There’s great pre-show entertainment at Circus Syzygy’s Living Bridges, a work in progress hosted by Georgetown’s School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts (SANCA) through March 11 (tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets, here). The box office is set up in the middle of a gym full of students learning handstands, aerial work and other skills like those that Syzygy performs with a mix of virtuosity and comedy. The contrast is inspiring.

As with most theatrical events, this performance begins with a preshow reminder about cell phone etiquette, only this announcement quickly turns into the theatrical highlight of the evening. Mick Holsbeke’s clown act, which accompanies the increasingly detailed pre-show instructions, establishes his character as the audience’s on-stage surrogate through whom we’ll experience the show. Just as that character gets comfortable the stage is invaded by acrobats that turn this quiet evening into a turbid scene that suggests The Cat In The Hat. They are a chaotic yet pleasant force, Thing 1 and Thing 2 on Prozac, taking easy pleasure in their acrobatic antics.

While Holsbeke is the production’s most fully defined character, later scenes suggest some degree of character for particular acrobats. Terry Crane pushes this the farthest in a series of bits in which he tenaciously pursues another acrobat. Crane also tends to let the audience see how hard he is working in his aerial work whereas the rest of the troupe maintain the traditional poise of the trade in their acts. The focus feels equally engaging and incongruous: I hope Syzygy will find ways to incorporate it dramatically as the piece develops.

Giulio Lanzaframe also develops some character as he tries on a bit of clowning with a lamp and book, but he impresses more with his juggling and slack line. Holsbeke’s invisible rope act is the best of the clown bits and hints at a journey for his character, who may be fighting back against the interlopers with an earthbound mimicry of Crane’s aerial expertise.

Marie-Eve Dicaire’s hand-balancing act makes upside-down splits look as languid and pleasurable as a yawn and a stretch in the afternoon sun. That she nonchalantly knocks over piles of stones in the process revives the casual anarchy of the initial sequence. Oddly, the rest of the ensemble, who had carefully and somberly piled those stones into a cairn colonnade, seems unmoved by her blithe destruction.

In their trapeze act Ben Wendel and Rachel Nehmer manage to combine professional cool with sensual heat. The driving blues accompaniment and lighting changes didn’t hurt but it takes little more than a look or a touch from these performers to put a sexual charge into the waning minutes of the show.

The run of this show is just getting started, but when it does close the troupe will complete development of the project in Toulouse. You might hold out for the finished production, hoping to find your way to France, but in catching Living Bridges during its SANCA run you only risk a sudden urge to sign up for tightrope walking classes.