David Burke — Own work · CC BY-SA 3.0
Empire (2012)
Empire is a contemporary circus (cirque-spectacle) production that opened in New York City on May 31, 2012, directed by Wayne Harrison and staged in a 440-seat Spiegeltent on West 45th Street under the Spiegelworld banner. It frames a variety bill of circus specialty acts inside a loose narrative device — an Impresario trying to rebuild his empire after the 2008 financial crisis — rather than a book musical or ballet plot, which is why it belongs in the cirque-spectacle catalogue rather than under theatrical dance genres proper.
What is danced
The article names six components of the bill: an act by Elena Lev, foot-juggling, roller-skaters, a quick-change routine, shoulder ballet, and German wheel. These are circus specialty disciplines rather than codified dance techniques, and the article gives no description of steps, partnering, or vocabulary beyond naming the acts — it does not describe how any of them move, only that they occur. Time Out New York's review calls the material 'physical feats and illusions that have been practiced for centuries,' which frames the show as a display of traditional variety skills rather than choreographed dance technique in the sense this catalogue usually tracks.
Because the source gives no movement detail — no holds, no floor patterns, no technique names beyond the act titles themselves — I cannot responsibly assign any of our theatrical, street, aerial or acro-dance codes to specific acts. Foot-juggling, shoulder ballet, German wheel and roller-skating are all recognised circus apparatus/skill categories, but none of them correspond to anything on the list offered for this genre (which centres on aerial rigs, pole, acro-dance, and dance-idiom codes), so I have logged them as taxonomy gaps rather than force-fitting a nearby aerial or acro code.
Context
Empire premiered as part of the early-2010s boom in Spiegeltent-based 'boutique' contemporary circus in North America and Australia, a scene distinct from large-arena Cirque du Soleil-style production and closer to cabaret and variety theatre in scale and venue. The Spiegelworld company, credited implicitly by the New York Times line quoted in the article ('Spiegelworld has made it the big time'), used Empire to move from smaller downtown engagements into a commercially prominent Theater District run, which the reviews frame as a turning point for that producer rather than for circus dance vocabulary itself.
Staging history
Empire opened in a purpose-built 440-seat Spiegeltent on West 45th Street in New York City on May 31, 2012, and ran there until September 2, 2012. It then began a 2013 Australian tour on January 4 at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney, in a larger 700-seat Spiegeltent, indicating the production was re-mounted rather than simply transferred, with a different capacity venue for the touring engagement.
How to watch it
Watch for the frame narrative of the Impresario stitching together otherwise unrelated specialty acts, a structuring device common to Spiegeltent-format shows rather than a danced plot. Attend to the apparatus and skill of each act on its own terms — German wheel rotation and balance, foot-juggling precision, the comic device of the quick-change routine — since the show is reviewed and described as a display of individual circus skills rather than an ensemble choreographic work.