Chapter 21: Les Chansons de la Forêt

"I just can't get through to them. The tricks are amazing, but without movement to tie them together, it just doesn't look right. I don't want them just to run from spot to spot, I want to see purposeful movement, movement that tells the story. I want dance."

Les Chansons de la Forêt was written in less than three months. Wolfgang and James worked tirelessly – reworking lyrics in French, Spanish, Italian, and English (what Wolfgang considered to be the best "singing" languages) during every spare moment. Kurt had even given up his seat in Wolfgang's truck so the two of them could use the drive time to write. By the time the circus was getting ready to camp for the winter (near Barcelona once again) they were ready to start choreographing and rehearsing.

James was absolutely thrilled with the band. After Wolfgang had contacted him in the states, he'd gone to the library and listened to every bit of gypsy music he could get his hands on. Circus Gehlhaar had a tight band, mainly Rom, from every corner of Europe. He filled their sound out with kit drummer, electric guitar and bass, and his own keyboards. The result was a brilliant gumbo of jazz rock flavored with the spices of old Europe.

He'd solved the complexity of following the performers by composing much of the background music as a series of repeating passages called "vamps" – a technique used in musicals for set changes. As bandleader James was responsible for watching the performance and directing the rest of the band accordingly. He'd also been careful to build in pauses in the music for applause and the ability to add various "hits" to punctuate the various tricks as they were performed.

Three singers had been hired, a man with a lovely tenor/baritone voice to sing as the "Rom Baro" or Gypsy King, a young woman with a wispy soprano to represent Petra's character, and a second woman with a more mature voice to act as a more general narrator. The singers as well as the band, would be outfitted with costumes and would perform out in the open in the ring with everybody else.

Wolfgang wanted the show to be seamless – to create a world in the hearts and minds of the audience and for the next 90 minutes never give them an excuse to leave it. Instead of using the roustabouts to carry props on and off stage, the performers themselves would. And since it was a story being told, the delineations between each act would be blurred with many of the performers onstage whether they were in the spotlight or not.

Writing the show was a balancing act in and of itself. It needed to be written around the various performers skills, to fit them into the story, but that couldn't be done until there was some structure to the story itself. And so they worked, as though they were placing bricks into the foundation that would become a great hall; the whole time knowing that even when they'd put the last mark on the paper, the real work had yet to begin.

By the time they reached Albania they had their outline – every lyric and every note ready for the performers to make it breathe and live.

Kurt was used to long hours of practice, particularly during the winter times, however this winter would be an even greater challenge for him. As the shows main characters he, Lars, Petra, and Gretchen would be on stage in some way or another for nearly the entire show. Each of them had a solo and they were additionally featured in several other numbers.

The addition of the Wollenck family at last made it possible to do a proper routine with the Russian bars. Though they were not acrobats of the same league as Lycka på Himmelen, they were very good and already adept at landing on even narrower beams than the bars. It didn't take long for Sven and Papa to train a new group of porters and flyers to fill out their act.

Gretchen was working on a very long hand balancing contortion routine for her solo and Petra was planning on a solo on silks. She had to work Kurt into the end somehow and the two of them were still experimenting. Kurt's solo which would open the show would be on the flying trapeze. He was a little nervous since solo flying trapeze acts had a tendency to be somewhat dull. He didn't want to put the audience to sleep before the show had even had a chance to begin.

The only one who couldn't decide what he wanted to do was Lars. Another trapeze solo would have been redundant and while he was working on straps and silks with Petra, he didn't feel like he was ready to do either. In the end he decided that rather than do a solo, he would be one of the "showcase" performers in the group trapeze act, the tumbling act, and the Russian bars.

Wolfgang over saw the whole operation, making sure that practice schedules didn't clash and that everyone got the time they needed with the equipment. He flew to New York with James to audition the new rhythm section. It was a strange feeling; he'd never felt so competent. Suddenly everyone was asking him for direction and for the first time in his life he knew all the answers. It was like he'd already seen Les Chansons de la Forêt in performance and he was just giving everybody instructions on how to replicate it.

James had commented early in the writing process that the forest didn't hold enough danger. In fact, he had said, the forest didn't appear to have anything in it but Kurt. Wolfgang agreed, but was concerned that they wouldn't have enough performers to have both a gypsy caravan and a forest stocked full of creatures. Sven pointed out that you could have people playing more than one character and that was how he became the leader of the wolf pack. With the same core group playing both forest creatures and gypsies, it was now a problem for their costume designer.

With the addition of forest creatures to the story, a whole new set of opportunities opened up for more unorthodox performances and Wolfgang could finally give Christian Alexander's act the attention it deserved. Christian had been the only American member of the circus before James showed up and he was still quite new. He was from California and had majored in German language at UC Berkeley only to discover upon graduation that just about the only work he was qualified for was as a translator. So Christian had instead indulged his passion for the so called "extreme sports".

