A BHS graduate returns with a new troupe, a new show.
Vincent Palazzolo’s life has been more than a little like a three-ring circus.
Palazzolo produced his first show, “This is Now,” in 2005 during his senior year at Bainbridge High School. The production opened at Bainbridge Performing Arts and traveled to Seattle’s Moore Theater.
Now he returns with a constellation of world-class talent in tow, performers who transform the BPA stage into a kinetic wonderland this week for “Toys and Dreams.”
“We have dancers, circus performers and aerial gymnasts,” he said. “I’ve got a really great team here.”
Palazzolo’s young company, Antithesis Productions, features veterans of Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Eloize, Diavolo, Circo Zero and the Vertigo Aerial Acrobatics Posse. The group includes gold medal-winning Olympic gymnasts and performers who have trained at Montreal’s Ecole Nacionale Du Cirque in Montreal, Canada, and the San Francisco School of Circus Arts.
Palazzolo is both producer and performer, sharing the arrangements with aerial choreographer Benn Mendoza.
The stage has drawn Palazzolo since the ballet “The Nutcracker” came to his second-grade Wilkes classroom. By ninth grade, he was acting in BHS productions, and dancing with local dance group the Swingin’ Hepcats.
“As far back as I can remember, whenever something like that happened, I wanted to be involved,” Palazzolo said.” My dad didn’t understand. It wasn’t something boys did.”
Palazzolo was also attracted to the aerial arts – gymnastics merged with traditional circus the high wire and trapeze-based performance – that was becoming prominent through Cirque de Soleil.
“They brought investors in, and they figured out the demographics,” he said. “They own Las Vegas now. It’s hard to find a show that doesn’t have their influence.”
But where Cirque du Soleil expanded, Palazzolo wants to stay select and small.
“They went for quantity,” he said. “We want to emphasize quality.”
“Quality” means not only a high level of entertainment, but creating a bond among the performers so that the group resembles a big extended family. That culture of trust is the best guarantee of enhanced creativity and top-flight performance, Palazzolo believes.
“That’s the beauty of this first piece,” he said. “Essentially we’re a family. Everyone here has a history with the people putting it together.”
Mendoza helped Palazzolo form the eight-person team that is the nucleus of Antithesis Productions. The Los Angeles-based group, with members who hail from locales as far-flung as Australia, Los Vegas and Montreal, are friends who have looked for a chance to work together on a project.
While trying to cajole investors when he himself is not yet 21 can be a challenge, Palazzolo says he has been encouraged by people who believe in what he is doing.
The theme of the Bainbridge show, elaborating on a young girl’s dream, is something of a tribute to the dream sequences of Tchaikovsky’s ballet that first inspired Palazzolo as an elementary student. Using a dream as a frame for the show makes it easy for audiences to identify with the material, Palazzolo believes, because “everyone dreams, and in the dream state, everyone can be creative.”
The presentation brings Palazzolo full circle. He’s wanted to bring the show home to Bainbridge as a thank-you to the place where he got his own start.
“I hope, and at the same time, I know, that there’s a kid out there looking to be inspired,” he said. “Maybe they don’t have the best family life, maybe they don’t have a lot of money or opportunity. But when that kid finds the place to express himself, it’s not so easy to be pushed down.”
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Toy box
“Toys and Dreams” appears 7:30 p.m. March 15-17 at Bainbridge Performing Arts, with a 3 p.m. matinee March 17 and a special pay-as-you-can performance for opening night. Tickets are $40, available at BPA. Call (323) 509-8559 or email vinneypalazzolo@hotmail.com, or see www.myspace.com/toysanddreams.
