The time for Millennium Dome-bashing may be long past, but it is hard not to make comparisons between that old white elephant and the magical experience offered by French circus company Les Arts Sauts in Kayassine. The troupe perform in a temporary theatre that is essentially a giant inflated bubble, looming dramatically among the trees in Victoria Park. And the show itself - 12 aerial acrobats accompanied by a band of bravely flying musicians - boasts a level of style, imagination and expertise that leaves memories of the Millennium Dome performance floorbound.
The tactic of seating all of the audience (800 per show) in reclining deck chairs is as smart as it is comfortable. We are drifting into a state of receptive dreaminess even before the show begins, and are thus perfectly primed for the long opening section, which feels like a free floating fantasy. Semi-lit figures hover high in the space, suspended via ropes and harnesses from crane-like supports, occasional bodies swoop over our heads and whispered chants and drones suggests the chattering of ancestral voices. Just as some of the kids start to get restive the cranes light up like a space ship and crank smoothly upwards, the safety net appears and the performers break from the shadows into the full glare of their brilliant techniques.
There may not be many moves within the basic trapeze vocabulary, but Les Arts Sauts manage to ring so many dazzling changes that we are kept gasping and guessing for the rest of the show. As the performers hurl themselves across vertiginously empty space, swung precariously from trapezes into the grasp of flying pairs of hands, they embroider their moves with multiple somersaults and barrelling turns that tease and trick the eye. They fly in pairs, graceful as swallows, or flock like starlings, with as many as a dozen bodies arcing through space at once.
What is endearing as well as impressive about this company is that all of its performers reveal very individual styles and personalities. Dressed like grunge versions of commedia dell'arte characters, some of them turn out to be comics (deliberately fluffing moves to make our stomachs churn), some are poets and some are virtuoso show-offs. And when they finally take their bows - each one skydiving down into the safety net in their own distinctive ways - the audience greet them like favourites. We feel almost as thrilled by their success as if they were family, and almost as relieved by their safe arrival back to the ground.
· Until August 11. Box office: 020-7638 8891.
