Circus Meets the Culinary Arts in Les 7 Doigts' CUISINE & CONFESSIONS at NYU Skirball

Cuisine & Confessions, an entertainment combining culinary arts with circus high jinx, will have its New York premiere April 11 - 16, 2017, at NYU Skirball Center.

Cuisine & Confessions is the creation of the Montreal-based circus The 7 Fingers (Les 7 Doigts), the company behind the Tony Award-winning Pippin. Cuisine & Confessions is part of the second annual Tilt Kids Festival, a cultural event for families presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF).

The company's awe inspiring acrobats combine circus arts with avant-garde dance, theater, cooking show comedy and original music, paying homage to the iconic comforts of the kitchen. Food, kitchen appliances and recipes combine with elaborate choreography, jaw dropping acrobatics and pulsating music to heighten audiences' most visceral senses. Audiences will be treated to tastings of the food prepared on stage. Video Preview:

Life happens in the kitchen. In Cuisine & Confessions, the stage becomes a giant kitchen where late night confessionals over tea and a jar of Nutella quickly turn into elaborately choreographed family meals. Circus performers recreate stories while cooking actual meals and offering them up to the audience. Secrets are exchanged, lessons are learned and bonds are forged, reinforced by our most visceral of senses: taste.

Each performer has their moment in the spotlight, leading audiences through personal stories. Directors Shana Carroll and Sébastien Soldevila wrote the show by mining true stories from the cast members' lives and weaving together snippets of narratives and themes. Fellow performers are buzzing nearby; grating cheese, breaking eggs, chopping, stirring - occasionally jumping in with supporting moves. All food preparation happens live on stage, at times with audience assistance. From the moment the house opens to the final bow, there is always something cooking.

The 7 Fingers (Les 7 Doigts), based in Montreal, was created in 2002 with the goal of making circus a transformative experience for audiences, and nurturing new generations of circus artists. The company is made up of 200 artists, administrators and technicians, and presents roughly 1,000 performances a year - both artistic collaborations and signature shows. The 7 Fingers strive to reach the universal, extraordinary, indefinable, visceral, and intimate worlds in each human being.

The company's credits include the New York productions of Traces, which ran for one year and is currently touring; the Tony Award-winning revival of Pippin; and direction of the immersive Queen of the Night, as well as two appearances on "America's Got Talent" and direction of the first segment of the opening ceremony of Sotchi Olympics. www.7doigts.com.

Launched last season to great acclaim, Tilt Kids Festival returns this spring with five world premieres and four U.S. debuts from March 4 through April 16 at venues throughout New York City. Co-produced by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the festival presents philosophy and dance, circus and visual art, music and theater, in a series of forward-thinking events designed to stimulate and inspire the audiences of today and tomorrow. Visit www.tiltkidsfestival.org.

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is the premier venue for the presentation of cultural and performing arts events for New York University and lower Manhattan. NYU Skirball's mission is to showcase and support diverse and eclectic talent from around the world, while cultivating audiences for live performance through deeper engagement opportunities. For more information, go to www.nyuskirball.org.

Cuisine & Confessions will play seven performances, as follows: April 11 - 14 at 7:30 pm; April 15 at 2 and 8 pm; and April 16 at 3 pm. Tickets are $45 - $99 and may be purchased online at www.nyuskirball.org or in person at the NYU Skirball Center Box Office: Tuesday-Saturday, 12:00-6:00 P.M. NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012.

To post a comment, you must register and login.