dossier #9 - december 2010 stradd -...

dossier from stradda #15 and #18 / page 1

How do you spell circus?

Circostrada Network

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dossier #9 - december 2010


The magazine on the circus and outdoor creation

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A publication from horslesmurs the French national resource centre for the circus and street arts

The dossier is an extract from stradda #15 – january 2010 stradda #18 - october 2010


n° 15 - janvier 2010 – 7,5 €

WITNESS/N14la compagnie des riverains

LES GRANDES TRAVERSÉES festival branché sur Berlin

ÉDITION LE CIRQUE EN TOUTES LETTRES


n° 18 - octobre 2010 – 7,5 €

La rue s’invente de nouvelles scènes


contents / editorial

Quarterly magazine in French 1 issue : 7,50 € • subscription from 28 €www.stradda.fr • [email protected] • + 33 (0) 1 55 28 10 10

editorial


How do you spell circus?

Circostrada Network


dossier #9 - december 2010

circostrada network

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATION Jean DigneCHIEF EDITORS Jean Digne – Stéphane SimoninREDACTION Emmanuelle Dreyfus – Thomas Hahn – Pierre HivernatIMAGES RMN / Jean-Gilles Berizzi – Koen Cobbaert – Marco Pece – RMN / Jean-Claude Planchet – Christophe Raynaud de LageTRANSLATION Brian QuinnCOORDINATION Isabelle Drubigny, Yohann FlochCOPYEDITOR Peggy TardrewILLUSTRATIONS Marie Le MoigneARTISTIC DIRECTOR Anne ChoffeyPUBLICITY Violette Bernad – [email protected] +33 (0)1 55 28 10 09We are happy to present the

ninth sample dossier of the magazine Stradda: «How do

you spell circus?». It includes three arti-cles, taken from numbers 15 and 18 of Stradda: «The circus and its insecurities», an opinion piece by Pierre Hivernat, «Is there a form of criticism for the circus?», a report on twelve journalists in search of words on the circus and «The master juggler», a portrait of Jérôme Thomas.The European professionals of the circus and street arts have often expressed a wish to have access to publications and docu-mentary resources that are easily accessi-ble and translated into several languages. These resources are useful on many levels: beyond the necessary exposure given to artistic projects, they also serve to inform policymakers, institutions and sponsors on these innovative aesthetics. Stradda, a quarterly magazine published in French

by HorsLesMurs –national resource centre for the street and circus arts – is the only magazine that is entirely dedicated to crea-tion in the public space and the contem-porary circus. The correspondents of the Circostrada Network platform naturally turned to this particularly well-identified publication to, every other month, trans-late into English and publish online the thematic reports to appear with the maga-zine. We hope that this new dossier will participate in creating an easier circula-tion of ideas and artistic projects. We also hope that it will add to the overall debate and bring to light the great vitality of the circus and street arts.

Jean Digne. Director of PublicationStéphane Simonin. Chief EditorYohann Floch. Coordinatorof Circostrada Network

How do you spell circus?4 THE CIRCUS AND ITS INSECURITIES

6 IS THERE A FORM OF CRITICISM FOR THE CIRCUS?

12 JÉRÔME THOMAS. THE MASTER JUGGLER

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“After several months spent observing, listening, reading, seeing shows and conducting interviews so as to draw up, along with Véronique Klein, an overview of the contemporary circus, I feel as though I have examined a patient who tends to present an impressive array of various complexes.

Original sin. In the inferiority complexes chapter, we’ll begin with relationships to other fields and, in particular, to the big brother of the theatre along with, to a lesser extent, the younger siblings of dance and the plastic arts. In Rome, the theatre was a noble art and the circus was a game. The circus disappeared for many centu-ries, beyond the radar of ars nova. The theatre has declaimed itself and written itself day by day ever since. Even today, the circus seems to bear this burden as its original sin. A large number of circus artists are constantly using the word drama-turgy, which is often the guaranteed minimum when it comes to the performing arts. But rather frequently, the need becomes a dogma and trans-lates into an unquenchable thirst for the recogni-tion of their ability to construct narratives that are just as sophisticated as their theatrical colleagues. Bartabas will only entertain Pina Bausch, the crea-tor of the Tanztheater concept, or Peter Brook as possible references to his equestrian theatre and he shares with Zimmermann and De Perrot or James Thiérrée the refusal of any “circus” label in descriptions of his work.

