Q: When does aerial artistry meet social comment?
A: When a Columbian commuter makes his everyday experience into a balletically beautiful statement.  

Sugarman at Te Auaha’s Tapere Nui draws not nearly a large enough crowd to do this show justice. Amongst them, a bunch of students who are training in aerial straps. They’re next to me and their excitement is palpable.

On a very dimly lit stage, to mournful music, our man can be perceived. He’s lying down – somehow – aloft. I think immediately of a clown. The mood is lackadaisical, desultory. He’s waking up from his trapeze bed – so am I – slowly, in line with this consummate performer’s aim to arouse our awareness of a day beginning.

Such subtle suggestiveness characterises the entire performance. It may be billed as a circus act of breathtakingly amusing entanglements with a rope, but a whole story begins to emerge.

It’s the story of this man’s day. Lights up, and we can now see a small, muscular figure, spurred into staccato action by music now turned strident. He dances as he cleans his teeth, then flirts with an outfit – his garb for the day? – and finally succumbs to it. 

Back with his rope, he seems about to hang himself. But no, he’s only on his way to work. Ingenuity grows on ingenuity – is it a laptop, a skateboard or a motor bike?   

We’re as entangled with the story as this man is with his lifeline. 

The final moments are our artist’s denouement – created from newsprint and karate.

We do get to hear him speak. He’s Columbian; he’s delightful; he’s super talented; he’s got something to say!

Go experience him. 

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