Move over, Lindsay Lohan. Step aside, Nicole Ritchie. Big is beautiful, at least according to Big Moves.
Big Moves is a primarily plus size dance troupe, with branches in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Montreal. Big Moves features dancers ranging from size 4 to size 28, and age 26 to 54. If that thought scares you, you should see one of their shows for yourself. Though not as slender or as young as the dancers that usually frequent the stage, Big Moves’ performers have two things that can’t be acquired through dieting: talent and confidence.
Their newest show in Boston, “The Big Top”, is a light-hearted parody of the traditional Ringling Brothers circus show. Though most of the frills we’ve come to expect at a traditional circus are absent from the show, it’s an inventive and amusing take on an old classic. This is evident from the second the dancers first step on stage for the opening number, a scene set to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ hit “Freefallin.” The beautifully choreographed contemporary routine introduces us to Becky, a young girl trying to make it in the big bad city who is quickly seduced by the lure of the circus stage.
Sound hokey? It is. But that is the beauty of Big Moves, they refuse to take themselves too seriously. Whereas the traditional circus has high flying acrobats, and live animals (lions, tigers and bears, oh my!), Big Moves supplements these extravagant (and pricey) options with vaudevillian slapstick gags and elegant body movement. And they even manage to include their own “lions,” three beautiful women in face paint and cat suits, gracefully prowling around their brave lion tamer.
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