The Chaillot syndrome. Listening to them, it is easy to understand their obsession with being shut in, or their real fear of being taken for simple, mindless athletes whose only goal is to cheer up and clear the minds of consumer-spectators (or, even worse, children), instead of nourishing their poetic insight on the state of the world. The ultimate goal, either consciously or unconsciously, is not to be booked in Auch, but in Avignon; to avoid grazing the lawn of Reuilly and to, instead, walk the gilded halls of Chaillot.

To top it all off, when the circus reaches the height of this contradiction and makes it to the national “cultural section”, it is often thanks to outside directors or choreographers adept at using (or, as they say, instrumentalising) its intrinsic quali-ties without deforming them. One might think of Guy Alloucherie or of François Verret.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Cirque Plume is not afraid of showing its colours and swears only by its attendance ratings, which it wears as an indisputable medal, attacking head-on, in its last show, painting and contemporary art. Here we find the message of a circus with a patent supe-riority complex. It is sure of itself and openly sets the borders between a popular art and a populist one. At least the Cirque du Soleil, the cham-pion of audience attendance ratings, far ahead of Cirque Plume, refrains from dressing the perfor-mance as a form of coffee talk about the arts.

Killing the father. Let’s add a good familial Oedipal complex to the list. Killing the father is also one of the constant preoccupations of some. How does one juggle after Jérôme Thomas? How does one approach the tight rope after Les Colporteurs? How does one treat aerial acroba-tics after Les Arts Sauts or the clown after Gilles Defacque? Some have used the term minor art and meant it, making it a part of their routine and constantly feeding it into their discourse and creations, suffering from it, fighting to become major. Their lack of humour and of distance produces shows that are boring, since they strive to exist either through, for, with or in opposition to. The great circus family has been a broken one for a long time. Circus artists calling themselves researchers worthy of large laboratories, contras-ting their work with that of public entertainers, the aristocracy of large performance families against numerous families of acrobats and inter-mittents du spectacle, the private circus against the public circus, success marked by the recognition of Art Press against the pride of a newsreel played

The circus and its insecurities

Pierre Hivernat, the author of a recent publication on the circus arts, has followed circus artists closely and delivers here a telling and at times severe diagnostic that is also full of hope.

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Pierre Hivernat has been an artistic consultant at Radio France and then a consultant to Catherine Tasca before fulfilling the duties of cultural and audiovisual attaché at the French Embassy in London. In 1995, he took over the Arts-Performance section of the magazine the Inrockuptibles. From 2000 to 2007, he was the director of performance programming for the Parc de la Grande Halle in La Villette. From 2007 to 2009, he joined the association Marseille-Provence 2013 European Creation Capital. He has just opened the Magasin de Jouets in Arles, a gallery dedicated to image arts.http://lemagasin dejouets.fr

“on the TF1 primetime news. The energy spent in these struggles do not make the art any better, only unreadable. And it does not offer any artistic breakthrough or produce any new aesthetic.

Great delight. Most fortunately, many artists have overcome their complexes, produce intelli-gent shows, do not forget distance or humour, know how to situate their art and find its place. In other words, they do not merely exist artistically but also socially, without having to prove it throu-ghout their act. The list is long and the delights are great. With “Devoris Causa”, The Catalans d’Escarlata Circus tell, under their bigtop, a great philosophical, social and political tale through Arte Povera; Layla Rosa sensitively treats a difficult subject, the headscarf, in her show “What If…” ; Geneva Foster Gluck revisits the circus history of her country, that of Barnum. She won’t yet be going to Art Press, but Art Press will be coming

to her for her deconstruction of the very notion of performance and the acuity of her message. Angela Laurier produces universal creations using her own familial episodes and Jani Nuuti-nen happily discovers the roots of a most subtle minimalist circus.

French school. Curiously, none of these are French. Let’s take this as a sign. The public poli-cies carried out in France for the production and distribution of the circus are, as in other sectors, unique in the world. On the European level, France remains the leader with programmes like Jeunes Talents Cirque Europe. France, with its many different high-level schools, produces more professional companies and circuses than Spain, Italy, Germany and Great Britain combined.

