Trànsits

Luis Mantilla, originally from Guayaquil and currently living in Mendoza, began his journey in movement through gymnastics and later ventured into circus, specializing in handstands. In 2020, together with Julieta Tissera, he founded Proyecto Recóndito, a duo dedicated to movement research, with which he has participated in international festivals and workshops. In addition to being a teacher and former director of Cos Invertido, he currently teaches virtual classes and develops Vestigios, a project focused on the artistic and emotional exploration of movement.

‘Vestigios’

Vestigios investigates handstands from an artistic perspective, questioning their form, meaning, and purpose. It proposes shifting technique from the standard toward invention, understanding movement as a living relationship between body and action. In this approach, technique loses value for its formal perfection and gains it for its poetic power and its ability to create meaning within the work.

Artist in residence at La Central as part of the Iberescena program.

Croma is a contemporary circus company that fuses circus techniques, dance, and theatre to create innovative stage productions. Their work is characterized by the use of object manipulation and the exploration of materiality, generating a unique artistic language.

Efraín Salazar is a performing artist and creator linked to contemporary circus. His work focuses on the exploration of the body, the object, and memory, investigating the intersection between circus, dance, and theatre. He has developed original works such as Ensayo y error, Solo un marco, Alguna vez fui — the latter delving into the relationship between identity and memory through the manipulation of empty frames without images. He has collaborated on various collective projects related to the performing arts between the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions, contributing his creative and technical perspective.

“Alguna vez fui”

A contemporary circus piece that explores the fundamental role of memory and recollection in the construction of our identity. Through contemporary circus and its combination with other techniques such as dance and object manipulation, the piece tells an intimate and emotional story, inviting the audience to reflect on how past experiences and memories shape who we are.

Artist in residence at La Central as part of the Iberescena program.

Aïna Duc is a member of the TBTF collective, based in Bourg-Saint-Andéol, a group of 20 artists who seek to build collectivity in a divided society. She graduated from ESACTO-LIDO in 2023 and has since explored public space with the company Sept fois la langue and hospital clowning with Soleil de clown. Les péripéties du dedans is the natural continuation of her love for clowning and aerial fabric.

‘Les péripéties du dedans’

A clown and a fabric. Les péripéties du dedans is a daring and joyful immersion into the paths of everything that submerges us.

In residence at La Central del Circ, as part of the Cross Residencies with La Cascade.

Teatronas is one of the main organisations in Lithuania that strategically develops the field of contemporary circus in Lithuania and the Baltic region. Apart from development projects and the international contemporary circus festival Cirkuliacija that happens each year in various cities in Lithuania, Teatronas has combined their knowledge in theatre and circus and since 2024 started creating circus-theatre shows. These are created by the artistic director Gildas Aleksa and local circus artists as co-authors. It creates a possibility to have more job opportunities for the artists and develop new audiences for circus.

The 2025 production “Šarūnas” is aimed to find the combination of the old drama traditions of Lithuania and the new circus writing of contemporary artists.

In residence at La Central del Circ within the framework of the Crossed Residencies with Arts Printing House.

Juan Fresina Scotto is an Argentinian performing artist specializing in the intersection of contemporary circus and science. His work as a performer and creator explores these connections in pieces such as Qua, Ensayo para a Desorden, and his latest creation, Infinito. This new project, directed and performed by Juan Fresina Scotto alongside Pablo Melo and José Cereceda, specialists in aerial straps, continues his collaborative approach, integrating scientific knowledge and circus techniques to foster an innovative and poetic dialogue between the two disciplines.

In residence at La Central del Circ as part of the cross-residency program with Erva Daninha (Portugal).

HERTZ is the first long-duration creation by Cie Dissociée, following Pacemaker, and explores the themes of fakirism and clowning. Released in February 2024, this piece, suitable for all audiences from the age of 10, integrates theater, performance, and installation. At the center of the stage, a pile of crushed glass measuring 7 meters by 5.5 meters, weighing over 800 kg, interacts with dance movements and acrobatics. The performance questions the limits we impose on ourselves, addressing themes such as pain, resilience, and the boundaries of the impossible. By intertwining fakirism and clowning, HERTZ highlights human contradictions, inviting the audience to embrace their weaknesses and discover a more authentic and resilient humanity.

Marcelo Nunes is an author and performer whose artistic career is based on a constant search for novelty, influenced by his experiences in Brazil and Europe. His practice focuses on three techniques: trapeze, clown, and fakirism, exploring the wild nature of humanity. Since his first work, Pacemaker, Nunes has expressed his worldview through a unique artistic language. On stage, he uses the body as a tool for communication, creating an authentic dialogue with the audience. Through his creations, he seeks to foster a poetic resonance between the artist and the audience.

