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COMPAÑIA DE PASO
Un horizonte cuadrado

Creation and direction : Ulrich Hirzel

22-30 april 2010: LIMA, Peru - La Tarumba Festival del Circulo
12-13 may 2010: REUS, Spain - Trapezi, fira del circ de Catalunya
28-29 may 2010: VALLADOLID, Spain - TAC Festival
02-03 june 2010: SALAMANCA, Spain - Festival internacional de las artes de Castilla y León
09-13 + 16-21 june 2010: POTSDAM, Germany - Fabrik Potsdam
29-30 june 2010: POZNAN, Poland - Malta Festival
08-10 july 2010: KARLSRUHE, Germany - Tollhaus
16-18 july 2010: HAMMAMET, Tunisia - Festival international de Hammamet

Compañia de Paso is a flower that bloomed when the famous swiss producer and director for "new circus" Ulrich Hirzel (Que-Cir-Que, Cirque O, Le Chapiteau aux mille miroirs, etc...) met chilean artists in 2005 in Santiago de Chile.
While on tour with his previous production Cirque : the story of Auguste, Ulrich Hirzel was asked to give workshops for chilean artists. Such a rich and fullfilling encounter that it ended in the natural desire to create a chilean new circus performance (still unusual in Chile).

Un horizonte cuadrado ("The angular horizon") grew from that human encounter. It is also based on the idea of an original rigging structure made of 4 mats raising 10m above the ground, with 6 trapezes suspended to it.

The title of the show is an hommage to the manifesto wrote by chilean poet Vincente Huidobro (1893-1948), founder of the litterary movement called "creationismo" (creationism).
According to Huidobro, the poet has to create something new. He should not reproduce or bow to his elders, he should rather give birth to a new language, with its own existence. In the same time, he gives fair warning against "poetic poetry" : Honey with honey is sickening.

With Compañia de Paso, Ulrich Hirzel wanted to find a new way of working circus aerial techniques. The chilean artists had to "unlearn" what they had learned, and free themselves from the urge to perform "good circus acts" and show off perfect technique mastery. Nevertheless, perfect technique mastery had to be gained, in order to appropriate aerial space, to make it theirs. They also had to re-learn how to evolve in it, to share real emotions and find a new and more direct way to communicate with the audience.

At the borders of new circus and aerial contemporary dance, Un horizonte cuadrado is a unique, fragile and graceful show. It's the speachless story of the cycle of life, from birth to death. Life is movement, and these 6 artists evolve in the air like in the different phases of their lives.
In that suspended universe, they discover the outside world, terrifying and yet fascinating. Through their gestures, they also discover the possibilities and limits of their conditions as creatures suspended above emptiness.
And then they slowly discover the others, their fellow creatures.

Attraction, repulsion, love, hate, desire, indifference: soon, a human society is formed into that angular horizon. And as their interactions grow richer and more complex, more daring movements appear. They jump in the air, or several suspend themselves to the same trapeze...

The creative process ends in a new way to tell a story into aerial space.
The 6 trapeze artists evolve into the "angular horizon" like in their own lives, naturally, with humour and audacity, and unsettling sincerity.

An original soundtrack, made of sizzling sounds, sometimes violent and then very melancholic melodies, accompanies the whole show to perfection.

Far from circus physical feats, Compañia de Paso develops a raw and direct work about life and death, about being human.

Created in 2007 at Centro cultural Matucana 100 in Santiago del Chile, Un horizonte cuadrado has then conquered Europe through its beauty and generosity.

Performers: Héctor Calderón, Paz Mena, Javier Varela, Sullyn Gonzalez, Ilan Oxman Kucky, Paula Riquelme
Musicians: Christian Perez, Emmanuel Perez, Juan Pablo Vargas
Direction: Ulrich Hirzel
Original music: Cristian Pérez
Costumes: Beatriz Zamora
Light designer: Luis Reinoso
Chilean production: Macarena Simonetti
International production: Aladin Production GmbH
Coproduction: KIT Copenhagen

Many thanks to: Colegio Altamira / Universidad La Republica, Chile / Centro cultural San José / Centro cultural Aldea del Enquentro / OXILUZ, Chile / Instituto Chileno Francés de cultura / AVINA Stiftung / Embajada de Suiza en Chile / Compania Circunloquio / Compania El Circo Virtual / KIT Kobenhavn Internationale Teater / Zürcher Theater Spektakel / Château de Monthelon / Fiona Hirzel / Carmen Gloria Sota / Jean-Paul Lefeuvre / Didier André / Nina Larissa Basset

TECHNICAL CONDITIONS

Length of the show: 70 mn without pause
For indoors or outdoors events. Up to 2000 spectators.
Outdoors minimum space required: 25m x 25m x 10m height.
Indoors minimum space required: 15m x 15m x 10m height.
Set up in 2 days.
Download Compania de Paso's technical rider (PDF, 830 Ko)

PRESS REVIEW

The show is like a dream. The beauty of gestures and lights. The virtuosity of bodies that never touch the ground. One must let oneself enter that world, and let oneself go, it's worth a journey. An ideal proposal to start or finish an evening. Journal de Saone-et-Loire, France

The group moves in perfect harmony, they play all together, and yet each one keeps his/her own singularity. Desire comes after the collective, but the urge for freedom leads to more and more daring acrobatics. Always renewing its variations on old as time themes during one hour, Compania de Paso finally disappear in the dark ceiling. Tages Anzeiger, Switzerland

WEBSITE www.monthelon.org/trapeze

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