The law of supply and demand being what it is, the system’s loss of steam is on everyone’s mind without anyone daring to truly take measure of its effect, perhaps with the exception of the JTC team itself, whose probing work is not essential, but vital.

Finally, in the perspectives chapter, this overview would surely not have been as cheerful without the presence of Raphaël Navarro and all these companies of new magicians who travel in India and Amazonia to better understand ritual magic and inform their productions with it, demonstra-ting, if it needs to be demonstrated, that the circus without complexes is magic and universal.● PIERRE HIVERNAT

“Fortunately, many artists do not forget distance or humour and exist artistically and socially without having to prove it throughout their act.”

How does one treat aerial acrobatics after Les Arts Sauts? A response in Lego figurines. Portrait

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“Contemporary overview of the circus arts”, by Pierre Hivernat and Véronique Klein, a co-publication of Textuel and HorsLesMurs, released October 27, 2010.

PierreHivernat–VéroniqueKlein


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W hat level of knowledge of the artistic, historical, material, international or socie-tal context is necessary if one wishes to

speak competently about a circus creation? What language does a critic have at his disposal and what vocabulary does he need? In this ever-emerging prac-tice, everything remains to be defined, including the genre itself. From the start, the situation proves to be a complex one. In most European countries, the presentation of the circus arts is the work of jour-nalists who usually write about dance or theatre. And this is in a media context where the Internet, Twitter and others have, little by little, replaced the supposed or real authority of specialists.

Greece, Italy, CroatiaIn France, journalists are clearly not happy with the state of circus criticism. Yet it is one of the best examples in Europe. In Germany, only one revue is available to specialised editors, but it is reserved for performance professionals. In Greece, the genre is not well known. In the countries where this is the case, criticism must precede artistic evolution and thereby inverse the usual cycle, which starts with the creation of circus schools, then companies, followed by the appearance of a regular audience, so as to finally see journalists start to familiarize themselves with the genre.

However, in Greece, in Croatia and even in Italy, certain dance specialists wish to present the audience with the wealth of the circus of today. And, since

there is strength in unity, emerging European criti-cism is compelled to federate, to debate and to get involved in a permanent research process to cons-truct an identity.

An expanding domainBut should we not first find a better definition, a better description of this genre? The circus arts are no longer happy simply inviting dance or the visual arts to join them under the bigtop. Today, acrobatics and juggling are themselves solicited by the theatre and performances, to the point where the very cate-gorization of “circus” is no longer quite so simple to define, especially for the artists themselves.

Can we create a new mode of observation; perhaps one that is close to a lost tradition when those who analyzed creations were themselves men and women of letters? Is it possible to maintain a form of criticism that is closer to the audience and the artists? Indeed, on the circus side, the “conflicts of interest” can turn out to be productive. When circus artists themselves take part in the theoretical debate, is it not an opportunity for journalists to better apprehend the specific and intertwined ties between an art and its audience?

The time has come to develop together and to set out a shared vocabulary between artists and critics, an approach that would go beyond the simple learning of technical terms, a surface-level and yet analytical form of expression, a language that would be creative and sensual. ● THOMAS HAHN

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The 4-day seminar, Art Writers and Circus Arts, brought together twelve journalists from eleven different European countries at HorsLesMurs’ location in June 2009. This initiative was a first. It was a forum of formal and informal discussion including encounters with professionals, teachers, programmers and artists.The participants were mostly dance

specialists and were driven by the desire to learn more about the circus. However, between the chief editor of an art revue and the critic of a daily newspaper, the difference in professional backgrounds and, therefore, in expectations, was substantial. Yet all felt the need to confront the different national contexts in which the current circus has developed and to enter into a discussion

on the specificity of analytical writing on the circus arts. The conference was organized by HorsLesMurs and Circostrada in partnership with Team Network and revealed to what extent circus criticism needs to change in order to move forward. In a time when all forms of press are facing economic constraints, today the goal is to open the discussion to an international level. ●

European seminar on circus criticism. HorsLesMurs-Circostrada-Team Network

Is there a form of criticism for the circus?In Europe, people are often surprised to hear that circus criticism is its own genre. However, this comes as no surprise in Finland or in France. Dialogue is called for to address this divide.

