August 27, 2006: Giant praying mantis invades Prague

[Undertoad]

Not a REAL praying mantis, you fools, but a ROBOT mantis. Remember the Royal de Luxe elephant and girl who invaded London, well it appears to be a trend. A trend I must encourage.



I wish there were some shots from further back, but these few are fine as is, and scary to boot. Apparently this was for a festival, the Letní Letná festival, which is "new circus". An official web site (in Czech) provided some of these photos, and someone (can't remember who? Take credit, somebody) also pointed me to that shot, which Neatorama also had. N-rama also points to this Prague Post article in English which explains the whole event:

The term "New Circus" refers to a type of entertainment spectacle with fantastical poetic imagery that's evolved from traditional circus performances over the past 30 years, most notably (and stylishly) in France. It embraces the traditional circus skills of acrobatics, clowning, object manipulation, fire and light spectacle. It also maintains the traditional function of circus as a ritualistic sublimation of human weirdness, where audiences alternate between fear and laughter at a series of different acts before celebrating the whole mess in exultant procession and music.

New Circus is also an art form for contemporary times. It incorporates psychological understanding into archetypal imagery of fairy tales and transformation, tending to string acts together into more coherent theatrical story lines, creating thrills and amazement not by displaying freaks or trained animals, but by spectacular human skill and technological wizardry.

What about the mantis?

The main acts this year are French groups Compagnie Malabar and Cirque Trottola, and Escalarta Circus from Spain. Malabar will present two evening performances of Helios II, an extravagant fire show of innovative pyrotechnics performed in the open air in honor of the sun god. The group also uses a spectacular 9-meter-high (30-foot-high) and 24-meter-long mechanical praying mantis that incorporates live music and several human acrobats hanging from ropes, animating its parts. This cyber-punk fairy-tale beast moves with eerie grace, preceded by two leaping, stilted creatures that will also be seen bouncing through the streets of the city center.

Waaaay coooool.