Against the Odds, They Resist: Behind the French Trapeze Troupe That Flourished at Cirque de Demain

Circus News

Against the Odds, They Resist: Behind the French Trapeze Troupe That Flourished at Cirque de Demain

After almost half a decade of honing their creation, the French flying trapeze troupe La Tangent du Bras Tendu finally had its time to shine by showing “Resistance” at the Cirque du Demain Festival 2023. The troupe’s director Maxime Bourdon reveals everything that goes into creating a Grand Prix-winning act.

We all know how much work it takes for a circus act to see the light of day. Mastering any discipline takes constant practice. For every time a flyer successfully soars into their porter’s arms on the trapeze, hours and hours are spent behind the scenes in both creation and rehearsal. Good stories, too, can take just as long, or even longer, in development. Storytellers of all kinds know that whether or not a story connects with its audience can often be a matter of timing; you will not often know before release whether your message will be seen as dated or timeless. The point is that creating any kind of art requires ample time, patience, and adaptability—and, when the world throws a wrench like COVID-19 into one’s best-laid plans for a premiere, sometimes all you can do is play the waiting game and hope.

Well, it’s safe to say that this waiting game of art paid dividends for one French flying trapeze troupe at this year’s Cirque de Demain festival. Staged for its biggest-ever audience, the flying trapeze show “Resistance” by the French troupe La Tangente du Bras Tendu (“The Tangent of the Outstretched Arm”) was a smash hit under the Cirque Phenix big top, dazzling audience members like Raffaele De Ritis and festival jurors alike, and taking home the illustrious Grand Prix. In terms of both its story and deployment of the trapeze itself, “Resistance” plays to the strengths of both historical and contemporary themes. It is a piece that has thrived in spite, or even because, of the challenges that have been thrown at it and its creators. And, as we’ll soon see, it is a deeply thoughtful piece of art
 one that has been worked on, pondered, and revised for almost half a decade before January 2023.

Speaking to us on the troupe’s behalf, Director Maxime Bourdon answered some questions about the work involved in creating “Resistance,” from the birth of the La Tangente du Bras Tendu troupe itself to the night of the act’s premiere at Cirque de Demain.

CircusTalk (CT): Tell us a bit about the history of your troupe and its members. How was it formed, and how long have you all been working together?

Maxime Bourdon (MB): Coming from all walks of life (such as training at ENACR or CNAC; at the circus school of Quebec or that of the Siamangs in the DrÎme;  Club Med, or even directly from the professional sector), the trapeze artists of La Tangente form a diverse team which well reflects the landscape of French flying trapeze, and which covers no less than four generations.

La Tangente du Bras Tendu is originally the name of a show created by Les Lendemains and Les Philebulistes. They loaned us their name for the occasion of our performance at Cirque de Demain.Most of us already knew each other from previous adventures,  particularly at Les Lendemains.  Time passed, and by the time when the Tangente du Bras Tendus show was created in 2018, some members had left the troupe and others had arrived. But the base has remained very solid, and the team spirit is the lifeblood of our troupe.

CT: What inspired you to reimagine flying trapeze for this act?

MB: This act is directly taken from the finale of our full show. It deals with the potentially propagandistic imagery of the flying trapeze and tells the story of a troupe of trapeze artists plunged into the heart of a totalitarian epic.

The act itself evokes an entry into resistance. A rejection of authoritarianism.

It also echoes another, older number, called “Les Cigognes” (“The Storks”) in French. Of Russian origin, this act saw the introduction of the net as a scenographic element for the first time. In the symbolic context of war, the net represented a battlefield, and the trapeze artists were like angels who had come to collect the bodies of the fallen and take them to heaven. “Les Cigognes” helped confirm the idea that the flying trapeze is an art.

From our side, building upon a similar theme, the main idea is to merge the intensity of the flying trapeze—a virtuoso, risky, and committed acrobatic act—with an almost theatrical situation of resistance, wherein the trapeze artists find themselves amidst the urgency of a dangerous transaction. Supporting each other, they fly from station to station, circulating bags, leaflets, and rumors. They resist!

CT: What challenges did you have to overcome when creating the act?

BL: There were three challenges.

Obviously, the acrobatic challenge. It is necessary to avoid falling and to ensure eloquent aerobatics. We worked with two different styles of aerobatics, one very clean for the opening, and the other wilder. This contributes to the effect of urgency.

In addition, the flying trapeze has its own rhythm—a certain slowness in the preparations—and this could go against our initial intention, which was to fill up the stage with acrobatics. In the writing, we made sure that the elements were linked together as much as possible, making the best use of all the porter positions.

Finally, there is a dramaturgical challenge, which is something quite rare with flying trapeze. To tell our story, we had already explored the way in which aerial acrobatics and theatricality can coexist when creating the original show La Tangente. Not everything is possible to do. Here it is the notion of urgency that helps to articulate all of our choices. The few concrete elements that are highlighted (the resistance fighter costumes, the leaflets, the bags) alone tell the story of the resistance. The rest of it is played out in the acrobatic and theatrical performance.

 

CT: Why was it significant for you to begin the act with traditional flying trapeze tricks and costuming?

