Cirque Éloize in iD Reloaded

Cirque Éloize are touring the UK with iD Reloaded, their circus and urban dance mashup..

Cirque Éloize in ‘iD Reloaded’. © Caroline Thibault.

Cirque Éloize
iD Reloaded
★★★✰✰
High Wycombe, Wycombe Swan
26 September 2025
cirque-eloize.com
trafalgartickets.com/wycombe
Toured by Dance Consortium

Montreal-based Cirque Éloize are back in the UK, touring a reworked version of their very successful 2009 show, ID. According to the blurb:

“iD Reloaded is an intoxicating blend of breath-taking circus skills, urban dance music, b-boying/b-girling, breakdance and hip hop - more colourful, more cartoonish, and with even more energy and dare-devilry than before.”

Yep - that’s about right, and the audience of predominately youngsters at the Wycombe Swan¹, felt at home seeing the mixing of dance moves they’d like to try and might practice at home, with circus acts they wouldn’t stand a chance of performing… and most definitely shouldn’t try!

It’s a busy night, with a constant assault on your eyes from a set that looks like a building site, backed by sophisticated stage-wide projections of ever-changing urban scenes. There is a lot of concealed and occasionally-used bright LED lighting around the set, and various wheeled platforms and other props zoom on and off stage, manipulated by the nine-strong mix of circus and dance professionals. Your ears also receive full-on attention from lots of loud urban beats.

The performance runs straight through for 75 minutes without downtime. There are occasional changes of pace when a couple of performers might come out front for a short and slow cameo routine while the other seven take a breather. Then, kapow, another circus routine arrives. Traditional circus acts are rarely seen these days, and I think we’ve lost something in not having a ringmaster to provide their over-the-top verbal introductions and the refreshing change of pace that gives. Although there are flecks of humour scattered throughout, there are no clowns here either, which is a bigger loss — not fully compensated by the little breakdance sections, popular though they might be with the youngsters.

Although everything is nominally busy, there is also a feeling of too much padding at times — your attention is demanded, but by ho-hum, mediocre and generic movement, often accompanied by “We’re all having a great time up here” whoops and hollers.

However, you can forgive a lot when the big skills come to the fore. I looked in awe at Christophe Bate’s cyr wheel routine — what’s particularly wondrous is that you can’t really see how it’s achieved. Pure magic. His straps routine looked impressive too.

Trevor Bodogh’s trial bike section was also impressive, though I wanted to see more of it. There was no shortage of good juggling from JP Deltell, particularly the way he used the floor and angled panels to achieve some very fast-paced cascades. But I was less impressed by the pole work and the skipping routine (Double Dutch, etc.), which felt in need of a bit more polish. The hoop routine was tastefully bland, but a move to using fabric hangings was truly splendid, more so when a second, floor-based, performer really twisted things up to give some stunning visual images.

iD Reloaded wraps up with a terrific trampoline routine — it is the big finale everyone wants and makes you happy. Overall, I’m glad I saw the impressive circus I did; I could just do with more of that and less of the visual fluff. That said, the kids lapped it all up and it feels very much like a show targeted at them.

The UK tour continues through to 18 October - details here.