If you’ve ever thought about running away to join the circus, if only for one special night, you might consider San Francisco’s Vau de Vire Society.
Born of the city’s dance and circus subcultures, Vau de Vire has delighted local audiences for 18 years with remarkable performances bringing together acrobats, aerial artists, classically trained dancers, contortionists, fire-performers, and go-go dancers. Always playful, always fun — and always sexy — Vau de Vire nurtures a unique relationship with its audiences, insisting that “all layers of pretension” be “discarded at the door” to “shatter the wall between audience and performer.”
The highpoint of Vau De Vire’s season is the annual Edwardian Ball, where audiences mingle with performers in an elegantly decadent tribute to the Edwardian era of the early 20th century, inspired by the writings and illustrations of cult favorite Edward Gorey.
On a different and all-too distressingly familiar note, the Vau de Vire Society reports that the former Inner Mission warehouse and community center where they’ve rehearsed for seven years has been sold to a developer who plans to raze the block and build apartments. Vau de Vire director Mike Gaines believes the troupe will survive the changes sweeping San Francisco’s formerly artist-friendly neighborhoods, but wonders if the city, its leaders and its developers retain a true desire to support and preserve arts organizations like his.