“The journalist Sylvia von Harden”, by Otto Dix (1926).


Under the bigtop, in front of the circus ring, spectators are (almost) equal. The critics are not, according to the country where they practice their trade. The new circus is not always

granted a place in many of the countries of the European Union as if there were still a kind of Schengen artist yet to be defined. Because, as troubling as it is, the image of animal trainers, clowns and glitter is the only one creating a collec-tive imaginary in Europe.

A new planetThis is what is reported from Scotland by Mary Brennan (Glasgow, The Herald), who defines herself as being “without a true sense of the circus, be it traditional or contemporary,” and having, at most, “a few memories from childhood and of the Cirque du Soleil.” She describes herself as “a critic

who has acquired experience in the domains of dance, visual theatre and mime.” While she writes for a large audience, and, a priori, a circus audience, she struggles since she does not have access to contem-porary creation in this domain outside of the Fringe festival in Edinburgh. Her paradoxical ambition is to invent a language that is sensitive, learned and catchy, while she claims to be perfectly ignorant of any specific vocabulary.

She shares this position with Christos Polyme-

nakos (Athens), editor in chief for the revue Highli-ghts. He presents himself as “an editor in the field of dance” and would now like to surprise his readers by giving them access to a new artistic planet.

In Italy as well, the situation is far from brilliant. “The new circus is integrated in multi-disciplinary festivals, so the term is not very present. The new circus in itself does not exist,” argues Eleonora Feli-satti (Bologna, Art’O revue). For her, the best insights on the new circus were published by the only specialised revue in the country, the Juggling Magazine, in 2003.

For Croatia, Ivana Slujinski has noted a marked retreat of the media regarding the Internet and information exchange networks, as well as a decline in the quality of information in the press. “Theatre criticism is disappearing. Add to that preferential treatment, indirect forms of censorship and the specia-lised press’s financial problems.” She also says that, “there was no contemporary circus in Croatia before 2000 and the new circus has really only been present since 2005.”

Define a vocabularyWhile some are low on artistic proposals, others are already worried about the definition of the new circus in the artistic field. Bauke Lievens, who writes for the Spanish revue Zirkolina, is the author of a thesis on ritual in the contemporary circus. She reminds us that “the label of ‘contem-porary’ comes from the logic of festivals and season programmers more than from artists themselves. The absence of a clear definition is a problem, but less so for the critic than for the growth of circus itself. Definitions like ‘interdisciplinary’ are empty shells.”

This remark leads straight to a central question, which is that of the language of the circus critic. “It would be important for the circus to stop widening

Twelve journalists in search of words for the circusAs a conclusion to the conference organized at HorsLesMurs in June 2009, the participants laid out on paper the ideas addressed or refined during these four days of discussion. The points of view are contrasted and theoretical and practical proposals are developed.

“In what terms might we explain and analyze the magic experience of the circus?”

Bauke Lievens, Spain.

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its definition and, to the contrary, that it be narrowed in on and materialized. This goal goes immediately back to the lack of a specific vocabulary.” For this journalist, “the circus creates a community and sends us back, for a few moments, to our animal side while it also brings us toward our neighbour. In what terms might we explain and analyze the magic experience of the circus? What is the link between movement, the meaning it produces and the spectator’s emotion? The audience’s circular line of vision is also important, as well as the fact that the artist is surrounded. What would happen if the circus were performed more and more frequently in the box of the stage, the traditional terrain for theatrical texts?” Then Bauke Lievens addresses words: “Words like ‘dramaturgy’ or ‘choreo-graphy’ can help to understand and appreciate a circus show, but they may also lead us to neglect an array of specific codes and dialectics.”

Creative circusSo what role could be played by the commentator? Bauke Lievens dreams of a new kind of journalist, one who would be less of a specialist of the diffe-rent techniques and disciplines than a thinker, a philosopher. “The circus critic should ask the same questions as artists in the creation process. That’s why thought on the matter should be implicated in artistic

practice. This is the only way the critic can contribute to the growth of an artistic form. (…) If the circus looks for what its essence is, criticism must participate in this very search. The circus today is poorly served by a criticism that approves or refutes an artistic propo-sal. It needs deeper thought into its essence and the artistic forms in which it appears. Criticism must recognise the diversity of the postmodern world as a fundamental reality in the arts.”

