Codarts Circus Arts - graduation acts 2021

• Henri Kangas – Object Manipulation (Diabolo)

  

  Henri Kangas

  Country of origin: Finland
  Specialization: Diabolo
  E-mail: info@henrikangas.com
  Instagram: @kangashenri
  YouTube: “Henri Kangas”
  Website: www.henrikangas.com

  Biography:
  Henri Kangas, a circus artist, born May 30th 1998 is one of the estimated 350 000 babies born that Saturday in the world. Born and raised in Tampere, Finland, he grew up in a vibrant, colorful city full of adventures. In 2012 he joined the local youth circus Sorin Sirkus and later applied to Codarts Circus Arts in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He graduated with a Bachelor of Circus Arts in Object Manipulation in 2021. 

  Henri’s style with the diabolo is described as unexpected, full of surprises and moment’s of awe mixed with hints of Finnish dry humor. Henri is notorious for his mix of high technical fidelity with originality in his work. In the future he will create a solo show based on his previous work ‘’Symphony of Recollection’’.

  About the act: ”Symphony of Recollection”
  A man, with a fascination for chaos, yet too scared to express himself. Feeling like a volcano waiting to erupt, yet no-one seems to care. Lost in the sea of his own memories, what happens when a seemingly normal man can’t keep it in anymore?

  Symphony of Recollection is an abstract interpretation of man desperately holding onto sanity, with only his objects, himself and his bottled up memories. A carefully crafted diabolo act aimed to provoke all the unspoken, silent emotions inside us.

• Julia Gut - Static Trapeze

  

  Julia Gut
  Country of origin: Switzerland
  Specialization: Static Trapeze
  Email: info@juliagut.com

  Biography:
  When Julia was just five years old, her circus journey started with imitating her sister’s acrobatics for the simple joy of it. This playful beginning quickly grew into true passion when she joined her town’s youth circus at only five years old. By the age of ten, she was delighted to discover that there was such a thing as circus university and immediately decided she would grow up to become a circus artist. Now twenty-three, Julia has honed her passion for acrobatics into a style of trapeze centered on abstract and dynamic movement and effortless feats of physical mastery.

  About the act: “The Last Construction”
  „The Last Construction“ is a static trapeze act performed by Julia Gut. It is inspired by a raw construct of tricks, which also comprises the core of the act. This work is an ode to Julia’s passion for tricks and the exploration of her physical limits. By showing all of her favorite tricks, she wants to share what her mind, her body and the trapeze can do together. Letting the audience participate in the joy and excitement of moving on and off the trapeze, this conspicuously dynamic trapeze act convinces with the plain portrayal of tricks in an abstract and honest environment.

   

• Laia Gómez-Iglesias & Ona Vives – Icarian games & Hand to hand

  

  Duo Laiaiona
  Name: Laia Gómez and Ona Vives
  Country of origin: Catalonia, Spain
  Specialization:
  Icarian Games & Hand to Hand
  E-mail: duolaiaiona@gmail.com
  Instagram: @duo.laiaiona
  Facebook: 
  facebook.com/duo.laiaiona
  Telephone:
  Ona: +34 698986001
  Laia: +34 661321467

   

  Biography:
  Laia, (full name: Laia Gómez Iglesias L’Hospitalet de Llobregat), born in Barcelona, 1997 fell in love with circus at the age of 9. Eventually she meets Ona, and they form a duo called Laiaiona. From 2017 study at Codarts Circus Arts in Rotterdam, where they are currently finishing their academic program.

  Ona Vives Perez Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona), 1997
  She grows up with a strong connection to the social and traditional environment of her city,practising “castellers”, music and sport. She started to get in touch with the social circus atthe Ateneu Popular 9 Barris in Barcelona. Actively linked to nature, she finished her trainingas a sports technician in the natural environment in 2014. Fascinated by artistic expressionsand more specifically with the circus, she finds in it an essential freedom and decides to takethe path of making the circus her profession and lifestyle. She studied at La Rogelio Rivel,where she met Laia Gomez and they started the project Laiaiona. After graduating from thebachelor, she will continue her university studies at CODARTS Circus Arts in Rotterdam, graduating in 2021 with the disciplines of Icarian Games and Hand to Hand.