Arrel trains at the CAU School of Circus and Theatre in Granada, specializing in fixed trapeze. The artist creates and participates in various shows, both circus and other disciplines, standing out in performances such as La Ira, La cultura del odi, or No-conformes. Arrel works as a circus workshop leader and trainer at the Aire Circo Vivo School, La Volta, TuSí(K)Circ, La Rogelio Rivel, Del Revés, and the Caixa d’Eines program, among others, while continuing to train in other scenic and circus disciplines, and is part of Cata Aguayo’s Aerial Creation and Research Laboratory. He/She has also completed a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology in Barcelona.

‘Lutum’

Lutum is an intimate and brutal journey into the darkest parts of the body’s memory. A raw and organic stage experience that, through circus, symbolic objects, and video projections, explores a territory where fragility, desire, and illness merge. Where the repulsive can bloom and what is sick becomes a shared strength, revealing the relationship between death, sexuality, and gender questioning.

The Circus Company “eia” («unforeseen impulses agreed» in French, “yes” in Sardinian) was founded in 2009 through the fusion of various artists: Armando Rabanera, Fabrizio Giannini, and Cristiano Della Monica (Cirque Vague, Circo de la Sombra, and Le Grand Osim Orchestra), and Francesca Lissia and Celso Pereira (Celso i Frana). With fifteen years of collective experience, five active creations, and over 800 performances in 25 countries, it has established itself as a leading company in contemporary Catalan and Spanish circus. At the core of its creations is a human circus, capable of evoking the complexity of human relationships.

Secrets

Secrets is a creation project for a contemporary indoor circus for five acrobats that will premiere in the Spring/Summer of 2026. In this project we will question ourselves about the passage of time and the transformations that it causes, with special attention on making visible and giving value to those things that we often hide. What would we ask of our last shooting star?

Cie. Le Bar à Chiens is composed of artists Florencia Galimberti, Matthias Elgueta, Lina Ramírez, and Stefano Zacchi, hailing from Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Italy, brought together by their desire to explore acrobatic lifts as part of the same language.

‘A braccio’

A braccio is a sensory experience that invites the audience to connect with their own emotions and memories, resonating with the deepest parts of their being. A journey where circus becomes the perfect vehicle to explore the depths of the human soul.

Timothée Meiffren, a member of Collectif TBTF, is originally from Toulouse, where he developed a deep sensitivity to the visual arts, especially painting and sculpture, as well as an interest in exploring improvised music. Later, he discovered circus arts and trained as an acrobat at Esacto’Lido before entering the Fratellini Academy in Saint-Denis and the Circus School of Lyon. His acrobatic practice led him to explore choreographic language, so he continued his dance training in the Coline program in Istres. Since then, he has worked on merging these disciplines, driven by a passion for risk and a special affinity for falling.

‘La peur des vides’

Currently, Timothée is developing La peur des vides, a solo clown show with a red nose that combines live music, burlesque acrobatics, and puppetry. This 50-minute show is inspired by fantastical worlds and addresses themes such as strangeness and absurdity, welcoming others, our intimate relationship with productivity, and the fear of the voids it can create.

Marina Cherry, based in Stockholm, is a contortionist-acro-dancer, educated at ESAC (Brussels 2016-2019) and ENC (Montreal 2014-2016) she is now working on her solo show ‘Only Bones v.1.6’ as well as collaborative projects around Europe, including companies Les Argonauts and Petri Dish and Cirkus Cirkör. Her research-based approach to creation and performing puts her somewhere between dance, contemporary circus and physical theatre; with her body as the tool of manipulation and method for redefining traditional constructs and deconstructing techniques to find her own language.

‘AVoid’ is an anonymous space. An unusual body. A desultory corruption seeking reprieve. A pursuit of one’s fantasies, fears, and neuroses. Without a need for resolution or justification, AVoid is the astringent potentiality of the “in-between”: neither here nor there. The project is an attempt to touch on realities that belong to the indiscernible, the ineffable, those that are a reminder of the dissipation of certainties.

This project is born from Marina’s fascination with solitude, contradictions, alienation and the impact of rapidly developing—devolving—society in the face of digitalization. The common point being the concept hikikomori—the withdrawal into seclusion, a particular condition in Japanese society where people avoid social contact to an extreme level. Shutting oneself in.

