Festival Circolo takes place from 22 to 31 October in Tilburg. With the festival centre in the Leijpark and various satellite locations in the city, it will be one big circus party in Tilburg for ten days. Although, ten days... This year, Festival Circolo has secretly added six days. Because the performance L'Absolu by Les Choses de Rien - in a towering silo on the forecourt of Schouwburg Tilburg - starts earlier. From 16 to 21 October to be precise. That makes this year's Festival Circolo not a ten-day but a sixteen-day circus adventure full of national and international premieres and top-class circus performances.
Festival Circolo is proud to announce the following international circus performances on its programme:
L'Absolu / Les Choses de Rien
In 2019, the show L'Absolu would be shown at Festival Circolo. An absolute must-see in a specially designed thirteen-metre-high silo. A dizzying experience where the boundaries between stage, venue, performer and audience disappear. This show unfortunately had to be cancelled due to an injury to its star: Boris Gibé. However... L'Absolu will be seen at Festival Circolo 2021 this year. This incredible one-man show can then still be admired at our festival and we are very happy about that.
La Contrebande / Willy Wolf
Collective La Contrebande (France) draws inspiration from the insane life story of stuntman and circus performer Willy Wolf. The result? A sensational show with a lively sense of humour, dazzling tricks and flying engines.
Rémi Luche / L'Homme Canon
The more insane and impossible the challenge, the more interesting. At least, it is if you ask acrobatic comedian (or comic acrobat?) Rémi Luchez (France). Walking on the thinnest possible tightrope or balancing a pile of stones on your head? Luchez thereby tests the limits of his ability. In L'Homme Canon, the daredevil launches himself as the crow flies past fear of heights, sober drunkenness and restrained pleasure. His body is his weapon, his balance the target and you - the audience - the one holding your breath.
Alexander Vantournhout / Through the Grapevine
Are you also done with 'perfect' Instagram bodies, fitboys, fitgirls and Snap filters? With the fakeness of social media, that is? Then come see the bodies of performers Alexander Vantournhout and Axel Guérin. In Through the Grapevine, an agile and quirky pas de deux, the two men perform a choreography focusing on the differences between their physiques and physical strength. They show you their bodies - trained, but not perfect - stripped of any frills. In their choreography, you discover the beauty of the real!
Lucho Smit / L'âne & La Carotte
In his show L'âne & La Carotte (The Donkey and the Carrot), Lucho Smit considers the arts of the circus artist as attempts to circumvent limitations or push boundaries. Rather than trying to master the laws of physics, he takes on the challenge of seeking out and pushing those limits. Because the circus artist always has to go higher and faster. Lucho swings in the trapeze, flies through the air and balances over ropes in an attempt to raise the bar. An impossible mission, or is it?
Link to programme image L'âne & La Carotte
Familiar Faces / Surface
This acrobatic quartet, all four trained at the Fontys Academy for Circus and Performance Art in Tilburg, returns to Festival Circolo with a brand new performance. In Surface, literally translated surface, the underground plays a leading role. Water seeps across the stage, sometimes gently then recklessly the foursome handles this source. The water sets the group in motion. Their grip disappears. But where is the balance between control and recklessness? In this world premiere (which stems from Circusnext, the European project for the latest circus talent for which only six artists or companies are selected from 120 talents!), they explore the limits of the impossible in a delightfully original performance.
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