MB: By opening the number this way, we present the trapeze in its usual formalism (white costumes, big music, and big figures).

On the one hand, the reference to classical flying trapeze helps contextualize the number:  it too wants to be part of a great historical circus story that we love and respect.

On the other hand, in our view, it is this image of the flying trapeze that makes it so conducive to political use on the international scene. That way it can appear as a showcase, showing the excellence, the beauty, and the purity
 of the flag. Our act relies on this metaphor to develop its narrative.

These questions do not only intersect with the flying trapeze, of course. Circus, sporting, and the arts in general are all political phenomena. Our role as artists is to question these phenomena. 

CT: Can you explain the significance of the music choice?

MB: Our number begins with the opening music from Charlie Chaplin’sThe Great Dictator. The reference is unequivocal. This tune immerses us in a decor that is both old-fashioned and epic; in a historical fiction, it perfectly represents the narrative context of our number.

Then, in the first part, as the acrobatic difficulty increases, the music advances a sense of fear and danger. It’s our way of both telling what a trapeze artist can feel concretely before starting their act and also of setting up our austere context.

Later on we hear the sounds of typewriters above the disturbing soundtrack. They introduce what happens next— in particular, the rain of leaflets.

The second part (when the resistance arrives) is the body of the number. The music here is taken fromLe Sacre du Printemps (“The Rite of Spring”) by Igor Stravinsky. Its hammered rhythm supports the scene and the urgency of the situation. There are some sort of air holes within this piece: they allow spectators and trapeze artists to breathe. The trapeze scene, much like this passage fromSacre, offers a kind of emotional lift. This is what pleased us with this choice.

Besides that, an excerpt fromLe Sacre was also used in one of the versions of “Les Cigognes.” There is something truly revolutionary in this music which, at the time of its creation, caused some scandal as the proposal was so innovative. It’s inspiring. And then, the idea of spring is also reminiscent of the Arab Spring, which saw people rising up against oppression.Not to mention Ukraine. It all resonates with us.

In an older version of this act (as we had been waiting three years to perform it at the festival), the reference to a European context of war was more pronounced. Then we got overtaken by current events. Some of our choices were no longer relevant. 

CT:Why did you choose “Resistance” as the name of the act?

MB: Today, if there is still flying trapeze in France, it is largely thanks to the will of companies and a few associations who pass along thesavoir-faire and put on shows. For the rest, there is not much. Everywhere we work, this notion of company resistance has been heard more and more since the end of the pandemic; it is the entire entertainment sector that has been very impacted

These things are costly and complex, both logistically and in terms of creation and learning times. We see ourselves as resistance fighters. This is what motivated our choice of name.

CT: What do the costuming and leaflets represent?

MB: The costumes are inspired by resistance fighters from the two World Wars. As for the leaflets, they represent the organizing of a rebellion. They also have other functions: throwing leaflets makes it possible to support the rhythm of the number, and the way in which they occupy the space makes it possible to bring that emptiness to life. The image of a trapeze artist passing through leaflets floating in the air gives a completely different perception of the aerial space. We liked that a lot.

 

CT: What do you want audiences to feel when they watch your act?

MB: Our desire was for the public to feel involved in our story. To make them share in the human dimension of this adventure. And, above all, to feel all the intensity!  

 

CT: Flying trapeze is a big act to present: what are your plans and aspirations to perform the act in the future?

MB: We’ll see. We would like to be able to share our art with as many people as possible. We especially hope that this act will give greater visibility to our show.

CT: How did it feel to have your act recognized with all these awards and titles?

MB: We felt proud and moved. The best memory for us was from Thursday night, the first show. Until then, we had never played this number in front of so many people, and we didn’t know how they were going to receive it. There were no falls, and at the end of the number, the public and the jury stood up to applaud us. This is where we understood that we had succeeded. We had a good evening! 

La Tangente is the recipient of both the Demain Festival Grand Prix and the CircusTalk Spotlight Award,  awarded to an emerging artist whose work demonstrates courageous expression and whose performance is lauded for its social relevance, artistic and technical acumen, and audience engagement.

Images used in this article courtesy of Maxime Bourdon, credited to photographer Laurence Amielh. Maxime’s answers originally in French. Special thanks to Stacy Clark for help with the English translation. 

Carolyn Klein
Content Writer -United States
Carolyn Klein is a writer, poet, and circus fan from the Washington, D.C, area. Writing stories about the circus has been a dream of hers since getting introduced to circus fiction around 2014. She recently completed her B.A. in English and Creative Writing, magna cum laude, at George Mason University. As a new member of the Circus Talk journalism team, Carolyn looks forward to learning as much as she can about the industry and people behind circus.
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Carolyn Klein

Carolyn Klein is a writer, poet, and circus fan from the Washington, D.C, area. Writing stories about the circus has been a dream of hers since getting introduced to circus fiction around 2014. She recently completed her B.A. in English and Creative Writing, magna cum laude, at George Mason University. As a new member of the Circus Talk journalism team, Carolyn looks forward to learning as much as she can about the industry and people behind circus.