About the production
Six acrobats are enjoying obstacles and meetings, trying to stay in constant movement.
They put together their bodies, tangle their arms and legs, seek strange forms, and never cease to reach their off-balance state by trying harder, by failing, trying to take their moves further and make them more complex, perhaps even stranger... They use obstacles to their benefit, while putting into practice their abilities to avoid them, to look away from them, to absorb them. In short, they transform and use them. For Rare Birds’ acrobats, it is not about finding a point of equilibrium or creating figures, it is about always trying to look for an evolution of movements and being their protagonists. Every attempt to keep balance is illusory. Only constant transformation is permanent. They develop forms that turn into something else continuously and in an unexpected way, thus provoking a series of reactions, whose brilliance lies elsewhere other than in the spectacular.
What matters is no longer to win or lose, but to keep on. In a way, to carry on playing...
Authors
ARNO FERRERA is a graduate in Physical Theatre from the Scuola Teatro Dimitri (CH), which followed ten years in gymnastics and, in parallel, six years studying baroque music at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (CSI). After choosing Brussels as a base, he completed his physical training in contemporary dance and has toured Europe with Martin Schick and Damir Todorović in Holiday on Stage, and with Opera Retablo in Vanity: I Hate this Job. He works as a dramatist and in the design and creation of theatrical masks for many productions of the dance company of the choreographer
Joeri Dubbe (Kitsune, Infant and Kiraly), which is currently touring in Europe and Asia. Working with masks has allowed him to study instinctive movement and analyse the motricity of the animal world. He encountered the Un loup pour l’homme company in 2015, taking on a role in Face Nord, and then participating in the creation of Rare Birds.
ALEXANDRE FRAY has an affection for a physical relationship which originate from ten years of judo training. He has a taste for contact and research. Following experience with street entertainment, he trained at CNAC (Centre National des Arts du Cirque) where he became a lifter in hand-balancing. After this training, of lectures and encounters, he forged his own idea of acrobatic lifts and shared the experience of several companies, before creating his own: La Compagnie des Syrtes in dance, the Anamorphose group in theatre and Cheptel Aleïkoum in circus performance, of which he is a member. He also created Warm with David Bobée. While taking on a role in Les Sublimes, then in Base 11/19 with Guy Alloucherie, he met Frédéric Arsenault, the tumbler, with whom he founded Un Loup pour l’Homme in 2005. Appris par Corps laid down the bases of a physical universe in 2007, which were extended in a more radical way in Face Nord in 2011. His research into the human issues of lifts found a particular resonance in this Projet Grand-mère, which he developed in collaboration with the elderly.
MIKA LAFFORGUE was born in Auch (Gascony) in 1980. At 13, Mika slid under the Pop-circus Big Top. 5 years later, he left his home soil to train full time at CNAC where he blossomed as a lifter doing aerial stunts. He gained the Metiers des Arts du Cirque diploma and created a double-act, Comme demain si ça vient, with his fellow acrobat, Clara Poch, presented during the Terres de Cirque festival at La Villette. At the same time, they founded Nushka with Antek Klemm and created the show, A coups de bec. In 2005, he changed partner and did aerial acrobatics with Sophia Perez. From this meeting would emerge several acts, presented as part of Cheptel Aleïkoum, including Perpète by the Nushka company. Mika also performed in this company’s second production, Juliette - dis nous c’que t’as dans ta tête. In 2009, Mika rejoined Nadir for Shoot the Girl First and in 2010 he was selected to join the cast of Face Nord by Un Loup pour l’Homme. After several years within the company, he participated in the production of Rare Birds.
SERGI PARES began Physical Theater at the age of 16. This taught him the basics of acrobatics. He tried various circus disciplines, entered the Rogelio Rivela school in Barcelona, then continued his studies at the Swedish Circus and Dance University (DOCH) in Stockholm. Sergi’s personal work began with experimentation and research, especially with a hand-balancing double-act. He joined Un Loup pour l’Homme in 2011 for the Face Nord production and tour. He then worked with several contemporary dance companies, notably with Anton Lachky, Damien Jalet, Erna Ómarsdóttir and, more recently, with Eulalia (Lali) Ayguadé. Sergi was also committed to combining his time performing with time devoted to teaching. In 2017, he rejoined the Un Loup pour l’Homme team for Rare Birds.
FRÉDÉRI VERNIER is a lifter by vocation. Always thirsty for knowledge about how the world and the people who surround him function. As well as being passionate about photography, mechanics and water sports, Frédéri became a circus performer at the age of 8. He discovered a strong taste for the stage and it was a chance meeting at 18 at the Balthazar regional centre for circus arts that gave him the key to this vocation. It was at the national school of Rosny-sous-Bois (ENACR) that his decision to be a base began to make real sense with his encounter with Justine Berthillot. It was with this highly unique double-act that he continued to the national centre for circus arts at Châlons. Since leaving school, he has created NOOS with Justine. His meeting with Un Loup pour l’Homme happened in 2012 thanks to a workshop organised by the company. Undeniably on the same lines of thought and research, Frédéri joined the cast of Rare Birds.
ŠPELA VODEB was born in 1984 in Slovenia, currently lives in Barcelona, works in Spain, Slovenia and France. Graduated at SEAD - Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria, with the focus on contemporary dance performance. In 2010 she finished the academy with postgraduate year as a member of the Bodhi Project, a dance company led by Susan Quinn, the director of the Academy. Since then she has been collaborating with international artists and being a member of companies such as Enclave Arts del Moviment, directed by Roberto Olivan (A Place to Bury Strangers), Atempo Circ (Deal), Editta Braun Company, company lead by Tomaž Simatovic. At the present moment she is working with companies Milan Tomašik & Co (touring performances Hunting Season, Silver Blue and being in creation of the new performance Free Fall) and Un loup pour l’homme (Rare Birds). She is also a creator, an assistant choreographer, teacher giving classes and workshops.
From the reviews
The movements are slow and soft, but it’s irrelevant since none of us won’t be able to reproduce them anyway. Sergi is squatting on tiptoe of Alexander. That's already balance, acrobatics. (...) They explore the limits of balance. Duo, trio or all together, these acrobats are those who invent their own language: a language about game and emotion, where the prowess of the body tells above all the mystery of human relations.
Marie-Claire Poirier, abrideabattue.blogspot.com
There is no music, the typical tension and discharge of a circus show is absent. Instead,
there is a joint concentration on the physical nature of the performers, and each new movement is an important event. Through this minimalism and the focus on the body
the contact between the men an intimate, almost sensual quality is created. What begins in the middle of the tent, develops into an itinerant movement, and then the rest of the company dives from the audience one by one. They assimilate in the group, the pace accelerates, and the acrobatic tricks become more complex.
Jeroen van Wijhe, theaterkrant.nl