  About the act: “Ambdues”
  Laiaiona is the fusion of two curious personalities with a lot of initiative, a project with its own colour that radiates a close and human energy. The particularity of combining the acrobatic disciplines of Hand to hand and Icarian Games leads them to develop their own and particular artistic movement. Ambdues arises from the need to understand the different forms of a human relationship and how it travels through different textures. Through the action of hugging and discovering its variants, they define their own way of communicating, which is often reflected in a humorous and absurd way. By keeping a steady attitude of research, they dive into an intense physical game that leads them to discover the limits of balance and strength on their relationship.
  
  Ona Vives and Laia Gómez met at the CAC Rogelio Rivel, in Barcelona. They decided to undertake a common project, Laiaiona, with the disciplines of Icarian Games and Hand to Hand as a common vocabulary. With an attitude of constant research, they look for a way to combine the disciplines with an intense physical language. The characteristic of being two very similar women physically and the fact of practicing a discipline currently little known within the circus scene, such as the Icarian Games, has made them develop a search for their own artistic movement that represents them. The fusion of two curious personalities with a lot of initiative leads them to transmit a very close and human energy. Laiaiona graduated in 2021 at Codarts Circus Arts in Rotterdam, with an 8 minutes version of the act Ambdues.

• Mara Procacci – Aerial Rope

  

  Mara Procacci
  Date of birth: 22.10.1997
  Country of origin: Swiss/Italian
  Specialization: Aerial Rope
  Website: www.maraprocacci.com
  E-mail: procaccimara@gmail.com
  Instagram: @maraprocacci

  Biography:
  Mara grew up in Vevey (Switzerland). She discovered circus as she was 6 years old. Her passion for circus kept growing through the years which led her to train in several youth circus schools in Switzerland. Next to her circus explorations she does dance and gymnastics. As she’s 14 she enters the dance preparatory program at the conservatory of Martigny. While she’s in high school she enters the preparatory program of LeZarti’Cirque and at this moment she decides to specialise in aerial rope. In 2017 she is accepted in the circus department at Codarts – University of the Arts in Rotterdam. Through her 4 years of bachelor she pushes herself to improve both technically and artistically while developing her fresh and quirky style.

  About the act: “Ill at ease.”
  How much struggle are you willing to go through in order to shine for 3 minutes? In her work Mara embraces awkwardness and looks at human clumsiness with a tender eye. She fuels her artistic work asking herself “why not…?”. This pushes her in an absurd and refreshing world where she invites her audience. Mara tries to expand the performing space a rope normally uses by breaking its verticality. In “Ill as ease” you will be able to follow her as she tries to find her way out of inconvenient situations.

• Melody Nolan - Hand Balancing

  

  Melody Nolan
  Country of Origin: United States
  Specialization: Hand balancing
  Website: melodynolan.com
  E-mail: info@melodynolan.com
  Instagram: @melo.rain
  Facebook: Melody Nolan

  Biography:
  Melody Nolan is a circus artist hailing from California. As a keen explorer of her physicality and surroundings, she draws inspiration from a physical approach to artistic research. Her work balances technique with creativity, melding handstands with acrobatic movement. Melody was 10 years old when she first encountered circus, and spent the ensuing years traveling and performing alongside her parents and two sisters. Following her preparatory training at the San Diego Circus Center, she continued her studies at Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam, NL.

  About the act: Haven
  “Haven” is a dynamic handstand act about the experience of living in a body. In particular, a body which is sometimes adrift in the current and at others surfing the waves. An investigation of the peculiar pleasure of that struggle we all share: how do we cope with ourselves? And who is really in charge? In this conversation between body, space, and gravity, restlessness can become playful, and harmony might emerge from dissonance. It’s all a matter of how you pay attention

• Natasha Chauhan – Floor acro & Aerial straps

  

  Natasha Chauhan
  Country of Origin: United Kingdom
  Specialization: floor acro & aerial straps
  Website: www.tnashacircus.com
  E-mail: tash@tnashacircus.com
  Instagram: natashachauhan99
  Facebook: Natasha Chauhan

  Biography
  Natasha Chauhan, usually known as Tash found circus a little later than most, in her home country England. From being thrown into gymnastics, dance and various productions as a kid she found her joy in jumping, flipping, spinning and that tickling feeling you have in your stomach when on stage. Not wanting to lose this she joined Circomedia (a school for contemporary circus and physical theatre) which led her to Codarts circus arts. Dabbling in many different disciplines over the past years she now researches her newly found and named speciality: ‘Eye level aerials’, this being a mixture of aerial straps close to the floor and floor acrobatics.

