Your Complete Guide to Montréal Complètement Cirque - CircusTalk

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Your Complete Guide to Montréal Complètement Cirque

Summer in Montréal, poutine and beer, music drifting down cobble-stoned streets and thanks to  Montréal Complètement Cirque festival–which is in its 8th year– circus everywhere you turn. The savvy public of Montreal may find it quite normal to see droves of circus students scaling a tower or gliding across high wires two stories up but they still delight in the endless street shows and international performances that pop up every July. Perhaps that is because they feel quite at home surrounded by circus culture as Montréalhouses the Cité des Arts du Cirque (a triad of the Cirque du Soleil headquarters, the professional circus school École nationale de cirque and TOHU the world class circus venue). It is also home to several notable circus companies such as Cirque Éloize and 7 Fingers. Still, for 10 days in summer (this year from July 6th-16th), the circus ramps up for the festival, drawing an international crowd of fans, performers and circus talent scouts looking to find the perfect shows for their venues abroad. As if that weren’t enough, this yearMontréalis going above and beyond the usual summer fanfare to celebrate its 375th birthday, which translates to even more circus-going opportunities and there will be an International Market of Contemporary Circus taking place midweek to give circus professionals the opportunity to network and program their shows. To help you see it all, we’ve created a cheat sheet for the newcomer who is interested in taking in as much as possible for the festival.

 

INDOOR PROGRAMMING

Tabarnak

by Cirque Alfonse, Canada
Festival opening show and WORLD PREMIERE
July 5 to 11
TOHU

The bearded darlings of Quebec circus are back with a new show, this one mashes up rock with religion and circus in what will surely be a thrilling mix.


Vice and Vertu

by Les 7 Doigts, Canada
WORLD PREMIERE
July 10 to 16 and
 July 18 to 23
Society for Arts and Technology

 

In what promises to be one of the most interactive shows of the festival (you follow the action from room to room), 7 Fingers explores the historical setting of Montréal just after prohibition days as a nod to the cities’ 375th anniversary.


Zkruv Lös – Velkome To Kouglistan !

by THROW2CATCH, Canada
WORLD PREMIERE
July 7 to 16
Under the big top at TOHU


The Gluminovitch brothers plus Grandma and the kids are in town and ready to entertain you under the TOHU big top with a little introduction to their interesting culture in Kouglistan. This will be a family pleaser!


 

Il n’est pas encore minuit

by Compagnie XY, France
July 13 to 16
TOHU

22 acrobats from France will demonstrate togetherness in a very human and physical way!


Limbo

by Strut and Fret, Australia
July 4 to 15
Cabaret du Casino de Montréal

In Australia, they know how to create a celebratory atmosphere with the sexy circus show and Limbo is the prime example. There is fire, there are tubas, there is circus danger and what else do we need to know?

 

 

 

Tips from Nadia Drouin, Head of Programming 

Something new: The implementation of the digital app in Les Minutes
Don’t Miss: ROUGE!
This year’s trend: Many shows are about coexisting and cohabiting.

FREE OUTDOOR PROGRAMMING

There are a multitude of outdoor performances to appreciate all over Montreal during the 10 days of the festival. We recommend that you download the program for exact times and locations for the outdoor shows or pick up a print copy at festival headquarters or shops.

Les Minutes

This street show starts at the corner of Ontario St. Denis and makes its way to Place Émilie-Gamelin with enthused acrobats and community dancers leading the way. This year the usual eye-popping fanfare will be further enhanced with a bit more audience participation in the form of an app that users can operate to suggest activities to the performers or hunt for tiny circus artists. Download the app ahead of time here, and bring a blanket for a sit in the park to see Rouge afterwards.

Rouge

Conceptor and director Anthony Venisse spends his year fleshing out themes and staging this large scale outside production by hiring students from ENC and surrounds to be part of a massive coordinated effort. The result it magical and full of surprising twists and high level circus. This year’s theme is love.

 

La Rue Completement Cirque

St. Denis has street circus for 10 nights in a row during the festival where circus sometimes springs up out of thin air and gathers crowds. Bring the kids to try out the silks, stroll among the performances and have dinner at one of the restaurants and bars lining the street.

 

Le Moulin à vent

In one of Montréal’s oldest neighborhoods, Le Moulin à vent will be performing and happily including the audience in their street show at Place Royale.

 

Entre Nous by Collectif de mat chinois

Five artists from around the world vye for time on three Chinese poles–they will work it out with each other’s help and yours. They will be performing at several outdoor locations.

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL MARKET FOR CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS (MICC)

A not-to-be-missed circus event, the Festival will welcome more than 300 professionals this year—distributors, schedulers, bookers, troupe directors and artists from all around the globe. On the agenda: Tête-à-Tête, Tour de piste, lectures and plenty of activities to promote local and international circus companies. Montréal is viewed as the perfect connecting point between America and rest of the circus universe; numerous tour projects take flight during the Festival.

 

Before and After: Festival headquarters is the place to go for cocktails, hob-nobbing and workshops related to the conference. Festival passes are required to enter. It's in a new location this year:

Festival headquarters: 201, Sainte-Catherine st. (corner Hôtel-de-Ville). Montreal, QC, H2X 1L2

Tickets  for venue shows can be purchased here. Prices are $25, with discounts for students and a variety of passes are available.

 

Kim Campbell
Writer - USA
Kim Campbell has written about circus for CircusTalk.News, Spectacle magazine, Circus Now, Circus Promoters and was a resident for Circus Stories, Le Cirque Vu Par with En Piste in 2015 at the Montreal Completement Cirque Festival. They are the former editor of CircusTalk.News, American Circus Educators magazine, as well as a staff writer for the web publication Third Coast Review, where they write about circus, theatre, arts and culture. Kim is a member of the American Theater Critics Association.
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Kim Campbell

Kim Campbell has written about circus for CircusTalk.News, Spectacle magazine, Circus Now, Circus Promoters and was a resident for Circus Stories, Le Cirque Vu Par with En Piste in 2015 at the Montreal Completement Cirque Festival. They are the former editor of CircusTalk.News, American Circus Educators magazine, as well as a staff writer for the web publication Third Coast Review, where they write about circus, theatre, arts and culture. Kim is a member of the American Theater Critics Association.