Ivana Slujinski points out that, for her, “a lot of things escape the eye of the critic who is not properly introduced to the differences between trends and tech-niques. There can be misunderstandings. Developing a terminology can reduce these and help critics to esta-blish the circus as a recognised artistic form.”

For Tomi Purovaara, who manages the Finnish Circus Information Centre of Helsinki, the idea is

“The best role that the critic can play is that of a sparring partner who helps the artist to realise his or her ambitions.”

Tomi Purovaara, Finland.©

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to “actively connect artists, critics and institutions.” He also strives for the artist-critic community: “The artist also must define his or her action in relation with history and different contemporary subjects. The best role that the critic can play is therefore that of a sparring partner who helps the artist to realise his or her ambitions. This implies speaking a common language.”

Term transfersWhat is behind this concept must still be defined. Is the importing of terms from other fields always negative? The metaphor is rich and the transferring of expressions used for describing dance could be a good solution. The problem is rather the great proximity between the circus and other artistic languages.

Mary Brennan defends a pragmatic approach regarding this issue. “We must borrow terms from other disciplines. But is it really that big a deal? If a show finds in itself the strength needed to engage and entertain an audience, does the spectator really need to know that it takes its origins from the circus? Is an article that sees clearly and is informative and well thought-out inferior because its author does not know how to name the tricks or equipment?” The Scottish journalist specifies that when she writes on dance, she does not use “the technical vocabulary of ballet or of the avant-garde, or an academic language.” She insists on the risk of creating a negative subtext for readers who might feel shunned or excluded. It is, therefore, a balancing act, since one also wants to be taken seriously by artists.

The insights of Eleonora Felisatti argue in the same vein: “The arts have always managed to inte-grate contributions from other disciplines like the neurosciences and new technologies and criticism has managed to accompany these evolutions. It will there-fore also be able to adapt itself to the new circus.”

Activate the networksIs being able to meet Tomi Purovaara’s demands a question of vocabulary? “In each country the contemporary circus has its own artistic identity and knows its own modes of production. The critic should read a show from its own parameters and situate it in the European context of circus arts and evaluate the

artistic content in view of the historical development of the circus.” For Christos Polymenakos, “the critic should also be aware of the societal context on both the local and global level.” This can only happen through exchanges like those carried out during HorsLesMurs’ Parisian seminar. Tomi Purovaara suggests practical solutions: “Dialogue and the creation of European networks can help the critic to better understand the situation in different countries. Add to this the circulation of literature and creations, as well as that of critics, to allow them to see the maxi-mum amount of styles.”

The visceral sideThe apparent conclusion for Bauke Lievens:

“Since the spectator lives an experience more than he understands a circus show, it would be fascinating to hold an analysis of this art through the perspective of the audience. The circus has an important role to play in a society that is becoming more globalized, more virtual and more individualist each day. The circus is a ritual that confirms for us the visceral side of the existence that we share through our threat of physi-cal death. In this way, the circus offers a cathartic experience comparable to that of the Greek tragedies. (…) After a heterogeneous period, the circus is seeking out its very own essence. The body once again beco-mes the central source of meaning, at the expense of video, lighting or costumes. Theatre and dance are undergoing a similar post-dramatic evolution due to a cultural thirst for ‘presence’. This desire also manifests itself in the success of reality television and the omni-presence of stunts in films and video games. This is, perhaps, one reason for the current popularity of the circus. In any case, this certainly provides us with a better definition of what a contemporary art is, that it, a form that enters into a dialogue with today’s indivi-dual and responds to his or her questions.” ● T.H.

The totality of contributions, written by journalists atten-ding this seminar and gathered under the title “Art Writers & Circus Arts,” can be downloaded on the Circostrada Network site in a multi-lingual version. www.circostrada.org

“Developing a terminology can limit the number of misunderstandings and help critics to establish the circus as a recognised artistic form.” Ivana Slujinski, Croatia

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“Is an article that sees clearly and is informative and well thought-out inferior because its author does not know how to name the tricks or equipment?”

Mary Brennan, Scotland.

