Circusfest 2014, the Roundhouse’s annual celebration of contemporary circus, will be headlined by UK premieres from Compagnie La Meute and Company 2, and the world premiere of a piece created by artist Mark Storor.
The three circus productions will play in the Camden venue’s main house between 26 March and 27 April, while additional productions and events take place in the Roundhouse’s studio and a pop up tent.
Compagnie La Meute’s The Wolf Pack (26 March to 6 April) finds the group of French acrobats, recent graduates of the Stockholm University of Dance and Circus, taking to the rarely seen Russian swing, launching themselves up to 10 metres into the air and hoping that their colleagues will be there when they fall.
Company 2, the company behind 2012’s London Wonderground hit Cantina, brings acrobats and aerialists from shows including La Clique and Circa to the Roundhouse from 9 to 17 April for She Would Walk The Sky.
Storor’s Puffball (22 to 27 April) brings circus performers together with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning cast of youngsters to create a show inspired by their own personal stories.
The season, which also features performances at Jackson’s Lane, Shoreditch Town Hall, artsdepot, the Albany and Highbury Fields, brings together performers from the opening of the London Paralympic games with deaf and disabled Brazilian actors, musicians and dancers being trained to perform at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony in Belonging, a collaboration between the UK’s Graeae and Brazil’s Circo Crescer e Viver.
Leila Jones, circus producer for the Roundhouse commented: “When our festival started in 2007 it was the first UK circus festival and now we can say that circus has well and truly arrived and is a huge part of the cultural scene, emerging from a fringe art form to one that has been embraced by the common consciousness.
For 2014 we have programmed our biggest and most diverse CircusFest line up yet. We will have more shows in more venues featuring hundreds of performers from around the world plus the best UK contemporary circus talent.”
Among the shows taking place away from the Roundhouse’s main space is Circus Geeks’ part TEDx-style talk, part Guiness World Record-breaking demonstration Beta Testing, spoken word/aerial collaboration Expectation and hair hanging show Capilotractées.