In Gravity & Other Myths: Backbone, eleven amazing acrobats not only toss each other around but walk on each other’s heads, fly through the air, build and climb human towers, prance, dance, do flips and flops---all to Elliott Zoerner and Shenton Gregory’s wild, pulsating musical score. And that’s just for starters! The acrobats, three of whom are women, are all part of “Gravity & Other Myths,” an Australian ensemble which has been dazzling audiences since 2009. Devoted to “an honest approach to performance,” the avant-garde group represents the cutting-edge of New Circus, the art form that melds dance, circus and visual art. Working under the direction of Darcy Grant, a founding member of “Circa,” Backbone attempts to “celebrate human interconnectedness by testing the limits of strength: physical, emotional, individual and collective.” In its two-night stop at The Broad titled Gravity & Other Myths: Backbone the company pulled out all stops in introducing itself to a Southern California audience. The action was not only explosive but continuous, choreographed by Grant and his creative associate, Triton Tunis-Mitchell, to tell one swift story after another. Some of the stories, like the one satirizing a rugby scrum, were easy to understand; others, like the ones involving Earth (with a recurring motif of dirt and stones), were hard to fathom. Nothing to do but sit back and just watch the choreography, the fearless physical moves of the young, gifted company. Credit must also be paid to the show’s technicians for all they gave to the show. Geoff Cobham, Max Mackenzie, Marko Respondeck and Christopher Sanders’ sound, light and production designs were every bit as dazzling, original and striking as the acrobats’ work, making for a truly jaw-dropping evening of theater.
