A different type of circus: Electronica blends acrobatics with club music

Dan and Ben Talmi were just kids when their parents started bringing the Moscow Ballet to this country.

“That’s our main line of business,” Dan Talmi said. “Every year we do about 100 shows in 80 markets, including Canada. It’s become this national phenomena.”

The younger Talmis wouldn’t mind if their own production, Circus Electronica, catches on in similar fashion. A mix of aerial and ground acrobatics set to electronic dance music, it comes to the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday as part of an 11-stop tour.

“The way we’ve been describing it is Cirque du Soleil meets Electric Daisy Carnival, which is the largest electronic dance festival in the country,” he said.

Talmi said it’s also “the first touring electronic dance music circus act. This is the incubator. So we’re really happy to be on the cutting edge of that.”

Electronic dance music (often known as EDM or club music) is usually produced by nightclub DJs mixing samples of previously recorded songs, with a heavy emphasis on staccato rhythms and a throbbing bass line.

Ben Talmi created the score for Circus Electronica in his Brooklyn studio, while older brother Dan came up with the story line and is the show’s producer.

The Talmis, who are in their 20s and grew up on the East Coast, have plenty of showbiz in their blood. In addition to their Juilliard-trained parents, one grandmother traveled with a circus in Russia.

There’s no dialogue in Circus Electronica, but the show’s plot follows a female character named Oni who wakes up to realize she has been transported to a world inside a machine. With a DJ serving as musical master of ceremonies, Oni’s encounters with characters such as the Arbiter and RAM make her ask what it means to be human.

“It’s some heady stuff,” Dan Talmi said. “It’s like ‘The Matrix.’ I love it.”

The action takes place both on and above the stage, with up to 10 characters interacting at any one time. Most of the performers were recruited from the “incredible Los Angeles-Las Vegas core of acrobatic talent,” Talmi said.

Talmi said the genre-blending nature of electronic dance music made it the perfect background for a story about the connection between man and machine.

But there are a few old-fashioned touches as well, such as a subplot involving star-crossed lovers (“Why reinvent the wheel?”). At one point, brother Ben Talmi comes on stage to deliver a “Jimi Hendrix-style electric guitar solo. It really adds a dynamic that is quite unique.”

The show mainly attracts “young millennials” (several college stops are on the tour), but Dan Talmi said a few “young boomers are showing up,” too.

Talmi doesn’t even mind giving away the ending: In a moment of “electronic singularity,” the human and artificial intelligence merge.

Talmi said it’s obvious that such a development is possible in the future.

“The jury’s still out on whether this is a positive thing,” he said. “This is just asking the question.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2014 at 7:36 AM with the headline "A different type of circus: Electronica blends acrobatics with club music."