Flying on a G-string

The pressure is on for French trapeze troupe Les Arts Sauts. Or, more accurately, it's off: London's heatwave has sent everyone scurrying for the cold water tap - and the surge of water they need to pump the tyre that's going to hold up their giant inflatable tent in the middle of Bow's Victoria Park is down to a mere trickle. Cue lots of Gallic shoulder shrugs and Eddie Izzard-style 'boufs'.

If this was a circus we were dealing with, then it would be time to wheel out the cliche about the show must go on. But the c-word is one you don't bandy about in the vicinity of Les Arts Sauts (it translates as The Flying Arts) because, in their nine-year history, they have elevated the art of the trapeze to a whole new level. The roots of Kayassine, which arrives in London as part of the Barbican's Bite Festival, may be in circus, but its heart is in aerial ballet.

'The biggest difference is that we don't do what you'd call turns,' says company spokeswoman Caroline Gravel. 'It's more than just five minutes of stunts, it's a whole show made out of the trapeze that goes beyond the plastic smiles and tricks. The most important factor is not the technical thing or the feats - we want to share emotions with the audience.'

Whatever the intent, it's working. What began as half-a-dozen brassedoff trapezists hanging out, bemoaning the state of swings, has grown into a global touring spectacle comprising 13 aerial artistes, four musicians and an 11-strong technical/ back-up crew. The distinctions are a touch blurred because Les Arts Sauts is the kind of outfit where everyone is expected to pitch in, a case of sheer necessity when you get a sense of the scale involved.

Set up in a mighty bubble 20m high and 40m round, Kayassine is an impressive leap of visual imagination that replaces traditional notions of flying from side to side in a Big Top with a giant steel semi-circular structure that elegantly straddles the space. Designed by German architect Hans Peter Muller, it provides the aerialists with a unique launching pad from which to work their magic on an audience, who stretch out in deckchairs directly below the action.

A collective creation between the performers, Kayassine has no director as such, though in the early stages theatre director Herve Lelardoux provided an outside eye - 'to put a little order into the ideas,' as Gravel puts it. And placing faith in evolving while on the road is paying off. To begin with, Les Arts Sauts put on free shows at festivals, running to two nights at best, but now the benefit of major funding from the French Government means they've joined the big league.

Not that this has changed their freewheeling approach. Banishing notions that the life of a trapeze artist must be one of non-stop physical rigour, complete with a punishing training regimen, Gravel laughs at the very thought. 'Oh no, we're artists, not athletes. Some of them like to party every night, it's up to them. Sometimes, the audience sees us after a show and they're really surprised to see us drink and smoke. We're human.'

The laid-back approach belies the precision and discipline that goes into swooping the body about at unfeasible heights. But it's a clue as to how best approach the trapeze, Kayassine-style: leave all preconceived notions of spangly tights and drum rolls back in your Billy Smart's childhood.

'We like to let people think what they want to think,' says Gravel. 'There's no story as such, but people come up with all kinds of ideas about what it's about. In Poland a guy came up and said: "That's the most amazing thing I've seen, but I didn't understand what you wanted to say." He was so happy when we told him there's nothing to understand.'

Tomorrow until Aug 11, Victoria Park, E3, Wed to Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm, £18 (tomorrow night only, £16).

Tel: 020 7638 8891. www.barbican.org.uk Tube: Bethnal Green/Mile End

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Les Arts Sauts: Kayassine