Gandini Juggling Performs Two Virtuoso Shows in London and Edinburgh This Spring and Summer

Gandini Juggling will perform two major shows in spring and summer. Signature company work Smashed, the company's homage to Pina Bausch, brings the heady scent of apples to the Peacock Theatre on 31 May and 1 June while US juggling superstar Wes Peden gives the Scottish premiere of his latest solo show Rollercoaster at Assembly Festival for the Edinburgh Fringe from 31 July to 26 August.

Conceived in 2010, Smashed embodies Gandini Juggling's ongoing love affair with contemporary dance. Directors Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala took elements of Pina Bausch's gestural theatrical choreography and combined them with the intricate patterns and cascades of solo and ensemble juggling to create a new hybrid of juggling and dance theatre. Funny, inventive and characterful, the 60-minute piece features nine jugglers, 100 red apples and a soundtrack of songs including Tammy Wynette, music hall and Bach. Nostalgic filmic scenes explore conflict, tense relationships, lost love - and afternoon tea. Performed with meticulous unison and split-second timing, Smashed challenges perceptions of contemporary juggling. These performances are the first time Smashed has been seen in London for seven years.

Smashed is performed by Tedros Girmaye, Sean Gandini, Kim Huynh, Antoni Klemm, Sakari Männistö, Iñaki Sestre, Malte Steinmetz, Jose Triguro and Kati Ylä-Hokkala.

Created in 2022 by Gandini associate artist, Wes Peden's solo show Rollercoaster is ultra-modern, pop-punk juggling. Surrounded by huge inflatable blue structures, Peden performs original tricks inspired by rollercoasters and their high-tech seatbelts. A spinning plate ceremony becomes a celebration of the great rides of the past, an epic 3 ball disco juggling evokes the evolution of rollercoasters, a 4-meter transparent tube turns into a path around Wes' body to make balls flow through loops, helixes, and corkscrews. With an electro soundtrack of distorted rollercoaster noise, Rollercoaster twists theatrical rules with some of the most difficult and innovative juggling ever seen on stage. These Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows are a Scottish premiere and only the third time this show has ever been performed in the UK.

US-born and now living in Stockholm, Wes Peden uses the skills he has honed from the age of five to twist gravity into the most beautiful knots physics will allow. He has been voted the world's most popular juggler in the Top 40 Jugglers poll ten times and holds numerous world records.  His energetic, complex, and playful juggling style has won him awards from the International Juggling Association and the festival Cirque de Demain. He takes inspiration from Sumo wrestling, fast-food packaging and 1950s playgrounds.

Smashed

19.30: Friday 31 May & Saturday 1 June
Peacock Theatre, LONDON
Portugal St, London WC2A 2HT
Tickets: 020 7863 8222 / www.sadlerswells.com

Rollercoaster 

17:00: Wednesday 31 July to Monday 26 August (no shows on 7, 13, 20 August)
Assembly Festival, EDINBURGH FRINGE
Roxy Central, 2 Roxburgh Pl, Edinburgh EH8 9SU
Tickets: 0131 623 3030 / https://bit.ly/3Vdisbx
www.assemblyfestival.com

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