The new circus is the phenomenon of the day, spreading from France and French-speaking countries to European festivals. No longer made up of single acts, but "put into shape" by theatre and dance, with its own dramaturgy capable of linking the various components, from acrobatics to jugglers' feats to clowns' jokes, the circus of the year 2000 is reinventing itself and, at the same time, giving the theatre and dance, which badly need it, fresh material to work with. After all, it was precisely the circus that inspired the noble father of these innovations to come, Jean Cocteau, when he invented the epoch-making 'Parade' for the Ballets Russes in 1917, with the help of the brilliant triad Satie, Picasso and Massine. Since then, France, where all the avant-gardes and all the 'isms' married the popular show, France still and always so fond of street theatre, varieté, cabaret, and French-speaking countries such as Quebec have revived the pleasure of the traditional circus - a mixture of risk, skill, breathtaking perfection, comedy, storytelling - with 'other', fresh, inventive layouts, from Zingaro with his horses to Cirque Plume to Cirque du Soleil, to name but the best known. But of great importance, in the blossoming of the new circus, was also the choice of the Ecole Nationale des Arts du Cirque of Chalons to entrust, on the initiative of Bernard Turin, each year the performance of the graduates to selected choreographers of French contemporary dance, from Josef Nadj, who began in 1995 with his Kafkaesque 'Le cri du camaleon', to François Verret, Héla Fattoumi and Eric Lamoureux, to Francesca Lattuada, this year. Marquee, runway, theatre, warehouses and old factories: one place is as good as another for these varied forms of fascinating 'art of entertainment' and wonder, which know how to 'turn dust into gold', as Jean Genet wrote. The Cirque Baroque of Christian Taguet, a multifaceted head-comedian with a good theatrical background, who taught guitar and then became an acrobat, as a self-taught performer, was born out of the experience of the company he himself created in 1973, Le Puits aux Images, which then took on its current name in 1987. Taguet's intention in defining his troupe, precisely, Cirque Baroque, is to "preserve the traditional essence of the circus through the difficulty of the exercises, while renewing its imagery and codes". To give substance to this ambitious project, he has put his hand to suggestions from the East, such as "Ningen" by Yukio Mishima, and a reinterpretation of the founding myths of Western culture, from "Candides" to "Frankenstein", passing through "Troie ou les aventuriers de la cité perdue", the title with which he presents himself at Rovereto, a festival that is not new to circus arts: just remember the aerial evolutions of the Australians of Strange Fruit in 1999. Homer's 'Iliad' is one of the privileged sources, the legendary one, of 'Troie ou les aventuriers de la cité perdue', to which are added the re-writes-avatars of Racine, Giraudoux, Offenbach. Another source of inspiration is the searchers of lost treasures, scientists or charlatans, mythical archaeologists like Heinrich Schliemann or impostors with their fake maps. The transition from Homer to the present day is suggested by the mutability of the stage-projections, which come to life as if on an imaginary map where hills, men, horses - including the trap-horse passed off as a proverb that caused the city to fall into the hands of the enemy - adventurers, dreamers and ghosts of the past are drawn. War, love, death, envy, sacrifice and desire are the themes that bring into resonance, with a new narrative rhythm that is no longer linear, but by superimposition, the statuesque-heroic plasticity of the ancient Greek world and the electronic immateriality of the contemporary one. Scene and costumes are by Enzo Iorio, a Neapolitan, former dancer with Marianna Troise's '86 company. A valid Mediterranean contribution to this timeless and ageless drama.
A la recherche de la citée perdue...
Les Aventuriers de la Troie perdue...
A la recherche des Troie perdues...
Troja Jones...
Trois fois Troie...
Troie Troie Troie...
L'Ilion du Trésor...
Embrasse moi Ilios...
Embrasse toi Ilios...
To you and to Troy...
From Troy to Hissarlik...
La guerre de Troie continue...
In search of the lost city...
The adventurers of the lost Troy...
In search of the lost Troy...
Troy Jones...
Thrice Troy...
Troy Troy Troy Troy...
Treasure Ilio...
Embrace me, Ilio...
Flame on, Ilio...
To you and to Troy...
From Troy to Hissarlik...
The Trojan War continues...
Cirque Baroque by Christian Taguet