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portra i t

Jérôme Thomas has been developing his prac-tice over some thirty years. Having worked in the traditional circus and then the music hall, he is a figurehead for the new circus and was at the origin of “cubic juggling”, a poetic

repertoire that he is transmitting to the younger generation. He is an artist in continual creation and the further along he gets in his work and insight, the more he looks for a bare-bones approach that focu-ses on the performer. We find this in his new show, “Ici”, where juggling is not the main actor.

Self-taught. “At the time when I began, at age 14, juggling wasn’t very well known. There weren’t many people doing it. Actually, there were, but they were hidden in the cabarets. There was no form of transmis-sion.” Not very interested in school, Jérôme Thomas was the despair of his mother who sought in vain to motivate her son. “I loved music and I was always dancing. But I wasn’t interested in music theory because

The developer of “cubic juggling”, and pioneer of the new circus, Jérôme Thomas is also a source of memory. Just as he is presenting his new creation, “Ici”, he talks to Stradda about his beginnings, his development and his taste for simplicity.

The master juggler

Jérôme Thomas

it was very didactic, just like everything else people tried to get me to do, horse-riding, piano, judo.” Thanks to his mother, the teenager wound up taking a workshop with the fairground arts company of Adrienne Larue, next to Angers. “At the time it was very general. We did as much wire work as we did trapeze and juggling. It was an introduction. I was put in the juggling section for the presentation at the end of the class and I did as best as I could. I couldn’t stand still. I kept walking. I found the trick of going back and forth from stage right to stage left and that made everyone laugh. I was my first stage experience. I kept juggling in front of my bed. I learn by myself and that’s the way I like it.”

At the Fratellini school. At age 18, the apprentice juggler went to Paris to join the national circus school of Annie Fratellini. Very quickly, Annie asked him to stand in for the troupe’s juggler. “It was the big time for me, but at the time, on top of circus school, I was taking Serge Martin’s class at the Lecoq

Additional reading: “Jérôme Thomas,” by Jean-Gabriel Carasso and Jean-Claude Lallias, the Quel cirque collection, a co-publication by Actes Sud and Cnac.


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Jérôme Thomas in 2003.

when in Berlin in 1948, he saw videos of jugglers in the company of Karl-Heinz Ziethen, a great historian of the discipline and he felt that his capacity to create had increased tenfold. Between technical skill and minimalism, he chose the latter.

“Karl told me: ‘You will go slowly.’ Twenty-three years later, I understood. I wasn’t idle, but I was lazy. I cultivate laziness to a notion of a freeze-frame imagery of things. That allows me to have a certain perspective on the arts, politics, the world. It allows me to develop cubic juggling. The very base of this practice was to look at insignificant things like a juggler with three balls for 30 minutes. So I started to analyze the movements and break them down.”

Developed in three dimensions – as opposed to two in traditional practice –, cubic juggling considers the juggler as much as the object and the space. An upheaval of the old codes. “We find bridges, rela-tionships with the music, like the binary and ternary. It’s like in music.”

school and at night I worked on my classical dance in the Marais with Yves Casati. I had to drop everything to go on tour. I decided to go. That’s how my life as a juggler began and I learned my trade. It lasted about two and a half years.”

Music hall, all the way. “Annie was a mother. One always wants to leave a mother. I had to show her that I was independent.” He accepted his first contract in Israel. One month later he was back in France and pursued the music-hall experiment under the leadership of the artistic agent Carmen Bajot.

“It was tacky, but I was really into it. I had two performances a night for three years and eight months on tour per year.” But as Jacques Tati once said: “Cabaret is great, but you’ve got to find a way out of it or you’ll wind up a bartender or a waiter.”

Cubic juggling. Jérôme Thomas did not feel frustrated by the codes of the cabaret. However,


portra i t / j é rôme thomas

Transmission. In the beginning of the 90’s, Jérôme Thomas founded Armo (Atelier de recher-che en manipulation d’objets), both a company and a place to pass on his methods. “Everything that I brought to light already existed, I just conceptualized it…” For him, all of the great jugglers, from Bobby May, one of his artistic role models, to Michael Moshen – who he considers a genius – also practiced the binary and the ternary, but they did not write it down. Jérôme Thomas has produced a first volume and has a second one in the works: “The new genera-tion must be able to construct itself, and for that it needs the foundation.”

