Belgian circus company “Be Flat” was founded by Ward Mortier and Thomas Decaesstacker in 2017. Both talented artists come from a parkour background, which brought them together in 2008. As residents of an urban environment, the artists are interested in creating a dialogue with the surrounding public space during their performances.

DOUBLE YOU

“Double You” is a social experiment in the form of circus art which concentrates on FOMO or, in other words, “Fear of Missing Out”. By dividing both the stage and the audience in two parts they perform two different yet still interconnected shows. However, the lights, shadows and sounds from the other show that cannot be seen raises some questions for the spectators: Why am I sitting on this side? What is happening on the other side? What am I missing out on? etc.

Duration: 60 minutes

Age: +6

Discipline: double-show; acrobatics

Credits : 

Artists : Ward Mortier, Thomas Decaesstecker, Mehdi Delanoeije, Dario Tabakov, Tars Van Der Vaerent.

Dramaturgy : Craig Weston

Lights : David Carney

Outsider’s view : Zora Snake, Jesse Huygh, Sander Decuyper, Gianna Sutterlet

Sound : Marie-Anne Standaert, Stijn Dickel, Celestin Massot

Costumes and stage design : Ella Courvoisier

VIDEO

FOLLOW ME

“Follow Me” is a site-specific performance that combines parkour with the elements of circus. It has been a unique highlight in plenty of international circus festivals. The artists are moving up and down the buildings, roofs, balconies and even the inside of chimneys. In the meantime, the spectators, based on the title of the show, follow them around and participate in the process.

Duration: 60 minutes

Age: +6

Discipline: parkour; urban sports; acrobatics

Credits :

Artists and directors : Ward Mortier, Thomas Decaesstecker

Dramaturgical advice : Craig Weston

Outsider’s view : Sander De Cuyper

Music :  Karen Van Shaik

VIDEO

The show is a  part of the “Rīgas vasara 2022” program.

Photo credit : Jimmy Kets

Contemporary circus company “Taigi Cirkas” was formed in 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. It’s name can be loosely translated from Lithuanian as “But it’s circus” – meaning that it is needless of an explanation. The core of the company consists of Konstantin and Elena Kosovec. Their main purpose is to tell honest stories emerging from their personal and collective experiences by using circus disciplines as a medium to share and connect.

“Up to this Point” is a result of a collaboration between Konstantin Kosovec from Lithuania and Aleksey Smolov, a Latvian circus artist. The performance explores the changes within the body and the mind when the artists face great challenges. How do the changes in the body affect the mental state? And how do the changes in the mind appear on the body?

TRAILER

Photo credit : Donatas Ališauskas

A young Spanish/Swiss collective based in Brussels is made up of Julio Calero Ferre, Daniel Torralbo Pérez and Gianna Sutterlet. Each with a different background, they met at Brussels Circus School (Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque). Since then, their main focus is on mastering the teeterboard as well as pair acrobatics.

“Encore une fois” (“One more time”) is a rather playful and entertaining circus show. From ping-pong balls to a teeterboard, all the elements mix together in a musical creation. Additionally, the title of the performance implies that making mistakes is allowed not only on stage but also in life.

TRAILER

Photo credit : Nicolas Righetti

The show is a part of the “Rīgas vasara 2022” program.

“ONLY BONES V.1.6”

Lanky loidlings.

Squishy Schloompings.

Spiky Spa-doo-dlings.

Marina Cherry squeaks, zooms, and tiptoes through a micro-space. Fragmenting pieces of a spunky personal universe puddle over the stage for her solo performance, “Only Bones v1.6”.

Intriguingly engulfing, sporadically disturbing, this quirky conglomeration creates a mishmash of corporal and cerebral manipulations – a follow-up project to the original “Only Bones (v.1.0) created by Thomas Monckton. Bursting the bubbles of banality, in a balance between theatrical and physical, Marina nudges the limits, researching innovation amongst extreme constraints, using only one light, it is a maximisation of the minimal.

TRAILER

Kanta Company is three circus artists from three different countries – Finland, Lithuania, and USA – who aspire to create entertaining but thought provoking circus. “Onstage is where we feel the most alive – circus forces us to be present. By bringing everyday situations and issues onstage we want to give the audience new perspectives on their lives via the transformative experience of circus, creating a world where the everyday is extraordinary, and the real becomes surreal.”

Their show “107 Ways to Deal with Pressure” is a tool to talk about pressure. Feelings of stress and pressure are part of being human – everyone experiences them. Unreachable expectations, stress, burnouts – in modern day life these factors are treated as normal. What’s more, the situation in the world, the pandemic, climate change, and all kinds of uncertainty in our lives only pile on more pressure on top of personal problems. It seems impossible to live these days without a constant feeling of pressure.

That’s why it is important to talk about these topics publicly so that we can avoid more serious problems in the future and break the stigma of sharing these kinds of things. We want to help the audience realize they are not alone, and equip them with ways to deal with pressure, to use it as a source of strength and inspiration instead of something that makes us weak.

Photo credit : Donatas Ališauskas

The show is a part of the “Rīgas vasara 2022” program.