Keynote – Sanae El Kamouni
Sanae El Kamouni founded Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger in 2003 and has been leading the company ever since. She’ll take the listener along in her challenges to gain recognition for Moroccan acrobatic heritage, to preserve it and to evolve it into contemporary circus.
Panel conversation – Nick van der Heijden, Amanda Homa and Karim Randé
A panel of artists, consisting of Amanda Homa, Karim Randé and Nick van der Heijden, with expertise in ethnic origin, disability and gender will reflect on issues of identity in a panel discussion. What constitutes your identity as a human being? And to what extent does your profession shape your identity and vice versa?
Nick van der Heijden founded House of Circus together with Germain Chalat. He obtained his Bachelor diploma at the Academy of Circus and Performance Art in 2014. Driven by their common passion for Circus and Drag, Nick and Germain develop their distinctive style of performing and creating by incorporating various skills such as, static trapeze, hand balancing, clowning, drag and make-up.
Amanda Homa is a contemporary circus artist, focused on aerials (rope). She started circus in Brazil, moved to Europe in 2012 to study at FLIC in Turin (Italy) and graduated at Le Lido in Toulouse (France) in 2017. From 2017 to 2021, she collaborated with Ockham’s Razor (Belly of the Whale) and SCOM (Borborygmes) as a performer and in 2021, she co-founded the company Diagonale du Vide, to create their first indoor show “It’s Winter, the Sky is Blue”.
Karim Randé is an aerial sanglist, acrobat, musician and actor. Karim is a graduate from both CNAC and the Conservatoire National de Théâtre de Bordeaux-Aquitaine (TnBA). He has worked with Franco Dragonne, Cirque du Soleil, Compagnie Malabar, Compagnie Montalvo Hervieu, Théâtre National de Paris-Chaillot and Galapiat cirque. In 2014 Karim got heavily injured while performing a Korean board act. As a result of the accident, his foot had to be amputated in 2016; the only solution that gave him a chance to continue working as a circus artist. Today, he has resumed almost all his disciplines at the same level as before, adapting them to his disability.
Workshops
Two rounds of workshops will be offered to give bodily expression to thoughts, raise questions, find answers and (re)define identities.
1. Creative self-expression on your face – Joyce Pietrzak
Participants will get to know their own face as a canvas and will create a make-up look for an already existing act or character or create a new look from scratch. We will guide you, from the very basics to the end result. For hygienic reasons, the look will be created on a face chart (paper), but feel free to bring your own make-up and try it directly on your face.
2. The role of representation in artistic identity – Amanda Homa
A collective reflection on the power of representations in creation processes and how shedding some light in our automatisms can help us understand better what we’re doing. It’s an open space for reflection about the link between identity and creation. The participants will be invited to try unravel their inspirations and motivations and observe which role they play in their artistic identity and creation process. Where do they come from? How do they impact the work?
3. Artistic creation from physical (im)possibilities – Karim Rande
Dance and acrobatic movement will be approached with medical instruments (crutches, braces, knee pads etc). Participants will research how to move in a body that people call disabled and highlight that the artistic creation will be born from the constraint.
4. Moroccan Acrobatics – Groupe acrobatique de Tanger
Acrobats from Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger will teach participants the intricacies of Moroccan acrobatics, a very old tradition. The human pyramids (which could go up to 10 or 11 levels) were used to spy on the enemy. The knowledge is passed on from generation to generation.
In cooperation with Fontys FHK
Sanae El Kamouni – Group Acrobatique de Tanger
:
https://groupeacrobatiquedetanger.fr/
Video: https://vimeo.com/712750940
Nick van der Heijden – House of Circus
:
https://houseofcircus.com/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk0h6DliRpk
Amanda Homa
:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLtM8tix8a8&t=2s
Karim Randé – Cie Bancale
:
https://www.bancale.org
