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Inspiring. Circus. Arts.

The online journal Inspiring. Circus. Arts. takes a look behind the scenes. We explore trends, challenges and creative processes in the circus arts, introducing young talents and leading experts from the international circus scene.

44. Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain Paris 2025

Micaela and Matias impress with their aerial cradle act “MARoma”. (c)Tobias Moll
Micaela and Matias impress with their aerial cradle act “MARoma”. (c)Tobias Moll

If you want to obtain an overview of the styles and trends in circus today, it helps to differentiate between aesthetics and format. In the debate about circus genres, the two are often mixed up. We look at consistently staged shows that break up the individual act or at least subordinate it to a dominant narrative and call them “contemporary” or “new”. And then we see shows with acts that are consistent and complete in themselves, but at most loosely connected to the show as a whole, and call them “classic” or “traditional”. In this simple dichotomy of the circus world, we tend to focus on the format and overlook the much greater variety in aesthetics.


At the 44th Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain, we didn’t just see “classic” and “new”. We saw the modern Ukrainian avant-garde style of an Inshi collective. We saw the experimental and fresh interpretation of group disciplines by the Canadian company Machine de Cirque. We saw performances that tell stories, whether it was bold and opulent in the Chinese style of the Guangzhou troupe or subtle and reduced in the style of the Canadian schools. All these different circus aesthetics and many more can be experienced and compared nowhere better than in Paris - precisely because here they all have to fit into the same format. Everything has to fit into an act of around eight minutes. The final jingle from the magnificent orchestra under the direction of François Morel seems as a musical reassurance that in the end everyone is just aiming to impress the audience. This mixture of standardization and openness to diversity is what makes Paris so unique and interesting and regularly attracts agents, directors and circus lovers from all over the world.


Of course, the format does not do full justice to every performance. For example, in the vertical rope act by Inshi artist Maksym Vakhnytskyi, one would have liked to understand the context of the production with a breathing mask at the ending of the rope. Overall, however, compared to some previous years, there were a surprising number of acts that one could easily imagine in a commercial variety program.


There were several déjà vu moments with regard to one of the previous years. Just like in 2020, a promising formation was excluded from the race for the prizes due to injury, again it was Canadians. In 2020 it was the barre trio Tribarre that was affected, this time it was Machine de Cirque with their innovative performance on the rotating teeterboard, taken from their show "Ghost Light". One of the flyers landed roughly, broke his foot and reminded us of the risk that is always inherent in this discipline. Machine de Cirque only performed the opening act in the rest of the festival, which was centered on the Russian Bar. The group used it in a very creative way, for example when jumping from the bar to the three-person high.


The Grand Prix winners from the troupe from Guangzhou (c)Tobias Moll
The Grand Prix winners from the troupe from Guangzhou (c)Tobias Moll

Another parallel to 2020: The prestigious Grand Prix again went to the Chinese troupe from Guangzhou. Xie Zongbin and Zhan Jiyai received the award for a virtuoso combination of partner acrobatics and antipodes. Whether standing on one hand upon the neck of the base who doing a handstand or standing on tiptoe on his head - a red carpet constantly rotates on Jiyai Zhan's hand or foot. Tango rhythms and flirty presentation do not at all suggest the pathos of the old Chinese school. This is more the case with the Cyr Wheel number by Chen Tao from the same troupe. The martial presentation of his performance, which is supposed to depict a fight with a roaring lion, drifts somewhat into the grotesque, even though the tricks are extremely skilful.


The gold medal was awarded twice this year. The first gold went to the six artists from the Danish Motus troupe for their performance X-Boards on two cross-over teeterboards. They show a demanding sequence of tricks, including synchronously performed triple somersaults and double somersaults with twists landed safely on the board. In their act, they want to deal with the topic of mutual trust.


X-Board - teeterboard acrobatics from Denmark (c)Tobias Moll
X-Board - teeterboard acrobatics from Denmark (c)Tobias Moll

The second gold went to Tanzania, more precisely to the "Hakuna Matata Acrobats" from the national circus school founded by impresario Winston Ruddle (known in Germany for "Mother Africa"). Their energetic group performance mixes elements of traditional African human pyramids and partner acrobatics with Rola-Rola. One highlight is a head-to-head balancing on the Rola-Rola, while other acrobats jump through the legs of the base person. Lots of wow moments, hardly any time to breathe, hardly any recognizable dramaturgy - overall, it is noticeable that this year the jury honored exceptional acrobatic performance and tricks more than sophisticated dramaturgy and conceptual acts.


