Review Roundup: TRACES

TRACES, the acclaimed show by the Montreal-based troupe 7 Fingers, is currently playing New York's Union Square Theatre (100 East 17th Street). TRACES began previews Friday, July 29 with an official opening Monday night, August 8.

If the world ended tomorrow, what would you leave behind? In TRACES, the human body is pushed to its limits as a group of friends leave their mark in a run-down warehouse through acrobatics, music, and dance. Fusing the traditions of circus with the energy of street performance, TRACES is an explosive display of raw emotion and physicality in an intimate urban setting. When it counts, will you leave it all on the stage?

Ben Brantley, NY Times: In the midst of this slow, soggy shuffle we call August in New York, when lifting one foot (and another) off the sidewalk feels like a Herculean effort, it is hard to believe in those more typical, energized Manhattan months, when the city has a spring in its step. But if you're looking for a pre-Labor Day fix of pure urban adrenaline, I can introduce you to this dealer on Union Square. Or seven dealers, to be precise, known to their customers as Les 7 Doigts de la Main (or 7 Fingers). These people have more natural spring than a taut trampoline.

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "Traces" finds its groove in the circus vignettes. Everyone in the cast is adept at everything, but each gets shot to showcase their speciality: Hand-balancing for Zumkehr; juggling and tumbling for Zhengqi; becoming a human spinning top for Henderson, and high-flying flips for Normand-Jenny, a cross between Hugh Jackman and Mark Ruffalo, who adds sizzle to the proceedings.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press: The 90-minute hip-hop-flavored show mixes high-risk acrobatics, music and dance with the thrill of street performance. The seven-member ensemble goes from traditional eye-popping stunts such as spinning inside a 6-foot whirling ring to leaping through hoops to whipping around a basketball to doing skateboard tricks. 

Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg: It's terrific: Ninety minutes of high-impact flying through the air, often in what seemed like slo-mo. Add to that, feats of strength notable for the grace and beauty of their execution and a memorably intimate yet innuendo-free duet. I am constitutionally immune to circuses masquerading as art. The provenance of "Traces," which is running at New York's Union Square Theatre, only increased my skepticism. It's the work of Les 7 Doigts de la Main/7 Fingers, a Montreal-based troupe.

Frank Scheck, NY Post: 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."

Photo Credit: Michael Meseke