Galactik Ensemble - Paris, France

Optraken

creation, performed by: Mathieu Bleton, Mosi Espinoza, Jonas Julliand, Karim Messaoudi, Cyril Pernot    
technical management: Victor Fernandes                     
stage management: Charles Rousseau                      
costume ana machinery construction: Franck Breuil         
light design: Adèle Grépinet                                  
lighting technician: Romain Caramalli                                   
sound and music design: Denis Mariotte               
sound technician: Eric Sterenfeld                                                  
graphics, communication: Maëva Longvert            
artistic collaboration: Matthieu Gary, Marie Fonte        
production, distribution: Léa Couqueberg                        
production, administration: Emilie Leloup                 

duration: 60’
premiere: Cirque Theatre d’Elbeuf, 2017

production: Galactic Ensemble
co-production: Plateforme 2 Pôles Cirques en Normandie : La Brèche à Cherbourg - Cirque Théâtre d’Elbeuf, Scène Nationale de Châteauvallon, Le Tandem, scène nationale, Les 3T-Scène conventionnée de Chatellerault, Houdremont Scène Conventionnée, La Courneuve, Les Subsistances, Lyon, CircuxNext, the European plan coordinated by the JTCE and supported by the European Commission

In this piece five fantastic acrobats pit themselves against a hostile environment. Unstable ground disappears underfoot, walls wobble, ceilings collapse, dangers come from every side. Forget elegant tumbling and spangle tights – this wonderfully inventive and original piece of acrobatic theatre is a battle in which every movement matters for survival. It’s spectacular, impressive, unpredictable and enormous fun. 

Mathieu Bleton, Mosi Espinoza, Jonas Julliand, Karim Messaoudi, Cyril Pernot are together the five founding members of the Galactik Ensemble. Their common practice of the circus and more particularly of acrobatics, allowed them to meet within the National School of Circus Arts of Rosny-sous-Bois. Since that time they have enriched their careers with different experiences, performers or authors. Together, they created “Optraken” (2017) “Zugzwang” (2021). Ensemble develops situational acrobatics, the precise relationship between a rugged environment and man’s ability to adjust to it. Their approach is about bringing into play the individual as well as the group in front of a real unpredictability, a risky situation. They first experiment that short moment when we loose control, from dodging and falling to re-establishing balance. This engagement – that requires a complete investment, where supports are missing, where the body adapts and becomes distorted to maintain its integrity – allows the emergence of singular movements. They arise in and from disequilibrium, thus creating a theatricality that we want to question, intensify, and stage. Galactik Ensemble wishes to show acrobatics not any longer as an elegant manner to challenge gravity but as a capacity to test unpredictability.

How these five guys covered in plaster manage to keep their elegance and ease in the midst of this mess in distress? That’s where’s all their charm lays!

© Télérama

A singular universe, alternately peculiar, humorous and frightening, which ends up transforming the stage into shambles.

© Libération