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Definitely Not Disney: CirqueLouis Presents 'Pinocchio'

CirqueLouis

When you think of the story of “Pinocchio,” you probably imagine the 1940s Disney version: the mischievous, animated puppet who runs away from his woodcarver father, gets in trouble despite the warnings of Jiminy Cricket, and somewhere along the way, his nose grows when he tells a lie.

Now, if you take that story and add in aerial acts, hula hoops, jugglers and acrobats -- you’ve got a basic idea of CirqueLouis’ upcoming production of “Pinocchio.”

Christine Moondancer is CirqueLouis’ artistic director. She became involved in circus as a performing art form when she enrolled her children at Turner’s Circus, a gym on River Road.

“And then there was a group of us that were really passionate and committed to take this art form out of the gym and out into the community,” Moondancer says. “Really give it its due and put it in its place in the cultural arts sector of Louisville.”

In order to do that, CirqueLouis began putting on full cast productions -- think more Cirque de Soleil than Barnum and Bailey.

“This being a story circus, I like to have a full cast with all our different age groups,” Moondancer says. “We actually have a children’s cast that will actually be performing some things like acro-stunts and even an aerial act, and it goes all the way up to our professional performers.”

According to Moondancer, having such a dynamic cast lends to a more complete telling of the original “Pinocchio” story.

“This is a story written in 1883 by Carlo Collodi and it’s really considered one of the three most influential books ever written in Italian,” she says. “I was really excited to choose a story that I could bring out the full nature of it within our production.”

CirqueLouis’ production of “Pinocchio” will take place on December 9 at the Kentucky Center’s Bombard Theatre. More information is available here.