses audiences to their feet with its gypsy-carnival-opera musical theatrics. Live, Original Music for Circus Contraption is performed by the circus orchestra featuring, at any given moment, Vocals, Accordion, Banjo, Clarinets, Saxophones, Violin, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Flute, Piccolo, Theremin, Washboard, Musical Saw, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Glockenspiel, and Junk Percussion. Circus Contraption's CD releases have attracted fans around the world: "Our Latest Catalogue" (2001) and music from "Gallimaufry" (2004) and "Dime Museum" (2005) are available at www.CDBaby.com.

Links

• Circus Contraption