Circus artist Gypsy Snider is familiar with the circus arts. At age 4, she began performing in the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco with its founders, her mother Peggy Snider and stepfather Larry Pisoni. Since then, she has studied theater and circus arts at the world-famous Teatro Dimitri in Verscio, Switzerland, and has enjoyed a full career as a performing artist in a variety of circus companies, including the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil. The Spark episode “All in the Family” follows Snider as she mounts a performance with her new troupe at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.
Snider has recently joined forces with six other passionate and talented artists to create Les Sept Doigts de la Main (the seven fingers of the hand), a Montreal-based company that tours internationally. All seven members were at the height of their careers, performing with Cirque du Soleil, when they decided to leave the big arena for a smaller company dedicated to a new kind of circus performance.
The concept behind Les Sept Doigts’ work is to create a show that combines the wonder of circus performance with the reality of people’s everyday lives. The show presents the performers as seven real people interacting with each other, learning to live together, and entertaining one another. The set resembles a simple, inner-city apartment and the performers are costumed in just T-shirts and long underwear, and they use minimal makeup.
Without elaborate sets and costumes to distract them, audience members are able to focus on the virtuoso performances of the players. By incorporating juggling, aerial acts, clowning, contortion and hand balancing into their interactions, performers are able to play off the individual strengths and talents of each other, transforming real-life situations into something fantastic.
Just as the circus was inseparable from her childhood family life, the adult Snider also integrates family and performance. She is married to Patrick Leonard, a classically trained performer and fellow member of Les Sept Doigts, and together they are raising their young daughter, Laska, within the collective. Laska goes on the road with her parents, but has not been put in the show. Although Laska is surrounded by circus performers and is learning acrobatics, Snider wants her daughter to make her own decisions about her future.
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