They must put some thing in the water in Canada. The country has spawned an endless series of circus troupes, the most famous being Cirque du Soleil. The latest arrival is the Montreal-based 7 Fingers, and — if its show “Traces” is to be believed — what young people most like to do while hanging out is engage in gravity-defying acrobatics.
In a setting littered with chairs, floor-to-ceiling poles and a beat-up piano, resembling an abandoned warehouse, the evening features seven young performers who seem like best friends and who apparently want to be ours as well. Early in the proceedings, an old-fashioned microphone drops down, and each performer provides his or her name, physical characteristics and personal revelations such as “I was once in love with two people at the same time.”
Dressed in street clothes, they engage in bits of physical horseplay such as tossing around a basketball or pounding out tunes on the piano. But periodically they suddenly burst into astounding, intricately choreographed routines that reveal the casualness to be a mere facade for their precisely executed feats of athleticism.
What makes the show unique is its sly, silly humor. Just after executing an amazingly rigorous acrobatic routine with a bunch of chairs, performer Florian Zumkehr is suddenly called upon to sing a gentle ballad on a guitar. Valerie Benoit-Charbonneau, the sole female and self-proclaimed “flirtatious” member of the group, attempts to read a book while physically battling an uncooperative recliner. At one point, the ensemble bursts into a graceful skateboard ballet to the accompaniment of “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”
Highlights include an amazing sequence in which the performers take pole dancing to an entirely new level, and a segment where they propel themselves through an increasingly higher stack of hoops.
The performers’ efforts to ingratiate themselves can feel forced, and their banter is often too precious. They really don’t need to speak at all. They express themselves most eloquently through the sheer joy they exhibit while pushing their bodies to the max.