NYU Skirball Sets Lineup for Circus Now: International Contemporary Circus Exposure 2015

For three special nights this winter, NYU SKIRBALL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS (Michael Harrington, Executive Director) invites New York audiences to discover the global movement to revolutionize the circus. CIRCUS NOW: INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS EXPOSURE 2015 will be presented from January 8 through 10 at NYU Skirball (566 LaGuardia Place) with the support of the circus development organization Circus Now. The Festival will feature over 50 international artists and challenge audiences to reimagine their perception of a timeless art.

"In every performing art, there are moments of serious historical significance, moments that mark the shift in the cultural consciousness," says Circus Now National Director Duncan Wall. "For the circus, Circus Now: International Contemporary Circus Exposure 2015 will be one of those moments. Contemporary circus shows have played in New York, but never like this, never in such concentration or quality."

NYU Skirball recently won the 2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Unique Theatrical Experience for presenting Cirque Eloize's CIRKOPOLIS and has positioned itself as a vanguard in presenting the full range of contemporary circus to New York

"CN: ICE truly exemplifies our mission at NYU Skirball to connect our audiences with the most exciting and relevant art forms from all over the world, " said NYU Skirball Executive Director Michael Harrington. "For three nights, our stage will be home to nine contemporary circus companies from three different continents. We are thrilled to welcome them all to Skirball, and cannot wait to share the dynamic allure and artistic innovation of circus today with New York audiences."

The line-up for Circus Now is as follows:

JANUARY 8, 2015 at 8:00 PM
Featuring
NUUA

Cie Nuua is a contemporary circus and visual theatre company based in Finland. Coming from different backgrounds and opposite corners of the world, Cie Nuua is a collaboration between the Finnish circus artist Olli Vuorinen and the Brazilian circus / visual artist Luis Sartori do Vale, together with the light designer Jere Mönkkönen, the musician Petteri Rajanti and the costume designer Anne Jämsä. Vuorinen and do Vale create a juggling form where the body works together with the objects as a tool for manipulation and expression, developing an original and poetic common language.

PARALLEL EXIT

Parallel Exit is the preeminent physical theatre company in New York City. Their goal is to create performance and educational programs that honor and forward the history of the variety arts and embrace a twenty-first century sensibility. Productions have earned the company critical acclaim and two Drama Desk Award nominations for Unique Theatrical Experience.

OCKHAM'S RAZOR

Ockham's Razor is a British aerial theatre company formed in 2004, combining circus and visual theatre to make work that is arresting and entertaining. They specialize in creating physical theatre on original pieces of aerial equipment and create stories from the vulnerability, trust and reliance that exist between people in the air. Rather than paint the circus performer as a superhuman character capable of impressive feats, Ockham's Razor makes work that draws on the human and the real, where the characters go through recognizable experiences, emotions and conflicts which the audience can identify with and relate to.

JANUARY 9, 2015 at 8:00 PM
Featuring
GIRLS ON TRAPEZE

Girls On Trapeze, founded in 2008 by circus performer and instructor Jamie Hodgson, will present an excerpt from HerSelf Rising, the company's second full-length show. HerSelf Rising is an examination of the roles that women play in their own and each other's lives and the strength and grace it takes to find our true selves. Following 8 strong, independent women as they examine how the women who came before them shaped their personalities, habits and tendencies, the story of HerSelf Rising is told through stories, aerial artistry, acrobatics, flexibility and strength, their powerful yet vulnerable characters are revealed.

KRIN HAGLUND

Krin Haglund, a multidisciplinary circus artist, performs alone and with many of today's most exciting circus and cabaret troupes. Haglund's first solo-show, The Rendez-Vous Galant, premiered in June 2013 at the Irish Aerial Dance Festival and the St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival. Haglund is an original cast member of Cirque Eloize, and has also performed with Cirque du Soleil, Riksteatret National Theater of Norway, Amanda Palmer and toured with the Dresden Dolls as a performer and Emcee.

CASUS

Casus is a contemporary circus company from Brisbane, Australia that continues to create performances that get to the routes of circus origins and take a unique look at what the body is capable of. Creating from a place of heart, Casus aims to tell real stories through circus technique with a unique and rigorously refined physicality,

JANUARY 10, 2015 at 8:00 PM
Featuring
ILONA JANTTI

Ilona Jäntti studied circus at Circus Piloterna in Stockholm and contemporary dance at Laban Centre in London, obtaining a master's degree in choreography. Jäntti has collaborated with a diverse range of circus, dance and theatre companies and venues including Shakespeare's Globe, Royal Opera House, The Place and Darwin Centre at National History Museum in the UK, Circo Aereo and Flow Productions in Finland, and Cirkus Cirkör in Sweden.

THE RICOCHET PROJECT

Cohdi Harrell and Laura Stokes, the company of two who make up Ricochet, are based out of rural New Mexico and draw from rigorous backgrounds in classical and contemporary dance, aerial acrobatics, somatic practices and improvisation to explore the internal landscapes of the human experience.

CIRKUS CIRKOR

Based in Sweden, Cirkus Cirkör is Scandinavia's leading performing circus company within the art form of contemporary circus. Cirkus Cirkör has toured the world with a number of successful and praised circus shows, and the company has also been influential in establishing new schools and training courses for aspiring contemporary circus artists in Sweden and Scandinavia..

Honeybuns, a highly physical, interactive artist who is billed as "the world's greatest mime", will emcee all three days of the Festival.