Biloxi Show Imaginaya
Sensual circus
BILOXI — The first act of the new stage show “Imaginaya” ends with a tattooed and corpulent clown removing his top hat, slipping out of a shiny black jacket and gyrating with a large ring between his legs to the theme from “The Full Monty
The near-capacity crowd laughed and clapped for the pseudo-burlesque moves on a recent Saturday evening. The man in question, Ruslan Legostaeu, also yanked unsuspecting audience members into the spotlight, asking them to jump on his back, throw rings at a plunger stuck to his forehead and generally embarrass themselves. Many did so willingly.
While it was his only bit until the end of the show, it remained one of the most humorous aspects of the evening. “Imaginaya” (Russian for imagine) is more circus than theater with choreographed dance numbers sandwiched between others acts. It runs through June 24 in the renovated 1,550-seat theater situated within the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi.
The show, according to Beau Rivage spokeswoman Mary Cracchiolo, is the first long-running production to debut since the Beau Rivage Theatre completed renovations earlier this year. The venue was closed for more than a year after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the resort’s lower interior floors.
Created by Terry Burden, Beau Rivage’s vice president of entertainment, and Russian choreographer Alla Duhova, the show features performances by the Russian circus and Russian dance company Todes.
Duhova operates 32 dance schools and studios throughout Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, the Ukraine, and other countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. After tours through China and Monte Carlo, Todes will make the Beau Rivage Theatre home for its only United States appearance.
A counterpart of the Russian ballet, Todes mixes different styles of dancing, everything from hip-hop and jazz to classical and modern forms.
Most of the sets in “Imaginaya” included more than a dozen dancers performing to fast-paced music. Some of the numbers had the feel of 1980’s music videos when singers such as Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul would lead teams in choreographed performances. They tended to be formulaic, though well- executed. As in, if you’ve seen one modern dance number, you’ve seen six.
The 75-minute production features a cast of 52 Russian performers and includes trapeze, slinky and bungee acts, precision acrobatics, “sensual” dance routines and comedic interludes by some of Europe’s most recognized clowns and characters.
One act, performed by two men dressed like gladiators and a female gymnast, made the audience gasp more than once. The muscle-bound guys held either side of a bendable beam while the young woman maintained her balance while performing double and triple flips. Though there was no net and no harness she never slipped from the narrow beam.
Then, there was what we’ll refer to as the slinky performance, which was quite possibly the most original of the evening. Imagine four of the giant toys fused together then set to life.
People leaned forward in their seats, seemingly mesmerized by the colorful contraption. What most in the crowd didn’t know until the end was how many performers, if any, were inside the thing. Maybe they were using fans instead of the easily contorted to make the hulking galoot jiggle, shake and flip around the stage. It was compelling, puzzling fun. Turned out that instead of two or three performers only one man was wriggling around inside the slinky-like device. One of life’s great mysteries solved.
Source: CASANDRA ANDREWSĂ‚Â
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