  While working on her upcoming graduation with her act P-QB4 she is also developing her solo show on the side named Flux. As flux implies that something is constantly changing and flowing she wishes to keep this as a part of herself as she emerges into her professional performance career this coming June (2021).

  About the act: P-QB4
  P-QB4 is a solo act in which the individual plays a chess game with herself. Playing both sides of the pieces as well as being the player. Progressively feeling the time pressure when in the aerial straps she switches between floor acro on the chess board and acrobatic research with aerial straps to find what she thinks is comforting/satisfying within the strategy of the game. Using chess pieces and pathways of games as an inspiration and starting point for her work she has created an angular and unconventional acro-straps piece.

• Raff Pringuet – Acro juggling

  

  Raff Pringuet
  Country: Belgium
  Specialization: Acro-juggling
  Website: www.raffpringuet.com
  E-mail: info@raffpringuet.com 
  Instagram: raff.pringuet

  Biography:
  From a young age Belgian Raff was curious to try new things. He danced, did athletics and played saxophone. At the age of seven he started circus in the youth circus school Cirocilito. Always flitting from specialization to another. When accepted in Codarts as an acro-dancer he used his multidisciplinary and combined acro and juggling in his new specialization: Acro-Juggling. With the same curiosity from his youth he spent the last three years exploring and practicing his own playful and adaptable vocabulary. Today Raff is eager to share his throwing, tumbling and catching in a wervelwind of enthusiasm.

  About the act: Play!
  ‘Play!’ is a family friendly acro-juggling act in which Raff Pringuet takes you into his bizarre world. While his goal is to play the saxophone he(s) tumbles into bizarre, funny and stressful situations. While performing acrobatics and juggling, he deconstructs, throws, balances and hopefully catches the vulnerable saxophone. True the eyes of a naive acrobat, or childish musician, he redefines ‘playing’ the Saxophone.

• Soki – Solomon River Sage & Kira Rabenstein – Partner acrobatics

  

  SoKi – Solomon River Sage and Kira Rabenstein
  Country of origin: New Zealand and Germany
  Specialization: Partner Acrobatics
  E-mail: 
  soki.acrobatics@gmail.com
  Instagram: @soki.acrobatics
  Facebook: SoKi Acrobatics

   

  Biography:
  Solomon
  New Zealand born Solomon is a strangely wonderful combination of geek and acrobat – and circus is the ideal outlet for these dual peculiarities. He spends his days developing his acrobatic and performative repertoire, and is just the right amount obsessed with perfecting these techniques. After performing in multiple countries on both sides of the earth he earned his circus degree at Codarts, where he also met his flier Kira. Together they merge a strong acrobatic foundation with a playful humanity to create their duo SoKi. After ten years of circus and four years of full time training, Solomon is ready to share his vision with the world. 

  Kira
  Kira has always delighted in finding joy in the little things and bringing that bubbly happiness to those around her. This drove her to take up circus, after twelve years of sports acrobatics. She knew she did not want to just win competitions, but to share her acrobatic delight with her audiences. In Codarts she continued her love of being upside down with hand-balancing and flying, and formed the acrobatic duo SoKi with her base Solomon. Now together they are an unstoppable force, pushing technique and creativity and always spreading the unending joy of acrobatics wherever they go.

  SoKi 
  SoKi is the delightfully acrobatic combination of Solomon Riversage from New Zealand and Kira Rabenstein from Germany. Solomon is a wonderfully strange combination of acrobat and geek, and he is just the right amount obsessed with perfecting his acrobatic and performative techniques. Kira is filled to the brim with a bubbly joy, which she revels in by training and being upside down. 

  Starting from opposite ends of the world, their separate circus journeys eventually entwined at the dutch circus school Codarts. There they developed their particular style of partner acrobatics, mixing a strong technical foundation with playful and honest expression. Their passion is sharing the joys of human experience through acrobatics and artistry. 

  About the act:  Which Way To Face
  Connecting with another person is an adventure. You find joy, frustration, laughter, discord, love, and much more besides. Perhaps most amazingly, you will often have many of these at once. ‘Which Way To Face’ explores this fundamental human experience through the unique relationship of a partner acrobatic duo. SoKi embrace the full spectrum of their relationship to find the connection they need for their acrobatic movement, and for their personal fulfillment. 

