On Saturday Cirque de la Symphonie and the Winston -salem Symphony will merge movement, music and magic – Tright City Beat

The aerialists with Cirque de la Symphonie fly high. (Photo by James Farley)

The symphony is presenting this weekend, but instead of silent, the performers encourage the audience to “become strong”.

“When you have certain performers on the stage, you just can’t help him,” says Alexander Streltov, the creator and producer of the upcoming Cirque de la Symphonie show. The company, which in the past has been performing in North Carolina, will host a single-day show in the Raynolds audience in Winston-Salem at 7:30 pm on Saturday. Unlike traditional symphonic performances, this event will combine music and acrobatics performance, adding a bizarre to any act.

The air artist himself, Streltenov, explains that the performers will hit the stage next to a medal of classical masterpieces. There is no storyline – more different actions take the scene for each song. With a strong man, acrobatic and shaking actions, juggling, air exploits, the show is full of delight – even a little magic. The symphony, conducted by Michel Meryl, will play music from famous composers from Shostakovich to Chaichovski, Strauss to Sibelii.

“It’s a pretty variety, it’s for sure,” Streltov says.

Moreover, every act choreographers their own pieces.

“I don’t do choreography for them because they are professional artists,” he says.

“It is almost impossible to collect them all, just to work on the choreography, so they do their own homework and then present it on stage.”

The show aims to easily combine landmarks and sounds, so “it doesn’t look like the artist just does his own thing and the music plays in the background.”

“This must be a real fusion of music and performance,” Streltenov says.

In traditional symphonic spaces, there is often a “label” that members of the audience believe they should watch. But in this show, Streltski wants people to know that they can clap and “express their feelings.”

“Become strong,” he says.

As for what the life of the tour is, Streltenov says that he does not really call him a tour because the performers do not remain on the road.

“We’re joking around, saying it’s like it’s like working over the weekend,” he says. “We make performances on the weekends and then fly home and take our children to school, pay the bills and do homework, you know as normal people would do.”

But one of the creators of the show also had a brush with the law.

In 2017, William H. Allen, co-creator of the show, was sentenced to two years in prison after being found to have been a secret video of minor artists by hiding cameras in the smoke detectors of his rooms.

“It was a shock to everyone,” Streltov says. “None of us were aware of this.”

Streltenov says that since the first day he “has never been a big fan of the inclusion of the younger generation in production due to so many different aspects.”

The company is now avoiding hiring minor contractors to prevent something like this again.

“If we include someone in a minor program, we try to protect them and create a safe environment to present themselves in,” says Streltov.

He also sees the mixing of artistic origin as a way of helping to recruit younger generations in the symphony, an “ancient form of art.”

“Let us admit that nowadays symphonies have so much competition – games, sports events, rock concerts,” he says.

He adds that some audience members can only come to see the performers and not be so interested in classical music or the living orchestra.

But by exposing them to the living orchestra, he “hopes to be exposed to this world, and that attracts their attention.”

“They may be curious to return to the symphony and visit other projects that the symphony makes, and that’s why he brought the younger generation,” he says.

See Cirque de la Symphonie In action on Saturday, February 8th at 7:30 pm in the Rainolds audience, 301 N. Hawthorne Rd., Winston-Salem. Buy tickets hereS