San Francisco Native Aloysia Gavre Returns To San Francisco

Troupe Vertigo, a Los Angeles-based circus-dance-theater company whose spellbinding performances ignite the imagination, joins the San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) in the San Francisco Premiere of Tableaux. Directed and choreographed by Aloysia Gavre and produced by Rex Camphuis-the wife and husband team who co-founded Troupe Vertigo in 2009-Tableaux incorporates an all-female cast of contortionists, dancers, and acrobats whose vertical landscapes challenge audiences with the meaning of confinement and freedom as the artists explore societal controversies through movement.

Since its founding in 2009, Troupe Vertigo has created innovative theatrical pieces using traditional circus arts forms-continually redefining what it means to create groundbreaking works while remaining familiar to viewers. For co-founder Aloysia Gavre, bringing Tableaux to SFIAF is a homecoming as she grew up in the Mission District and Potrero Hill. Gavre gained the foundation for her career as a circus creator from the Pickle Family Circus where she attended the school and toured with the company prior to joining Cirque du Soleil.

For festival director Andrew Wood, having Troupe Vertigo as part of SFIAF means a return of cirque to his yearly gathering: "We have been working to bring cirque back to the Festival for a couple of years now and we are extremely fortunate to have not just one, but two wonderful ensembles in the Festival in 2018."

Troupe Vertigo will be one of two cirque performance ensembles presenting at SFIAF, the other ensemble being Cirquantique from Montreal, Canada. The two artistic directors, Aloysia Gavre and Daïna Michaud, will also lead an admission-free panel discussion on Saturday June 2 at 3:00pm in the Friends of San Francisco library bookstore in Building C at Fort Mason.

Tableaux, a dramatic nouveau cirque performance tells the story of five women who, finding themselves trapped on an island of boxes, transform the intimate feelings of solitude and empowerment into a masterpiece work of synchronization and unity. Tableaux premiered in Las Vegas in February 2017 and was featured in Montreal's Cirque Festival as a part of the Tour de Piste program. The women of Tableaux were recent guest artists in Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, embodying America's suffragette movement, presented by UCLA'S The Center for Art of Performance.

TICKET AND VENUE INFORMATION

Performances will take place in the state-of-the-art Cowell Theater. General Admission tickets are $25 with a $15 early bird option. Tickets can be purchased in person at the box office, by phone 415-399-9554, or online: http://www.sfiaf.org/2018_troupe_vertigo

Performance schedule is Friday, June 1, 8:30pm, Saturday, June 2, 7:00pm, Sunday, June 3, 6:00pm?