CENTRE NATIONAL DES ARTS DU CIRQUE

As cofounders of Cirque Aïtal (which means “that’s the way it is” in Occitan), Victor Cathala and Kati Pikkarainen met in the early 2000s, when they were themselves students at CNAC. Basing themselves on their memories of entering the professional world, a period of both uncertainty and excitement, they offer us their thoughts on devoting oneself entirely to one’s art and plunging headlong into the unknown. Using the aerial rope, teeterboard, trapeze, acro-dance, and more, “in opposition to the prevailing individualism”, they explore what it means to be a group, a crowd, a collective body, ultimately constructing a hybrid form that blends traditional circus techniques (the performance takes place on a circular track beneath a circus tent), theatre, text, and live music. It becomes a way to push one’s movement to its limits, to inhabit one’s gestures fully, and to integrate and accept the inherent risk of all circus arts.