Harmonic Shadow Circus

Harmonic Shadow Circus is a grassroots Niagara-based doom circus ensemble whose low frequency sound is influenced by the movements of fungi. We put on immersive site-specific multi-disciplinary performances that fall somewhere between contemporary circus and medicine show, looking to the talents of human animals as spectacle. We formed in the autumn of 2016.

part playful performance

We love to play with shadows in our site-specific performances! Working with as few as two people to as many as two dozen, we explore opposing spheres of emotion and the possibility of fungi healing the earth. No two shows are ever the same. Our rotating cast of collaborators and multi-talented artists includes musicians, visual artists, writers, actors, dancers, jugglers, and acrobats.

part living installation

We curate an immersive living installation whose presence may always be tapped into. Seeking to deliver a feeling of peace, our flavour of haunted doom circus looks to spaces that have experienced tragedy as ideal locations for shows. We have staged occurrences in church sanctuaries, battlefields, and on porches. Through encouraging audience participation, we preach slowing down, connecting the head and heart, and restoring a state of personal harmony.

part open jam

We sculpt our sound using droning distorted guitars, reed instruments such as accordion and harmonica, haunting banjo melodies, and found percussion. A jam is a safe space that encourages active creative play, improvisation, and audience participation. Our open jam concept featuring live sound and live movers invites audiences to play or dance or watch — to interact in any way they see fit.

previous productions

lowkey lowdown

description

Ouroboros is broken’, the weaver foretold, ‘ouroboros is broken’. Around its carapace Harmonic Shadow Circus, keepers of Doom and Dance, have built a burial mound where they may winter and hold vigil until spring. Roadworn Skinchangers and Shadow Dancers gather together in this Third Space where the veil is thin. Living, Dead, and Both/Neither mingle to cradle our Dear Earth Mother, so scarred and weary. Nestled snugly, we play, celebrate, and grieve.

skunk season

SKUNK SEASON is a medicine show in motion, and we invite you to travel backwards in time with us as we tap into the heartbeat of Mother Earth. Our performance ground shifts from the porch of the Ol’ Town Hall, erected in 1874, to a model A Ford pickup truck, constructed in 1928. Our Occurrence is part living installation, part playful performance, and part open jam. You are encouraged to enter our slow and cyclic world in any way you see fit. Our sound is gritty doom blues with a ghastly circus edge. Our movements are slow and deliberate, heavily focused on shapes, often based on the movements of fungi and animals. We intermingle grief and play to create an accessible place where honour, celebration, and reverence may be found.

After a frosty turbulent Spring with only flashes of warmth, Summer came upon our garden like a thick sap. Skunk spray swells, laced as a garland to the congealing air, while the calls of crickets carve lullabies that linger. And what a modest harvest from that cracked and wanting soil! Here rises the Harmonic Shadow Circus: a troupe of ghost dancers, shapeshifters, and sound painters who will swirl and twirl around the boundary between Doom and Dance. Esteemed Guests and Gentlefolks, the circus is in town! one night only! step right up…

beneath the roots

Rooted in Doom and Dance, this contemporary medicine show explores Mother’s capacity to heal herself. Rooted in Doom and Dance, this contemporary medicine show explores Mother's capacity to heal Herself.

Somewhere underneath the earth there is the howl of a freight train, shrill against the night. Somewhere underneath the ground there is a troupe of Shadow Dancers and Doomsayers, digging, waltzing, down. It is told that if you follow the sound, you'll reach a garden, underground.... Where walks a piper with footsteps narrow, yes come below, beneath our barrow -- where wight and light and shadow play -- black despite the bright of day -- follow the piper whose song does tell -- the shape of a circus in a Carousel!

cast

coming soon…

contact

harmonicshadowcircus

AT (@)

gmail.com

gallery