Roundhouse CircusFest 2016 Lineup Set

The UK's foremost festival of international contemporary circus returns with a season of world premieres, amazing new productions and street performances from the hottest names in circus. From performances that push the human body to its limits to discussions about the cultural significance of circus throughout history.

CircusFest 2016 is the highlight of the circus calendar with spectacular and thrilling experiences for all ages under the iconic Roundhouse brick Big Top in the heart of Camden and other venues across London.

MAIN SPACE

Race Horse Company: Super Sunday (UK Premiere)

Monday 4 - Saturday 16 April, 7.30pm plus Saturday 9 April matinee, 2.30pm

(No performance Sunday 10 April)

Chaos, comedy and phenomenal stunts collide in the latest offering from award-winning Finnish ensemble.

Race Horse Company will get your pulse racing and have you gasping for breath in this new production packed with acrobatic skill and their trademark black humour. Super Sunday features the wheel of death, a human catapult, trampolining and the teeterboard; it's a thrilling rollercoaster ride you won't want to end.

Following the storming success of Petit Mal that thrilled audiences all over the world and was met with critical acclaim. The company now make a triumphant return to the UK to delight London audiences again. Prepare yourself for a sea of colour and a night of non-stop, high energy circus fun.

The award-winning Race Horse Company was formed in 2008 out of a desire to create a completely new kind of contemporary circus - chaotic, humorous and uncompromising. Seven years later they remain focused on inspiring a love of circus in audiences everywhere.

Press Night: Wednesday 6 April, 7.30pm

Tickets from £15 - £29.50

Barely Methodical Troupe: Kin (World Premiere)

Wednesday 20 - Sunday 24 April, 7.30pm

The hottest British circus company right now flies into the Roundhouse with a brand new show.

Barely Methodical Troupe blasted onto the UK circus scene in 2014 with their debut show Bromance, winning awards and selling out shows nationally and internationally making them Britain's hottest young acrobats

This brand new production Kin, combines exceptional acrobatic skills with contemporary dance, parkour, b-boying and tricking. The company explore hierarchical ideas to look at how we organise our lives, relationships and communities through falling and catching, trust and balance, tumbling and flying.

OPENING ACT: POP by Popcorn Storm

From the makers of Some Like it Hip Hop, A Harlem Dream and Kylie's Showgirl Tour comes a ground-breaking new collaboration fusing music, narrative, circus, and fashion.

Premiering in 2017, catch a sneak preview of a theatrical and highly physical exploration of contemporary British pop culture.

Press Night: Thursday 21 April, 7.30pm

Tickets from £15 - £19.50

1-1 EXPERIENCE

Ringside
Thursday 7 - Saturday 16 April, various times

This is circus up close and personal. Intimate, visceral and thought-provoking, made for your eyes only.

You might be used to seeing circus as part of a roaring crowd, at a distance so you can't see the physical effort in every move - but this show is different. This aerial performance will be so close you'll hear the artist's breath, see her muscles flex and strain, and see the bruises that reveal the pain of intense hours of practise. This is about sweat, not sequins.

Ringside is a totally original piece that will leave you reflecting on female empowerment, vulnerability, intimacy and control.

Winner of the Summerhall and Arches' Autopsy Award for experimental performance and nominated for a Total Theatre Award for Circus 2015.

Tickets: £7.50

SACKLER SPACE

Roundhouse Street Circus Collective: Orbital

Saturday 9 - Sunday 10 April, various times

Experience a brand new show from the Roundhouse Street Circus collective, harnessing the frenetic energy of the city and taking audiences along for a thrilling ride.

In the city, life is fast paced. We're constantly pulled in different directions, constantly confronted with an overwhelming number of choices.

Orbital is a brand new promenade performance directed by Sarah Fielding (Invisible Circus) using circus, theatre, and spoken word to explore how to hold on to our humanity in the face of relentless consumerism. Stories are woven into an orbital journey through the depths of the Roundhouse, a disorientating subterranean space filled with bikes, wheels and hoops, all going nowhere fast.

