Ground-breaking artistic form of circus and theatre
Since ancient times, in Art we are telling the same stories over and over again, regardless of genres. We are messengers, storytellers who are trying to gain ground for the soul in the hearts of people. Coming from a background of contemporary and classical dance, being trained as a director and choreographer, Bence Vági has matured into a progressive artist pioneering in ground-breaking forms of circus and physical theatre.
New Routes for Performing Arts
CIRQUE DANSE
A New Genre
meraviglia & stupore
Breaking the strict formalities of the ballet world by liberating the performer’s body, conceptualised modern dance. Through the succession of creators willing to break the norms of classical ballet’s holy beauty, a free system of movements emerged that eventually liberated the form of expression and fostered a variety of dance genres. This tradition has become so powerful that today it even influences other related art forms.
Cirque danse is born in the spirit of modern dance: it is the liberation of circus by the independence of dance, an attempt to break out from the strict trick regulated language of the genre. Cirque danse is a fusion of circus and dance through merging wonderment (meraviglia) and astonishment (stupore), where none of the two art forms is more powerful than the other, but they are companions of each other. ‘Cirque’ finds freedom, whilst ‘danse’ gains a new power in expression, and a hybrid performer is born who unites the two.
Bence Vági:
“The power of cirque danse lies in the modern longing for wonder.”
The Foundation of Recirquel
With the foundation of Recirquel in 2012, Bence Vági and a handful of young Hungarian acrobats set on a journey leading them beyond everything they ever imagined possible. Bence has directed and choreographed one production after another ever since, and has by now achieved international success with his very distinguishable form of performing arts that redefines the magic of theatre for a contemporary world’s new audiences.
The Evolution of a New Form
CIRQUE DANSE
The power of cirque danse is rooted in a modern-day longing for miracles. Through the evolution of art, the transformation of a genre is always like an echo of its own time. In our information- and stimulus-loaded world, grabbing and maintaining attention is a greater challenge than ever before. Performing arts, and arts in general are battling this phenomenon. In this fight for immersing the self, we find that the audience can be captivated by something deeply human, or just the opposite, by something extraordinary. This duality, the everyday and the supernatural is the essence of miracles.
Cirque danse is based on circus, where the performance mechanism relies on the wonderment that we find in the ‘trick’ that surpasses the limits of the human body. The excitement of putting one’s life at risk and the astonishment of something nearly impossible establishes a direct and elemental channel to communicate with the audience. On the other hand, the formal strictness inherited from the traditions of classical circus and the trick that is an indicator only of itself, suppresses the performer’s own voice. The underlying content and the complex emotions are drowned by the strict forms, which can undermine the immersion of the viewers.
The free spirit of modern dance aspires to become a partner of circus in blurring these boundaries of the genre, thus paving the way for what we call ‘cirque danse’. The wonderment of the trick is empowered by the abstraction-ready and emotionally articulate discourse of dance, fulfilling the polarised desires of its audience.
