MAD IN FINLAND – THE SHOW

MAD IN FINLAND – THE SHOW

MAD IN FINLAND THE SHOW

MAD collective

– April 2012 –

ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE

© Sébastien Armengol © KlaraG

A circus show about Finnish folklore, melancholia, madness, and highlights from the history books. Because of such passionate responses, the show has been touring now for over 10 years, touching audiences all over Europe. The eight powerful women present a crazy and seductive act of new circus, chopping with axes through the expectations of femininity and gender norms.

All the artists of Mad in Finland have a common bond in that they have each left their motherland for the love of circus. With a gentle irony they show their country as they remember and dream of it. This distorted and warm-hearted satire of identity is portrayed through top level skills from foot juggling and clowning to wire dancing and aerial acrobatics. Circus, comedy, and live music tell a story of an imaginary and reinvented Finland where Finnish sadness has something magical about it and where the harsh climate encourages strong characters.

MAD IN FINLAND - THE FILM
ANNIVERSARY TOUR IN FINLAND - JULY 2023

Cast

Elice Abonce Muhonen (hair suspension, drums) Heini Koskinen (aerial silk, violin) Jenni Kallo (clown, drums) Milla Lahtinen (swinging trapeze) Mirja Jauhiainen (trapeze, cello, bass) Nelli Kujansivu (foot juggling, drums) Sanja Kosonen (wire dancing, guitar) Teija Sotikoff (vocals, keytar, flute)

Technical manager : Gautier Gravelle
Stage manager : Gautier Gravelle ou Luc Mainaud ou Bernard Molinier Light : Gautier Gravelle ou Nicolas Gastard
Sound : Franck Beaumard ou Mathias Lejosne
Tour manager : Anne Heuveline – L’Avant Courrier

CONCEPT/CASTING ORIGINAL :
Elice Abonce Muhonen, Heini Koskinen, Lotta Paavilainen, Mirja Jauhiainen, Sanna Kopra, Stina Kopra, Sanja Kosonen

 THANKS:
Remy Sciuto (Artistic advisor on music, Siri Hamari (Outside eye), Romain de Lagarde (Lights), Lucie Plessis (Illustration), Sebastien Armengol, Klara G, Paola Jorquera (Photographer), and Sauna, Joulupukki, Carina, Saxenberg, Claire Peysson

Partners & co-producers

Support: La Cascade, Maison des arts du Clown et du Cirque, Bourg Saint Andéol (07); Arts Council of Finland; La Comédie de Caen, Centre Dramatique National de Normandie (14); La Brèche, Pôle National des Arts du Cirque, Cherbourg Octeville (50)

General informations

Creation April 2012

  • Under Big Top (circular version)
  • In theatres (proscenium version)
  • Outdoor version (circular version)

75 min – from 5 years and old

YOUR CONTACT :
Anne Heuveline
anne[@]avantcourrier.fr
+33 6 68 20 14 57

ATTRACTION CAPILLAIRE

ATTRACTION CAPILLAIRE

Attraction Capillaire

Galapiat Cirque
Elice Abonce Muhonen et Sanja Kosonen

 

– November 2018 –

This is a short production, light and versatile but as (shrewdly) far-fetched as ever. A site-specific performance, Attraction Capillaire (hairy attraction) adjusts to the environment and can be presented in the street, gardens or in front of a theatre.

Elice Abonce Muhonen and Sanja Kosonen present Attraction Capillaire:
Two women with no limits.
Kafka without having read Kafka.
A circus parade with no animals.
An aquatic act with no water.
Acrobatics with no gravity.
A great orchestra with no musicians.
A circus performance with hair hanging and Finnish humour.

Cast

Authors and performers: Sanja Kosonen and Elice Abonce Muhonen 
Building: Jérémie Bruyère and Michel Carpentier
Lighting design: Jérémie Bruyère and Nicolas Gastard
Musical composition and arrangements: Stéphane Comon and Madeg Menguy
Costumes and hairstyling: Elice Abonce Muhonen and Sanja Kosonen
Production manager: Elice Abonce Muhonen
Production: Galapiat Cirque
Administration: Yvain Lemattre and Camille Rondeau
Touring management: l’Avant Courrier – Lisa Henin

Partners & Co-producers

Co-production: Plateforme 2 Pôles Cirques en Normandie I La Brèche à Cherbourg – Cirque Théâtre d’Elbeuf
Production residencies: La Hactais, Festival Miramiro – Gand, Plateforme 2 Pôles Cirques en Normandie I La Brèche à Cherbourg – Cirque Théâtre d’Elbeuf

Basic facts

November 2018

Site-specific performance, seating capacity depending on the site
25 min – From 4 year on

Hair hanging.