The Roundhouse Street Circus Collective is a group of 11-25 year old acrobats and street dancers from across London who have been taking part in the Roundhouse Street Circus programme.

Tickets: £8

Salon: Circus and Gender

Tuesday 12 April, 8pm

Is circus too hetro-normative?

Join us at this long table event and hear from industry experts and insiders as we look at why are there so many all-male circus companies? And can a woman ever enjoy the same privileges and opportunities in the industry as a man? If you have a point of view to share, come and be part of what is sure to be a fascinating and impassioned debate.

Tickets: £5

Salon: Circus and Collaboration

Wednesday 13 April, 8pm

In recent years, circus as a pure form has been in decline. Instead, we have seen it colliding with other art forms to spectacular effect.

Come along to this long table event and hear from Jeanne Mordoj who is performing as part of the festival and an artist who knows plenty about this having based her practice on themes drawn from Beckett. So who better to discuss the hot topic of circus and collaboration?

Tickets: £5

Salon: Circus and Class

Thursday 14 April, 8pm

Circus was traditionally seen as a form of mass entertainment for the working classes.

Come along to this event with industry experts and insiders where we'll be asking whether this is still the case.

How does the introduction of tuition fees to higher education impact on the people who can choose to do a degree in circus? Is contemporary circus for the middle classes and traditional circus for the working classes? Are all of these questions offensive or out of date? Come along and get stuck in.

Tickets: £5

La Poème

Friday 15 - Saturday 16 April, 8pm

A captivating solo from cult French artist Jeanne Mordoj. Be swept away by her celebration of the fertility, fragility and ferocity of the female body and spirit.

Jeanne Mordoj is a contortionist and juggler whose ability to do phenomenal things with her body in her exploration of femininity has won her international plaudits.

La Poème is a profound, humorous and joyously quirky performance that reveals the seam of mischievousness that runs through much of her work.

Tickets: £12.50

Me, Mother.

Wednesday 20 - Saturday 23 April, 8pm plus Saturday 23 April matinee, 2.30pm

What's more frightening: catapulting yourself through the air and testing your physical limits night after night as a circus performer - or motherhood?

This is the world premiere of a powerful multimedia performance that explores what happens when some of the country's strongest and fittest women navigate the trials and joys of becoming a mother. When your whole career is based on your body's ability to do seemingly impossible things, can you ever be the same again after giving birth?

Using film, recorded voices, photography and live performance, Me, Mother tells the stories of these women with disarming honesty - their experiences, fears, and glorious highs.

From London based multimedia studio MES bring together the talents of director Matilda Leyser (Improbable theatre), photographer Ryoko Uyama and writers Duncan Wall and John Ellingsworth.

Tickets: £12.50

EXHIBITION

Transfiguration by Ben Hopper
Monday 4 - Sunday 24 April

Roundhouse Foyer

An exhibition by London-based photographer Ben Hopper featuring internationally renowned contemporary circus artists and dancers.

The portraits showcase the unique physicality and spirit of the performers. Like a mask, layers of body paint and powder disguise the identity of the subject, and release something animalistic from within. In the final images a sculpted, abstract, less human figure emerges.

Tickets: Free entry

AROUND LONDON

The Hogwallops
Tuesday 5 - Sunday 10 April, various times

Thrillingly spectacular circus skills blend seamlessly with physical comedy, theatrical storytelling and slapstick in this colourful, loud and funny dramatisation of the domestic adventures of a chaotic family of misfits.

Heart stopping virtuosic skilful aerial and floor acrobatics and a specially composed live score contribute to the mix creating a dysfunctional, quirky and comic family show in the true sense.

Venue: Jacksons Lane, 269a Archway Road, London N6 5AA
Tickets: www.jacksonslane.org.uk

The Insect Circus
Tuesday 5 - Friday 8 April, various times

Stroll Up, Stroll Up for the epitome of Entomological Entertainment as the Insect Circus comes to the Albany. Amongst agile ants, weird worms, wild wasps and flighty flies, an astonishing novelty will be presented - Sybil the Dancing Snail.

