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Paradisum - the visually spectacular circus show return to Edinburgh
Hungarian circus powerhouse Recirquel are returning to the Edinburgh Fringe festival with their ethereal, breathtaking premier of Paradisum. The ‘cirque danse’ spectacular explores the fabric of life and weaves its way through the natural world exploring themes of love, trust, power and community.
The performance is a collaborative in both writing and choreographing. Only a few weeks after arriving home from Korea touring Solus Amor, Recirquel will be spending their August in Scotland with the brand new show.
We caught up director and choreographer Bence Vági to find out more about what to expect.
Following on from your amazing hit show IMA last year, how does Paradisum further push the boundaries of cirque danse?
I would like to start with expressing how fantastic we feel about returning to Edinburgh Fringe, after IMA being so warmly welcomed last year, but also after My Land and Paris de Nuit presented by Assembly in earlier editions of the festival.
The choreography of Paradisum draws on the aerial and ground genres of circus arts through the medium of modern dance to take the cirque danse genre to new dimensions. To create the performance, I worked with artists from various dance and circus genres to forge Paradisum's unique form language: the amazing performers of IMA (and many other Recirquel productions), Zita Horváth, Renátó Illés and Gábor Zsíros played a key role in this creative process as co-choreographers.
Paradisum explores the myth of regenesis after a perished world. Where did the inspiration for this come from, and how do you convey that on stage?
Paradisum follows on a series of cirque danse productions of our company also from the point of view of its theme. My Land drew on the power of the motherland, Solus Amor told of love across time and space, IMA evoked the creative power of silence. So, I would say a very important source of inspiration was the ideas evolving from the earlier pieces. In Paradisum, the performers unfold from the ever-changing, swirling natural forces of the ‘fabric of life’ pulsating around them to reach the anima mundi, the world soul, through scenes of purification, birth, awakening and ritual.
How do you create such an ethereal atmosphere and why is it so central to your work?
Paradisum’s language of movement is supported by the stage design that creates an atmosphere of rebirth that is both ancient and ethereal, with the ‘fabric of life’ in the centre pulsating through the performers, becoming a roaring sea, then a sheltering leaf, or whispering in the ears of the characters like a transcendental force. The original music composed by Edina Szirtes is also very important in this process as it expresses the conflicts of the reborn human with its multifaceted soundscape in which the life-overwhelming and life-creating roar emerges from the mythical chaos, while the unconscious pulsations of human memory reveal the prayers of vanished cultures.
How do the performers prepare for such a physical and emotional show?
Being a cirque danse performer requires a very complex training routine, which is a hybrid format combining the artist’s circus genre or genres, like handstand, aerial, and a very high level dance training in various styles. In order to do this, they work with a wide range of trainers and specialists. At the same time, they also have to maintain a strong mental and psychological state, on which we work together during the creative and rehearsal process.
How do you engage with and draw energy from the audience during the performances?
The audience is a most important source of energy, their reactions, their smiles and tears, the moments when they gasp their breath or clap their hands in the middle of the performance is just everything. There is no performing without their support, love and positive energy floating towards and around us in the theatre.
Recirquel: Paradisum will be performed at 3.30pm at the Assembly Roxy from 2nd August – 24th August (Not 7th, 12th or 19th)
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