MYSTIC FAMILY CIRCUS produces its own events and educational workshops and can also be made available for your event, workshop, festival, school, concert, parade or retreat in any form you desire. We can cast for as small as one and as large as 400. Our offerings consist of four main categories:
- Music! Side Acts! Wandering Characters! and Parades!!
- Ritual Circus/Theatre Performance
- Event Production
- Workshops
A Circus of Four Varieties...
1) Music! Side Acts! Wandering Characters! and Parades!!
A multicultural blend of side acts and adventure to infuse audiences into a state of harmony. Themes and concepts revolve around promoting messages of peace and elevating consciousness. Performances can also combine themes and messages from your event. A sampling of types of acts is listed below:
• WANDERING CHARACTERS: bringing color, life and magic to events, our wandering characters include stilt walkers, fire dancers, huge puppets, multi-ethnic dancers, minstrels, acrobats, contortionists, jugglers, poets, & jesters who circulate the crowd infusing them with wonder & delight.
• THEMED CHARACTERS: Many different themed characters available including blue-moon dolls, fairies, Victorian ladies, ancestral tribal spirits, bird tribe, Asian temple fusion, gold rush era, vaudevillian characters, stilting marionettes, animal creatures (peacocks, tigers, ladybugs, etc.) and many more. New characters constantly developed as we create fresh themes to fit your event.
• INTERACTIVE PARADING: Our colorful and cohesive parades (costumed according to the theme of your event) include wandering characters and amazing musicians who heighten the crowd's energy, celebrate diversity, and help bring focus to a specific time, place and intention. We love to include the kids on this one!
• FIRE! Mystic Family Circus includes the top fire acts in the Bay Area. From fiery fairies, gypsy bellydancers, and flaming ballerinas to combustible superheroes, the foremost fire acts burn about our edges! Safety trained, permitted and hot!*
• TRAPEZE: graceful aerial artists skillfully raise our spirits as they dance high above; multiple acts available, static trap, two girl teams, & breathtaking birds!*
• ODDVILLIAN SIDESHOW: modern Vaudeville act complete with humor and lots of freaky tricks including sword swallowing, nose nailing, contact juggling, bed of nails, etc…
• DANCERS: Mystic Family Circus takes traditional dance forms to new levels with our twist on characters and multi-cultural fusion. From solo to group performances, dancing styles range from bellydance, flamenco, Persian, North African, Turkish, and Balinese dance to capoeria or break dancers.
• TAI CHI/YOGA PERFORMANCE: a synchronized troupe that elegantly combines Chinese martial arts and yoga poses with dance choreography.
• PEACE DANCE: a meditative dance/acrobatic troupe in the modern style, sure to fill your heart with love and your mind with clarity.
• BIRD CHOIR: Our chorus of beautiful winged creatures shower audiences with surreal magic, and hauntingly beautiful harmonies. Stilt version and ground version.
• JESTER BRIGADE: Generally and deeply clowning around, these performers will either teach you something new about the world or just make you laugh; includes juggling, acrobatics, and advanced mischievous mingling tactics – great characters for cocktail parties (not your typical clowns).
• PUPPET SHOWS: Puppets of all kinds and sizes, from hand puppets and humanettes to larger than life puppets and stilt-walking marionettes. Great for kids and adults. Storylines change per season.
• MUSIC: a fantastical choice of top DJ’s, live bands, mc’s and vocalists of all different styles.
2) Interactive Ritual Performance
The heart of our circus is the sharing of our ritual theater performances that range from half-hour pieces to two-hour journeys. Storylines merge prophecies and tales of the ancients with a modern day twist to help us take these timeless understandings into our own lives. The crowd is invited into the spectacle and beyond it to the universal threads on the storytellers loom.
Performances are accompanied by live musicians, singers, multi-cultural dancers, clowning, fire (or not), stiltwalkers, acrobats, aerialists, contortionists and all sorts of magical creatures!
New performances developed for specific clients on an ongoing basis. Past and current performances include:
• The BANTU Story - A creation myth telling the tale of how warring tribes stopped fighting and banded together to form a new tribe based on all cultures. The performance showcased brilliant fire and dance acts, singing and eclectic instrumentation, and a story told by a Bantu elder.
• The Yambo Yate Odyssey - A hero's journey based on an old Bantu myth where Yambo Yate faces three key challenges and learns to trust in his heart and in love, not violence. This was our largest production featuring 100 performers through a 2 hour performance that included fire, trapeze, modern and East Indian dance, capoera, Butoh, tai chi, stilting, a choir, djs and live music.
• Freedom's Song - A story about our individual struggles to break out of the machine and find liberation through connection to the natural elements. "Freedom's Song" is a musical with all-original music and script, featuring musicians and singers on stilts.
• Peter Plan B - An adaptation to the classic story, with all new psychological characterization of the original characters. Peter Pan only appears as a shadow (the show contains beautiful, eerie shadow puppetry throughout by one of the bay areas best shadow puppeteers), Wendy turns black vinyl dominatrix, and Captain Hook enslaves the lost boys to follow his will of Neverland domination as a present day corporate criminal.
This circus isn't just spectacles! We are experts in all areas of event production. Revamp your event with any of our offerins listed below...
• HEALING ARTS: Tai chi and yoga teachers, massage practitioners, tarot readers, and other types of healing arts practitioners to help people relax and heal.
• KIDLANDIA: A unique colorful interactive kids village that includes puppet shows, jungle gyms, slides, face painting, crafts, mini kid’s stage and more. Teach your children the value of diversity and a healthy planet. It’s for the kids, but it’s not just for kids!
• LOVE FAMILY KITCHEN: A catering circus cooking up and serving an array of gourmet organic vegan treats.
• SACRED SPACE ALTARS AND VIDEO PROJECTIONS: We specialize in creating sacred space through our altar creations, interactive installations, video mixing, lighting designers/ technicians, and banner artists.
• CROWD CONVERSION: On-site “be-zarre salon”: A luscious crew of image designers, including face painters, costume experts, and body paint artists available to help manifest your crowd into a more sparked circus version of themselves.
The Mystic Family Circus produces workshops that help foster creativity, peace and harmonious living. Sample workshop topics include diversity training, sustainable living, ritual theater, and a wide variety of performance skills.
In a safe and playful environment, attendees are encouraged to experience and integrate new concepts into their own lives. Versions of our workshops can be shaped to perfectly suite kids, teens, and adults.
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for more details on our education offerings.
Music! Side Acts! Characters! Parades!!
Interactive Ritual Performance