• Susanna Paavola – Cyr wheel

  

  Susanna Paavola
  Country of origin: Finland
  Specialization: Cyr wheel
  E-mail: 
  paavola.susanna@outlook.com
  Instagram: nnannanna

  Biography:
  When Susanna stepped through the doors of a circus school in Finland, all previous future plans came to a halt. In Turku Arts Academy she found her love for cyr wheel and graduated as a circus teacher. She continued her journey to the Netherlands and is now graduating from Codarts Circus Arts with her solo act on this turning metal wheel.

  Susanna creates worlds on stage. Her acts are immersive and visual, inviting the audience to forget about their surroundings. The artist uses her experience with music and dance to fill the stage with moments of suspension, flowing from one image to another.

  About the act: “Nomy”
  It looks like gravity broke as she uses the weight of the wheel to turn herself faster and faster through the space. A firm grip, no sound, only movement. Suddenly they’re no longer together, who takes control?

  The scene you are invited into seems to be inside the performer’s head. It is full of choices and wishes; an on-going battle of being in control and wanting to let go. Sometimes the cyr wheel seems to take over the speed and direction. Other times it’s the artist. Inside this world she looks for her autonomy, trying to find a balance with the wheel.

• Tobi Kämpfer & Finn Waltersmann – Club juggling

  

  Tobias Kämpfer (1996) & Finn Waltersmann (1997)
  Country of origin: Germany
  Specialization: club juggling
  Website: www.tobiandfinn.com
  E-mail: tobiandfinn@gmail.com
  Instagram: @tobi_and_finn

  Biography:
  For Tobi and Finn growing up took very long but finally, they both became the tallest in their families. When they were still half-sized, they met in a youth circus in Germany where they discovered that throwing around objects was fun.
  Next to practicing circus Finn also spent a lot of time in a music school.

  After graduating from high school, their way led to the preparatory circus school Carampa, in Madrid and from there to Codarts University in Rotterdam, where Tobi also discovered his passion for urban and street dance.
  During the four-year course, they discovered a close connection of music and dance with juggling. In the future, they want to continue their research of the inherent musicality in juggling and maintaining an authentic human relationship on stage.

  About the act: “Motus”
  Motus is Latin for gesture – a movement that communicates an idea.
  Instead of using words, Tobi and Finn talk with movements and juggling.
  In their performance the audience witnesses a conversation between two friends who know each other well. However, they seem to disagree on what they should do next.
  While one of them is very energetic and impulsive, the other approaches things more slowly and reserved. This provokes tension between them as they try to agree on the same vocabulary. Through the exchange of clubs and movement propositions, they find a mutual language – a groove, realizing that neither one’s way is better.

  With a common ground, they establish that mastering a challenge together, can only be done by using each other’s strengths and giving space for individuality.
  
  Credits: Codarts Circus Arts
  Outside-eye: Hanna Mampuys and Bram Dobbelaere

• Yahel Retter & Manon Verplancke – Partner acrobatics

  

  Yahel & Manonl – Partner Acrobatics
  Country: Israel & Belgium
  Specialization:
  Hand to hand or partneracrobatics
  Website: 
  www.mmanonski.com/yahelmanon
  E-mail:
  yahelandmanon@outlook.com 
  manonverplancke@outlook.be
  Yahelretter@gmail.com
  Instagram: yahelandmanon

  Biography:
  In 2017 Yahel and Manon met each other in The Netherlands at the start of their journey at Codarts university where they completed a bachelor in circus arts. For four years they worked and developed as artists, getting to know each other on a professional and personal level. They both grew up in a very different culture, Manon being from Belgium and Yahel from Israel. Finding common grounds and agreeing on certain levels was sometimes a challenge but at the same time a tool as they had two different points of view. Both of them are very curious and excited to see what the future holds.

  About the act: “PALLS”
  An act that is inspired by playing games and made by two opposites, one being outgoing and the other rather introvert. Nevertheless equals. During this piece they are in the middle of playing a game that leads them to find moments where they can stand still, connect & have fun. They find themselves moving together as one, moving bombastic but graceful at the same time. They are challenging themselves to use their technical skills in an original and unique way that makes their work refreshing and enjoyable to watch.