It May Be a Less Lofty ‘Cirque,’ but the Impressive Acrobatics Still Soar

Ethereal music announces the circus performers’ entrance. But to reach the spotlight, they must fight their way through a thicket of fantasy creatures that look, variously, like escapees from Mummenschanz, “The Lion King,” a Mardi Gras parade and Cirque du Soleil.

If the performers are lucky, the creatures will skitter away once the daring feats begin. The unlucky ones find themselves in a contest for the audience’s attention.

Welcome to “Neil Goldberg’s Cirque,” where a number of things seem off during the current visit.

First there’s the name. When this touring circus visited the Southland in 1998 and ‘99, it went by the more exotic-sounding “Cirque Ingenieux.” Now it carries the clunky, pedestrian title that incorporates its creator’s name.

Then there’s the packaging. Last time, the show boasted music and scenic designs by a couple of big names: Kitaro and Jerome Sirlin, respectively. It also used a story line to tie together its unrelated circus acts. This time: goodbye big names, farewell story line.

What remains, fortunately, is a fairly impressive collection of acts from around the world--and that’s enough to make it a hot ticket among parents looking to entertain their kids between the holidays. Performances continue through Sunday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

Goldberg takes full credit for creating, directing and choreographing this edition of the show, which is held together only by a hapless clown’s ongoing attempts to impress a dubious cleaning lady (played by Jonathan Baker and Debbie Dean, respectively). These shenanigans wear thin quickly, but just in time, the acrobats and aerialists are finally given their moment in the spotlight.

Particularly impressive are contortionists Indra and Solongo Tsogtbaatar, a nearly matched set of Mongolian women who mirror each other’s moves as one balances atop the other, twisting into impossibly bent and filigreed shapes.

On a stationary trapeze, Canadians Elise Barbeau and Veronique Rivet perform a similarly artful mirroring act while one dangles from the other’s legs.

For male physical grace, there is Canadian Jean Chiasson, a strapping, bare-chested guy who strides onto the stage looking like a Roman statue come to life. Wrapping his arms into dangling swaths of diaphanous white fabric, he takes a running start and then goes aloft, soaring in circles with the material billowing behind him like an angel’s wings.

And, for poetry in physical form, there is the Russian Victor Dodonov, who constructs a multitiered chandelier of cut-crystal stemware and glass shelves--all balanced on the upturned bridge of his nose. In the second act, he flips the routine around, so he’s balancing himself atop an unsteady tower of metal pipes and rings.

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“Neil Goldberg’s Cirque,” Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. Today and Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. $35-$45; children 12 and younger, $20. (800) 300-4345 or (562) 916-8500. Running time: 2 hours, 4 minutes.