Since high school he had competed locally on both his skateboard and his BMX bike. For skating he stuck to the street course, but on his bike he did both halfpipe and street events. After college Christian decided to go pro full time. He competed in 2 summer X-Games and gained sponsorship interest but since he wasn't winning, that interest faded. So Christian went to Germany.

His plan was uncertain. Maybe translator jobs were more interesting in Germany, or perhaps the BMX bike scene was in need of a new American competitor. When Christian found nothing to his liking, he became a street performer.

Christian's performances went beyond just a series of bike and skateboard tricks. He cracked jokes, invited the audience to participate, and juggled pins while balanced precariously on a single wheel of his bike. He made friends with the local artists and on his days off worked with metal sculptor to weld together fantastic new bicycle creations. His act became so popular that he even made it into some of the tourist maps for the city of Berlin. In short he was a one-man circus.

On a solo trip to Berlin Wolfgang saw Christian perform and approached him right away. Christian was a natural clown, playing off the audience with an amazingly quick wit, allowing them to laugh not so much at him, but with him and at themselves as well. His repartee was so quick in fact that Wolfgang was shocked to find out that German was not Christian's native language. Plus, his homemade bikes were marvelous. He knew Franz Gehlhaar hadn't given him permission to recruit performers, but there was no way he was going to pass up the chance to have Christian join their circus.

Christian had loved the idea and even though his wages as a street performer were higher, he joined up with Circus Gehlhaar and became the chief form of entertainment before the show and during equipment changes, the closest thing they had ever had to a clown. As Christian's act was fueled by audience interaction, he ate it up. He loved hoping his bike up the aisles and into the stands so he could jump off to toy with the audience. In fact Wolfgang imagined that Christian was exactly like what Kurt would have been if he had been born blonde haired and blue eyed. The two of them got along famously of course and their impromptu collaborations were some of the most hysterical bits of the show.

But in Les Chansons as it became known, Christian's days of hamming for the crowd and pretending to run over Kurt's tail were over. He would finally get a chance to take the spotlight in an act that focused on his pure athleticism and balance; he was going to take extreme sports to a new level by turning it into art.

Rehearsals were going smoothly. As expected Laurentiu's tightrope walkers adapted immediately to the Russian Bars and Wolfgang could see that that act was going to be one of the show's highlights. They'd brought out the giant trampoline again, but this time used it without the trapeze. Sven and Nils who had been former Olympic athletes before returning to circus life could get some amazing height from a trampoline take off, enough to do four somersaults. Annika and the three other Olsson women were planning on an aerial hoops act that was just breathtaking.

The roustabouts finally became more than simply equipment movers and rope handlers. Wolfgang discovered a number of innovative carpenters and builders in their ranks; some of their families went as far back in the circus as many of the performers' did. They built a large platform that sat suspended near the tent's apex. It had several trap doors allowing performers to make entrances and exits into the ceiling. It also provided the main framework for many of their props such as the trapeze and silks rigs.

There was only one problem and that was the choreography. As much as Wolfgang respected the work of Papa and the others, they were acrobats, not artists. They were coming up with some amazing things, but their focus was on amplitude and complexity, not art.

"I just can't get through to them." Wolfgang complained to James. "Even Kurt who usually listens to me. The tricks are amazing, but without movement to tie them together, it just doesn't look right. I don't want them just to run from spot to spot, I want to see purposeful movement, movement that tells the story. I want dance."

"So you need a choreographer who's a dancer and can teach them that it's not all about incredible death defying stunts, is that it?" James asked.

"That's it." Wolfgang said.

"You mean a choreographer like my girlfriend?"

Wolfgang's eyes opened up wide. Brin! Why hadn't he thought of that? He gave James a giant bear hug of gratitude and ran off to make arrangements to bring Brin to Spain. It was perfect. James would have his girlfriend and the circus would have their dancer. Things couldn't be falling into place more beautifully he thought, especially since Maria would be joining them as well.

Dear Brin,

Did I ever tell you that Wolfgang is a certified genius? No? Okay, it's true, I've only ever said he was a certified maniac. But today I realize how wrong I was because he has seen it fit to hire a choreographer for the show. The best, most skilled, and most lovely modern dance choreographer in New York. (That would be you honey.)

I'm sure Wolfgang will contact you more formally with a contract like when he hired me, but I was too excited not to write you. I know you have your contract with the Civic Dance Theater to fulfill, but that's only for another few weeks right? I have no idea what choreographing a circus involves, but it can't be any weirder or harder than writing the music. Please take the job. Please. Please. Please. (add about a thousand more pleases, I'm running out of room on this postcard.)

Traveling around Europe is amazing, but it would be so much more so with you.

I love you,

James