Family lives on the edge

Talk about living dangerously.

In our computerized world where most of people sit on their butts to earn a living, the Carabinier-Lepine family is an oddity. They juggle axes, jump through saw blades and balance on rolling logs.

As founders of Cirque Alfonse, their lumberjack spectacle is in big demand internationally. Timber! has played to audiences in Asia, Australia, Europe and across Canada. They were even awarded a month-long contract at Dollywood Family Amusement Park deep in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Cirque Alfonse’s Timber! rolls into the Arden Theatre for an evening of breath-taking fun March 9.

Antoine Carabinier-Lepine, his sister Julie and her husband Jonathan Casaubon established Cirque Alfonse in 2005. The siblings practised their tricks in the family barn in the Quebec village of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, about a 90-minute drive north of Montreal.

For Antoine and Julie there was a need to cherish the past and relive the spirited evenings of their innocent childhood filled with traditional music for jigs, tap-dancing and playing with spoons.

“We wanted to do a show in honour of our roots. We come from a small village in the woods and it is in honour of our ancestors that we created Timber!,” said Julie Carabinier Lepine.

Although artists in their own right, the siblings had grown up in a forested area chopping wood for their parents’ fireplace in winter. The area was known for its logging traditions, and their perspective on chopping wood was different from most adolescents their age.

For Antoine, a circus performer that excelled on the German Wheel, acrobatics and juggling, and Julie, a modern contemporary dance interpreter, it was natural to blend their techniques from dance and circus with the picturesque history of Quebec’s traditional folklore.

“We did the creation of the show on our family farm and were inspired by everything around us to turn it into circus props. In addition to being a true family show, it led us to create a show that is real. Everything is real in the spectacle – real saws and axes, and real risks. Finally, traditional music is very present … and brings us back to our Quebec folklore,” said Julie.

The young team of circus artists, performing some very dicey stunts, is a mixed bag starting with three acrobats, a dancer and three musicians.

Julie Carabinier-Lepine’s four-year-old son Arthur Casaubon has also performed in 300 Timber! performances and her one-year-old son Jules is also part of the show.

Also, in this three-generational family circus, the bearded patriarch, Alain, acts, dances and sings with the energy of a man half his age.

Julie explains that Timber! is built around the grandfather spinning a yarn for the children.

“This is not a story, but rather a representation of lumberjack camps through circus acts, traditional music and characters that are inter-related.”

The plaid-shirted performers hope that their audiences, especially the younger generations, will learn a bit about the lost art of logging and Quebec traditions.

“They (audiences) will see a touching show that is totally different from other traditional circus shows – a true family from one to 70 years.”