Venue: The Albany, Douglas Way, London SE8 4AG
Tickets: www.thealbany.org.uk

Upswing: Bedtime Stories
Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 April, various times

Celebrate the magical time of the day when stresses and strains of life melt away and enter a world of imagination and dreams with Bedtime Stories.

Rediscover that special time before sleep where bedtime stories are told and our unconscious mind takes hold, transporting everyone away on an adventure. Tucked up with your family and friends, take this chance to unwind and be dazzled with circus, theatre, dance and projections from innovative circus company Upswing.

Venue: Hackney Showroom, Hackney Downs Studios, London E8 2BT
Tickets: www.hackneyshowroom.com/

Agit Cirk: Sceno
Tuesday 12 & Wednesday 13 April, 8pm

Directed by acclaimed director and performer Sakari Männistö (Gandinis) Sceno is a display of skilful acrobatic movement, strongman tricks and juggling, framed with live music and video. It's about the beauty of human capabilities, the things we can do and the things we fail to do. Mischievous, daring and funny, Sceno is a joyous new work from this acclaimed young Finnish company.

Venue: Jacksons Lane, 269a Archway Road, London N6 5AA
Tickets: www.jacksonslane.org.uk

Zero Gravity & WHS: Pinta
Hanna Moisala: Wiredo

Friday 15 & Saturday 16 April, 8pm

Two exclusive UK premieres in the air and on wire.

Pinta is an exceptional solo performance focusing on vertical rope acrobatics. Performed by aerial acrobat Salla Hakanpää and directed by Ville Walo, Pinta creates magical images of weightlessness in a dialogue between the body and the object, the air and water. An intensive duet between the artist and the rope, this is a remarkable play of light, liquid and image in a captivating spectacle of beauty.

In Wiredo, with her body, a tight wire and a physical composition that draws on the Japanese art of Kinbaku (Shibari), Hanna Moisala tells a gripping story of stepping out of one's comfort zone. With its three-dimensional view and daring combination of Kinbaku and the tight wire, Wiredo explores the inner balance of human behaviour, posing the question 'what happens to the body when we choose to change our daily routine?'

Venue: Jacksons Lane, 269a Archway Road, London N6 5AA
Tickets: www.jacksonslane.org.uk

Light Up

Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 April, 7pm

Who says circus only belongs in a Big Top? Light Up invites you to take to the streets and experience a fantastic evening of circus, spoken word, parkour and digital wizardry.

Set in North London's Queen's Crescent, Light Up features performers looking at the everyday experiences of young people; their struggles, their hopes and their dreams for the future.

This outdoor show has been conceived, devised and developed by a group of young people aged 11-14. They've joined forces with creative studio SDNA, Circus Directors Lina Johansson and Kaveh Ranahma.

Venue: Queen's Crescent Estate, Queen's Crescent Community Association, 45 Ashdown Crescent, London NW5 4QE

Tickets: www.roundhouse.org.uk

Ricochet: Smoke and Mirrors
Tuesday 19 - Saturday 23 April, 8pm

Winner of the Jacksons Lane Total Theatre Award for Circus 2016 at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Weaving delicate metaphor with jaw dropping spectacle, New Mexico-based Ricochet's unique style of poetic acrobatics has taken the world by storm. Using lyrical physicality and virtuosic circus technique, Smoke and Mirrors draws from rigorous backgrounds in classical and contemporary dance, aerial acrobatics, somatic practices and improvisation to explore the internal landscapes of the human experience.

Venue: Jacksons Lane, 269a Archway Road, London N6 5AA
Tickets: www.jacksonslane.org.uk

Ockham's Razor: Tipping Point
Wednesday 20 - Sunday 24 April, various times

Ockham's Razor bring a new full length production Tipping Point, set in the round, the audience drawn in close, as the action veers from catastrophe to mastery. The five performers enclosed within the circle of the stage, transform simple metal poles into a rich landscape of images.

Venue: artsdepot, 5 Tall Ho, Nether Street, London N12 0GA
Tickets: www.artsdepot.co.uk/

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