Latest news with #RachidOuramdane
Tatler Asia
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
Defying gravity and death: Cirque du Soleil's chief show operations officer on bringing ‘Kooza' back to Hong Kong
Above An aerial silk performance at 'Kooza' (Photo: courtesy of Cirque du Soleil) Among Cirque du Soleil's celebrated repertoire, Kooza holds a particularly cherished place for Fisher. 'It's our most circus of circuses,' he says, referring to how the show comprises classic acts by gold medal winners from the biggest circus festivals: highwire, aerial silk performances, duo unicycling, the wheel of death, teeterboard, contortion, chair balancing and more. 'It has traditional circus that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I was an acrobat in my younger years, so I'm partial to those acrobatic elements that Kooza has.' This is a far cry from the family circuses in the US that he was part of in his earlier years. 'Circus was lions and tigers and bears and spit and sawdust,' he says. 'Cirque du Soleil reinvented the circus to be theatre, dance, music and everything that goes along with it. It created its own thing; the 'cirque' is now a thing.' While many companies attempt their brand of 'cirque' productions, Cirque du Soleil stays ahead of the game by raising the bar of their incredible human performances and creating original shows. Don't miss: Weightlessness meets dance in Rachid Ouramdane's 'Corps extrêmes' Above A contortion performance at 'Kooza' (Photo: courtesy of Cirque du Soleil) The current Hong Kong engagement of Kooza introduces captivating new elements. While the awe-inspiring acrobatics remain, the production features three new clowns with refreshed routines, a new hula hoop artist seamlessly incorporating contortion and dance, and a powerful aerial act from Japan that embodies what Fisher describes as 'real strong girl power'. All these elements come together to tell 'an incredible story of a child who is drawn into an imaginary world that's full of these incredible characters who do all these amazing things,' he says, adding that one of the charming aspects of Kooza is how it brings everyone together in a moment of wonder. 'The production doesn't have a rigid storyline. Rather, it creates worlds for individual interpretation,' he says. 'Whatever you interpret for you is right; whatever I interpret for me is also right.' Above 'Double Highwire' at 'Kooza' (Photo: courtesy of Cirque du Soleil) Amy Lo, the chairman of UBS global wealth management Asia and head and chief executive of UBS Hong Kong, which is the title sponsor for Cirque du Soleil, articulates her immense enthusiasm for the show's arrival. 'We've been working with Cirque du Soleil for several years, but because of the pandemic, they weren't able to come,' she says. 'Now, it will bring the joy back to our clients and also to the community.' Lo believes that a spectacle of Kooza 's calibre can impart considerable cultural and artistic resonance within the city, drawing both international visitors and local aficionados. She further highlights that Cirque du Soleil distinguishes itself among other cultural initiatives sponsored by UBS due to its unique entertainment style. Having previously captivated over a million guests worldwide in past engagements, Cirque du Soleil's return is warmly welcomed by many who have experienced its magic in other global cities. Lo, who is witnessing the show for the first time, expresses her admiration for Cirque du Soleil's ability to perfect the 'art of performance'. Above Middle: Duncan Fisher and Amy Lo (Photo: courtesy of Cirque du Soleil) Looking ahead, Fisher confidently affirms that while new technologies will be embraced to enhance performances, the fundamental essence of human performance will always remain paramount. He recalls a compelling conversation with Avatar (2009) and Titanic (1997) director James Cameron, who attended one of Cirque du Soleil's shows in Los Angeles. '[Cameron] said to me, 'I love what I do. I make these movies with these incredible technologies, but I have no idea what technology I'll be using five years from now, because it evolves so quickly. But 1,000 years from now, I could come and watch your show and still be amazed because of the incredible human performance that people come to see.'' 'People don't come to see us for the lights, the screens, the augmented reality and the VR. They come to see the guy on the wheel of death, whom they think is gonna die. We will embrace new technology, and we will use it, but we're never going to get away from the fact that we are going to present incredible human performance.'
Time Out
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Corps extrêmes
This month marks the Hong Kong debut of 'Corps extrêmes', a show of extreme sports and dance by Rachid Ouramdane that has been named one of the best dance performances of 2023 by The New York Times. 10 talented artists, including acclaimed Italian highliner Luca Chiarva and American climber Ann Raber Cocheril, will explore the human desire for weightlessness by leaping, twirling, flying, and scaling walls. The production is also enhanced with projections, spoken word, and a musical score that will probably put the fear of vertigo in you. Tickets are available from $320 to $580.
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in dance: Rachid Ouramdane: Outsider; Pam Tanowitz: Neither Drums Nor Trumpets
It's a rule of life that dancers can do anything with their bodies. In Rachid Ouramdane's new work, Outsider, made with the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, they slide across the stage like oil, tumbling and curling like acrobats, swinging one another around like supple dolls. One woman falls and rises like a pendulum across a mass of bodies that gently push her from side to side. The stage, in Sylvain Giraudeau's stark design, is crisscrossed with a cat's cradle of taut climbing wires held on gantries. French-Algerian choreographer Ouramdane's stroke of magic is to introduce four extreme sport athletes who hang aloft seamlessly in semi-silhouette, their weightlessness contrasting with the gravity-bound dancers beneath. When they walk the tightrope, their arms wobble gently as they seek balance. Towards the close, they pull up four dancers from below, letting them dangle lengthways like human mobiles. Against Stéphane Graillot's pale lighting, and accompanied by Julius Eastman's minimalist score, the effect is meditative, transfixing. It's also slightly alienating: dance as an exercise in physics and composition. The excellent dancers are ciphers, parts of a puzzle. It's thanks to the thrilling range of London's Van Cleef & Arpels Dance Reflections festival that it was possible to watch Outsider on the same day as a new piece by the American choreographer Pam Tanowitz that uses pattern in a much more human way. Neither Drums Nor Trumpets (the title taken from a line in a film by François Truffaut) is performed in the up-close space of the Royal Opera House's Paul Hamlyn Hall. Using seven of her own dancers and a phalanx of students from the Rambert School, Tanowitz weaves a layered 45-minute work that fills the room with movement and life, at once rigorous and playful, tugging at aspects of the building's history as a floral and dance hall. Her dancers are in flowery costumes (by Maile Okamura, who also performs), and the score composed by Caroline Shaw additionally features long stretches of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and a scratchy recording of Second Hand Rose, sung by Fanny Brice and beloved by Tanowitz's late mentor, the postmodernist choreographer David Gordon, to whom the work is dedicated. What's so impressive about Neither Drums Nor Trumpets is the power of its structure; the way Tanowitz builds repeated skeins of complex movement that thread in and out of the piece, conjuring ideas and fleeting thoughts. There are deep balances on one leg, little hugs of the arms across the body, sharp jumps from standing with arms raised like Merce Cunningham angels. At moments, the dancers sit thoughtfully, legs curled, like the Little Mermaid or a Nijinsky faun. Victor Lozano, in silver trainers, taps quietly round the performance square. Caitlin Scranton and Anson Zwingelberg crouch on their haunches and walk like children. Marc Crousillat carries the ethereal Christine Flores like a dart and then a scrunched-up ball. Lindsey Jones jumps across the stage, arms flailing wildly, then flattens herself against a screen. They are all superb – strong, striving human, raw. The students, meanwhile, make grave processions of detailed movement, the most basic dance positions of dance vocabulary transformed into subtle embroideries. Seeing these young dancers alongside professionals is remarkably inspiring – it feels like a gift to the future. Star ratings (out of five)Outsider ★★★Neither Drums Nor Trumpets ★★★★
