Dance of Love/Love of Dance

photo by J.R. Delia

For most mortals, the dance of desire and ecstasy is performed privately, by invitation only, behind closed doors.

But those who attend Cirque du Soleil’s erotic show Zumanity are summoned into a sensual world of lithe, undulating bodies, astonishing flexibility, and luminous flesh — on stage, two shows a night, for 2,000 audience members.

It’s enough to leave one breathless.

But Sara Joel ’93 handles it in stride. The CC dance major began performing in a duet of her creation with Cirque in Las Vegas in February 2003.

“I love performing, having a direction for my energies,” said Joel. “I’m comfortable with the nature of the show. I’ve done nude art modeling before. But when I first began doing this show, my husband was not crazy about it. The costume is pretty small.”

And the duet is undeniably erotic. Blending “hand-to-hand” acrobatics with modern dance, and taking the principles of balance, counterbalance, and resistance to their extremes, the dancers’ bodies flow together seamlessly and sensually from one incredible pose to the next. Joel says she never trained in gymnastics, but that’s hard to believe when you see her, perfectly balanced, arms outstretched, thighs gripping her male partner’s upside-down torso. And she is no bulky circus strong lady, yet she effortlessly lifts and holds her partner aloft as easily as he does her.

Counterbalancing is deceiving, and contributes to the fantastical quality of the performance, she says. “If you do it right, it’s not as much work. When you try to muscle your way through, you get into trouble.”

The road to the most beautiful circus on earth was not easy, says Joel, who started dancing late in life — at 15. She began at CC as a psychology major, but hit a roadblock with calculus class. Since she was enjoying her dance classes and had nearly enough credits for a major, she went for it wholeheartedly. She traveled to Taiwan, where CC dancers led improvisation workshops for Taiwanese youth and she took ballet and modern dance classes.

After graduating, she moved to New York to pursue a career in dance — a decision for which she says she received essential support from CC dance professors Yun-yu Wang-Chen and Peggy Berg. Though she regularly danced and choreographed performances in New York, it was always necessary to hold part-time jobs to supplement her income. Repeated auditions with Cirque du Soleil didn’t gain her access to the celebrated circus, until one day in 2002 when she presented a video of her newly created duet.

“I had all but given up on Cirque. I figured, I’m 30, I’ve auditioned so many times, I’m probably not going to run off with the circus. And then it happened.”

Maintaining a long-distance marriage with her husband in New York is challenging, says Joel. But she’s thrilled with her achievement: having the good fortune to focus solely on dancing and choreography with no need for a part-time job, a rarity in the dance world.
“It’s kind of how I felt on the Block Plan; I like concentrating on doing one thing well without distraction.”

— Jennifer Kulier