Cirque de Petrouchka

James Sewell Ballet company members climb and swing on long silks, an acrobat’s square perch, and a harness hanging from the studio’s high ceiling. Auditions for Cirque du Soleil? No—these gleeful and thrilling experiments are rehearsal for choreographer Sally Rousse’s new Petrouchka.

Why Petrouchka? Rousse was looking for a well-known ballet that the small company could tackle. But the original Petrouchka is a grim little sketch, a fable of a sad puppet who dies a real death.

“It’s very creepy,” says Rousse. “I’m attracted and repelled.” But, she adds, “I have my own modern-day take on it.” She’s interested in the carnival atmosphere that surrounds the action and how the ballet crosses lines between art and life, fake and real.

That’s where the circus equipment comes in. Rousse likes the metaphor of it, the artificial freedom offered by a harness, for example, in which a dancer can fly out but must swing back, in which every flight precedes a fall. Rousse’s Petrouchka at the Southern won’t be all circus—she loves classical ballet too—but look for her to break the rules in her retelling. “This story is messed up,” she explains, therefore the dance “needs to be messed up.”

Jan. 29–Feb. 1. Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-340-1725