There are no upcoming events at this time.

YOUR CONTACT :
Lisa Henin
lisa[@]avantcourrier.fr
+33 6 72 72 67 65

LES PETITS BONNETS

LES PETITS BONNETS

Les Petits Bonnets

Cirque du Docteur Paradi

Pascaline Herveet

 

– June 2019 –

ABOUT THE ARTIST

© Gilles Dantzer

L’Amazone (Amazon), Bouche Cousue (Tight-lipped) and la Joconde (Mona Lisa) revolt after the announcement of a redundancy plan. They tell about their body, their work, love, loneliness, and power-based relationships.

Les Petits Bonnets is a circus fiction, a poetic and powerful story based on actual events. A mise en abyme of the chronicle of a workers’ revolt grappling with the media co-opting their fight.

An intimate and striking opera featuring the band Les Elles who chant their physical performance on-stage.

Cast

Karine Gonzalez –flamenco dance

Pauline Dau – Hula hoop, aerial rope

Louisa Wruck – tightrope

Pascaline Herveet – singing, drama

Les Elles, Sophie Henry et Elodie Fourré – music

Arnaud Landoin –whips, roller-dance

Flore Marvaud – light creation

Bertrand Deguillaume – light engineer

Laurent Beaujour or Clément Legendre – Sound engineer

Marie Letellier – chorégraphy

Cédric Avrand – scenery

Pascaline Herveet – writing, with the help of Marion Guyez for directing

Partners & Co-productions

Le Plongeoir – Cité du Cirque, Pôle Cirque Le Mans (72); Superforma et le Silo, Le Mans (72); Théâtre de l’Éphémère, le Mans (72) ; Le Jardin de Verre, Cholet (49) ; La Grainerie, Toulouse (31); Latitude 50, Marchin, (Belgique) ; Pôle National des Arts du Cirque Archaos, Marseille (13) ; Espace Senghor, Le May sur Evre (49); Le 37ème parallèle, Tours (37) ; Quai des Chaps, Nantes (44) ; Bibliothèque Armand Gatti, la Seyne sur Mer (83) ; Spedidam ; Région Pays de la Loire ; DRAC Pays de la Loire

The company is supported by French Ministry of Culture, Région Pays de la Loire, Département du Maine-et-Loire and Cholet municipality.

Basic facts

June 2019

Semi-circular staging under big top or proscenium stage indoor, 280 people under the tent, 600 in theater
80 min – From 12 years on

Tightrope, acrobatics, hula-hoop, singing, drama, live music, rope, whips, roller-dance, Flamenco.

There are no upcoming events at this time.

YOUR CONTACT :
contact[@]avantcourrier.fr
+33 2 40 36 98 57

VANITÉS

VANITÉS

Vanités

Pauline Dau

 

– September 2017 –

ABOUT THE ARTIST

© Morgane Légo

Physical and burlesque, theatre and circus, dark humour and white face clown, Dalida and Fanny Ardant, kitschy and classy, in her first solo performance Pauline Dau assembles genders and invents a one-woman circus show in which she performs acrobatics, hula hoop but also singing and acting.

She plays all the characters of her portrait gallery in order to grasp what makes us, what are we produced from.
In this energetic and intimate performance, she gets inside the voices and faces, taking the audiences on a fiery and exuberant journey.

Cast

Author and performer: Pauline Dau
Insight: Jean-Battiste Couton
Lighting design: Roland Catella
Office management: l’Avant Courrier – Louise-Michèle You, Emmanuelle Nonet
Production and touring managment: l’Avant Courrier – Elsa Lemoine, Nolwenn Manac’h

Partners & Co-producers

Co-production: Cirk’Eol ( Montigny-lès-Metz)
Supports: La Région Pays de la Loire, La Grainerie (Toulouse), Archaos – Pôle National Cirque Méditerranée (Marseille), Daki Ling, Le jardin des Muses (Marseille), La Faïencerie (Creil), Le Cheptel Aleikoum et l’Echalier (Saint-Agil), l’Atelier du plateau (Paris).