Music and dance. To work with this artist, it is not enough to be a good juggler, you also have to be an actor and have a mastery of dance movement.

Musicality is essential. “I have always listened to music and danced. But I never tried to be a musician. I have a solid background in the work of an actor, dancer and juggler, which makes three skills. Music was one too many. Roland Auzet1 freed me as far as music was concerned. You can’t be good at everything.”

Focused on the bare bones. Today, Jérôme is taking a radical approach. He is not inclined to make use of new technologies. This troupe leader is heading his solo and collective shows by tending toward stripping things down. Inspired by the posi-tion of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker2, he hopes to get rid of the fluff and “concentrate on the bare bones performer.” “Currently, my constraint is to deepen the rapport with a 2,5 x 2,5 m square. I need the performer, two speakers, four projectors and fifteen chairs.”

Continual creation. As with any artist, he cannot choose between his creations. However, some of them truly stand out. “’Rain/Bow’ consumed ten years of my life. The ‘Cirque Lili’ was also a tough one to put on. ‘Artio’ was a real breaking point/ ‘Extraballes’ also left some marks on me…” While he gets ready to unveil his newest creation, “Ici” (see box), Jérôme Thomas asks himself some questions. “I’m more inte-rested in inscribing myself in continual creation than in the creation of shows. If they ask me to show some exercises, I’ll do it, but without worrying about things like distribution.”● EMMANUELLE DREYFUS1. Percusionist with whom he created “Deux homes jonglaient dans leur tête.” In the show, Jérôme Thomas plays an instrument for the first time. 2. When asked about his decision to do without a stage and lighting for “En attendant,” (Avignon 2010), the choreographer explains: “It’s an ecological decision.”www.jerome-thomas.fr

“Ici”, all of our prisonsFor two years, Jérôme Thomas collaborated with the mime Markus

Schmid on the creation of “Ici”, using documentary research (reading “Discipline and Punish” by Michel Foucault as well as inmate testimonies, watching films and newsreels on detentions) and fieldwork (holding workshops in prison) regarding all kinds of internment, be it incarcerating, corporal or philosophical. No juggling balls. For this variation, the master juggler left his juggling balls behind and called out to musician-mechanic Pierre Bastien, a trumpet player and inventor of unheard-of instruments, moved by motors. “He’s an incredibly brilliant artist who generates incredible emotion”, says Jérôme Thomas. “His machines, objects and sound sculptures will be put on stage and put into motion by our sound engineer.” Jérôme Thomas and Markus Schmid come together, around a chair, and use choreographed movement and the handling of objects and papers to offer us a poetic get-away. ● www.pierrebastien.com

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Key dates1987 “Artrio” with musicians Carlo Rizzo and Jean-Paul Autin.1990 “Extraballe,” first solo show.1993 Founding of Armo (Atelier de recherche en mani-pulation d’objets).1995 Originator of the “Dans la jongle des villes” festival, the first festival of contemprorary and improvised juggling, in Malakoff (92).1996 Creation of GR12, the compa-ny’s research group (development of cubic juggling).2001 “Cirque Lili.”2003 SACD’s circus arts award.2006 “Rain/Bow.”2008 “Deux homes jonglent dans leur tête,” with Roland Auzet.2009 Elected to the SACD board (dele-gate for the circus arts), for a period of 3 years.

2010 “Ici”.

Jérôme Thomas and Markus Schmid during a rehearsal of “Ici.”

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Circostrada Networkc/o HorsLesMurs – 68, rue de la Folie Méricourt – 75011 Paris – FranceT. +33 (0)1 55 28 10 10 – F. +33 (0)1 55 28 10 [email protected]

www.circostrada.org

Circostrada Network works towards the development and structuring of the circus arts and street arts on the European scale. Although these sectors represent a dynamic contribution to the European arts, they are in need of a common forum to allow for collaboration, discussion and professional representation at the European level. Founded in 2003 by HorsLesMurs and composed of over 30 correspondents, the network contributes to the sharing of information and resources within these artistic milieus by favouring encounters and co-operation between European professionals and by carrying out common actions to further the recognition of these artistic forms.

circostrada networkCircostrada Network – street arts and circus artsEuropean platform for information, research and professional exchanges

dossier from stradda #15 and #18 / page 16 circostrada networkThis project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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