Pyramids on the Rola-Rola - the Hakuna Matata Acrobats (c)Tobias Moll
Pyramids on the Rola-Rola - the Hakuna Matata Acrobats (c)Tobias Moll

This also applies to the silver winners Danil Lysenko and Delaney Bayles. However, their partner juggling is so much peppered with original, never-before-seen tricks that your amazement totally prevents you from looking for a "deeper meaning". A club is nonchalantly placed on the head of the juggling Delaney and simply stays there as she passes by, only to be nudged shortly afterwards in a casual movement and land safely in the hands of Danil, who continues to juggle. This is coolness - here the constant surprise is the dramaturgy. While the Ukrainian Danil Lysenko is known from various circus engagements, such as Roncalli, the American Delaney Bales comes from the juggling convention scene and has so far only given a short circus intermezzo in 2022 as Mario Muntwyler's juggling partner in the Swiss Circus Monti. The two exceptional jugglers had created the act specifically for Paris.


Danil Lysenko and Delaney Bales form a congenial juggling duo (c)Tobias Moll
Danil Lysenko and Delaney Bales form a congenial juggling duo (c)Tobias Moll

The other two silver medals went to the far east - one to the Japanese duo "Toy Toy Toy" for their yo-yo playing, which was perfectly coordinated with the music and with each other, and the other to the diabolo trio Fly from Taiwan. The latter was put together by the 2017 gold medal winner Chih-Han Chao, who has since established Taiwan's reputation as a hot spot for diabolo artistry. "Toy Toy Toy" takes the genre to a new level with a choreography of flowing movements.


“Toy Toy Toy” with JoJo-Art in perfection (c)Tobias Moll
“Toy Toy Toy” with JoJo-Art in perfection (c)Tobias Moll

Flowing movements - these also characterize the bronze-winning act "MARoma" by Micaela Leitner and Matias Cienfuegos, who together form the duo Sirca Marea. They interpret the performance on the aerial cradle as a metaphor for diving into the sea. And indeed, one might think of the liberating feeling of jumping into the sea when Micaela takes a leap forward, only to be caught by Matias by the ankles after a half pirouette - or one might think of the smoothness of movements under water when she performs somersaults and turns with great ease.


Bronze was also awarded to two of the festival's most inventive performances. On the one hand, there is Nicolas Teusa from Colombia, who in his act completely reinterprets ring jumping by having his ring suspended from an almost invisible thread. Thereby, it performs pendulum movements and communicates with his own movements that are inspired by contemporary dance. And on the other hand, there is the Argentinian Franco Pelizzari del Valle with his acrobatic slapstick theater DESPLIEGUE, which involves a microwave, three folding chairs and a folding table. In his little story of failure, he presents the quintessentially clownish motif of the fight against the malice of the object in a fresh way.


Nicolas Teusa interprets ring jumping in an innovative way.(c)Tobias Moll
Nicolas Teusa interprets ring jumping in an innovative way.(c)Tobias Moll

The three winners of the jury's special prizes also secured a place in the gala. Young newcomers were underrepresented at this festival. Still, there were Malou Latrompette and Alizé Poitreau from the 2024 graduating class of the Montreal Circus School. They literally communicate with each other on two swinging trapezes hanging next to each other. Sometimes individually, sometimes simultaneously, they perform their tricks, culminating in a completely synchronized somersault.


Agathe and Adrien, co-founders of the company "Acting for Climate" and graduates of the Quebec Circus School, also originate from Canadas circus community. Their hand-on-hand act questions the usual codes of the genre. The roles of the flyer and base constantly change, elements of Icarian games are incorporated. Their research into what hand-on-hand can be resulted in the internationally successful show "N.Ormes", and they had now created a new act for Paris.


The combination of partner acrobatics with other genres is a trend that can be seen at this festival. This, along with a pinch of self-irony, is what makes the unicycle performance by the Brazilian duo Cata and Jay so appealing. Acrobatic highlights of their act are handstands on the unicycle-riding base as well as standing on his head. A similar repertoire, but on the monowheel, is shown by the formation "Les Acrostiches", who appeared as special guests in both selection shows. A smaller dosage of the acrobatic-comic reprises, which are quite similar to each other, would have done the shows good.


A "best of" video clip publised by the festival

What is there to criticize about this festival program, which once again features a top-class cast and is full of with surprising discoveries? Well, in addition to the aforementioned lack of young newcomer performers, there was also a certain lack of female performers. There was not a single solo artist in the field of participants and overall the male artists were clearly in the majority. The festival would have benefited from more balance here.


The positive impression remains that the circus world that has gathered here is far too varied, surprising and diverse to be pigeonholed. If we saw the circus of tomorrow here, then we certainly don't need to worry about its future.

  

 

In addition to those mentioned in the text, the following performances were also represented at the festival:

Ess Hödlmoser (Canada) - aerial straps, Sergey & Vlad (Ukraine) – double flying pole, Marceau Bidal (France) – asymmetrical straps, David Trappes & Skip Walker-Milne (Australia) – shoulder pole, David Yemishian (Ukraine) – juggling

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