Basic facts

September 2017

Proscenium stage – Indoor (theatres or other venues which are not specifically dedicated), 20 to 250 people – close proximity of the audience with playing area
50 min – From 5 years on

Acrobatics, hula-hoop, singing, speaking.

YOUR CONTACT :
Nolwenn Manac’h
nolwenn[@]avantcourrier.fr
+33 6 76 78 01 19

CRY ME A RIVER

CRY ME A RIVER

Cry me a river

Sanja Kosonen

 

– March 2021 –

ABOUT THE ARTIST

© Sébastien Armengol

In 2007, in Finland, Sanja Kosonen participated in a workshop on “crying chants” in Finland, organised by a group of contemporary singers whose aim is to revive and reinvent the forgotten tradition of Karelian mourners. They practised these improvised chants on their own, in the forest or during rites of passage. The poetical power of words associated with a distinctive rhythm and a crying melody provided an atmosphere for abandonment.
Since then, Sanja has integrated to some degree this ancient wisdom.

She is struck by the fact that our “modern” societies seem to have forgotten about rituals of shared emotions or to consider those as a sign of weakness. The concept of crying guides her as much towards the river deep inside the human being as it evokes the absurdity and akwardness demonstrated when dealing with private emotions.

She imagines a multidisciplinary performance, a combination of dancing, singing, circus and fine arts.

Cast

Director: Sanja Kosonen

Performers: Nedjma Benchaib Le Coeur, Jeremie Bruyere, Muriel Carpentier, Sanja Kosonen , Sampo Kurppa,, Inka Pehkonen, Olli Vuorinen

 Light: Julien Poupon

Lighting manager: Julien Poupon or Lila Burdet

Music: Sami Tammela

Sound manager: Geoffrey Daguet

Video: Muriel Carpentier.

Costume design: Mickaël Lecoq

Set design: Sanja Kosonen, Muriel Carpentier

Assistant director: Marylou Thomas

Artistic advisor: Minja Mertanen

Building and design: Jeremie Bruyere, Muriel Carpentier, Alice Carpentier, Michel Carpentier

Production, touring and office management: L’Avant Courrier / Nolwenn Manac’h, Louise-Michèle You and Emmanuelle Nonet

Partners & Co-producers

Co-production: Le Prato- Théâtre International de Quartier, Pole National des Arts du Cirque- Lille; La Plateforme 2 Poles Cirque en normandie –La Brèche à Cherbourg et Cirque Théâtre d’Elbeuf; CCN2 Grenoble – Centre Chorégraphique National de Grenoble – Direction Yoann Bourgeois / Rachid Ouramdane; Le Carré magique -Pole national des arts du cirque en Bretagne; La Verrerie – Pole National Cirque Occitanie; Onyx-Théâtre de Saint Herblain.

 In-residencies: Cirko – Center for New Circus – Helsinki Finland; Ay Roop – Laboratoire permanent pour les arts du cirque; La Grainerie Fabrique des arts du cirque et de l’itinérance; La Cité du Cirque for Pole Régional Cirque Le Mans in partnership with La Fonderie  / Le théâtre du Radeau; Le Monfort théâtre; le théâtre du peuple-Pierre Bénite, Chepteil Aleilkoum

Supports: French Government – Direction régionale des affaires culturelles (DRAC) des pays de la Loire et Direction Générale de la Création Artistique (DGCA), Département of Loire Atlantique, Région of Pays de la Loire, Finnish cultural fondation (Suomen Kulttuurirahasto), Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taiteen edistämiskeskus), SACD – Bourse Beaumarchais.

Basic facts

March 2021
in la Brèche Pole National Cirque de Normandie, in collaboration with Le Trident, Scène nationale de Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.

Proscenium stage Indoor, Up to 600 personnes
70 minutes – From 10 years on

Circus, visual art

Press

«Arising from a desire to write about the expression of emotions, Sanja Kosonen’s creation is a bewitching performance which peculiar atmosphere is revealed through fragmented tableaux blending song, dance and circus arts harmoniously. (…) This is a piece of authentic contemporary writing. Indeed, instead of showing acts one after the other or displaying a mere narrative dramaturgy, the performance consists in a tiling of scenes that stand out against a background of darkness, as in a dream which surrealistic episodes only make sense on an intimate and symbolic level.» – Mathieu Dochtermann, La Terrasse, September 2021

YOUR CONTACT :
Nolwenn Manac’h
nolwenn[@]avantcourrier.fr
+33 6 76 78 01 19