In 2022 Maria Paz brought together four circus artists – Jesu, Africa, Júlia and Maya – from France, Catalonia and Chile to create the company La côte folle. The collective is created, on the one hand, with the desire to create an acrobàtics and dance creation and, on the other hand, by the desire to share collective ethics and the question of how we make circus.

Entre bous i vaques

Five acrobatic bodies that are carried and accompanied, use a structure that is transformed to explain ‘Entre bous i vaques’. The collective La côte folle proposes – through the acrobatics and dance – a scenic narrative about memory, forgetfulness, old age, dementia and the passage of time, inspired by real anecdotes and testimonies.
A street proposal and for everyone. A journey between the memories of a ruined brain, between sensitivity and humour.

Photo: Andreu Casadellà Oller

Maragda Induráin and Maria Estela met and studied at the La Madó Dance School (Vilassar de Mar) from 2015. At the same time, each has been trained in different techniques. Maragda Induráin, contemporary dancer and circus artist, was part of the Cia jove Fre3Bodies 2018, studies at the Rogelio Rivel and dancer at the Cia Roseland Musical. Maria Estela, performer and singer, graduated from the Institut del Teatre, resident at Lo Spazio, research centre and artistic practices, collaborates with national musicians and dancers, and works for the next production of the Teatre Akademia 2024 directed by Moreno Bernardi.

Nowadays they are realizing their first project together, the search of stage poetic between the chinese pole, the voice and the word. We will experiment with possible methodologies based on improvisation and repetition dynamics, in order to enter into what music and movement suggest.

If Circus focuses on collecting historical memory and using it as a source of inspiration for their creations. Weave is the ancestral art that inspires the company together with the recovery of the knowledge of its grandmothers.

‘Melic’

‘Melic’ is a dialogue between hand-woven strings that are transformed, tensioned and faded, woven and undone. Strings that hold us, that cradle us. In the “Taller Teixint Memòries” weave with our hands the string that appears in the show the next day. A meeting point to share the art of weaving and telling us anecdotes.

The company was created in 2019, when Jean and Paula finished the professional training of the circus school in Grenoble (France). They create their first show ‘Etrangers Etrangers‘ that deals with the fear of the unknown, the intolerance and the prejudices that each one has. With this show they have done more than 100 performances and, currently, continues to tour French and European festivals. At the moment they are in the process of creating a new piece ‘En Panne‘ (provisional title), in which the duo is accompanied by a musician.

‘En panne’

From a distant planet, a spacecraft has been sent to analyze other forms of life. During their journey, crew members have a problem and must land as soon as possible. Faced with a handful of curious looks, travelers find it difficult to establish communication with the local population, which is not familiar with their language. With so much incomprehension, they rush to repair the ship, but the sound that comes out from their machine begins to create an unforeseen link with the natives.

The contemporary circus collective “Būda” (Vílnius, Lituania) was created on the initiative of the juggler Kasparas Bujanauskas. The collective examines the similarities and differences between different art disciplines and tries to erase the boundaries between them. “Būda” team is not afraid to play, improvise and look for something that has not yet been discovered. The most important thing is being together and feeling each other on and off the stage.

Formada el 2014 a Montevideo (Uruguai), la companyia Plataforma CLO promou la creació, recerca i circulació del circ expandit. El projecte és una creació de Noel Rosas (Uruguai) amb la col·laboració de Maria Carolina Oliveira (Brasil).

La seva proposta artística combina circ, performance i dansa. Fomenta la producció i distribució d’arts vives, teixint xarxes de col·laboració entre diverses artistes, col·lectius, organitzacions i institucions en l’àmbit nacional i internacional. Actualment, organitza la residència Poéticas en Encuentro, a Canelones, i el Ciclo Interseccional Circense. Les creacions i coproduccions han circulat i participat en diverses sales, programes de residència i festivals a Uruguai, Mèxic, Brasil, Perú, Argentina i Tenerife.

En l’actualitat treballa en el projecte “De la memoria a la fuerza centrífuga, rutas obsesionadas con la telepatía”, que vol aprofundir en la investigació del circ expandit, a través de pràctiques de circ i de performance. Una exploració en codi de conferència circense – performativa, influenciada per pensadors/es de ciència-ficció, poètiques interseccionals i humorístiques. Reflexiona sobre les narratives antropocèntriques, especialment en el circ. Practiquen i reflexionen amb/des de/ al sud global.

Foto: Proyecto Mestizar (2021) Plataforma Clo, Uruguai / Autor: Reinaldo Altamirano

Fisicoquímico Circo és la companyia d’Ailén Leiva Reyes (Argentina).

L’artista entrena i investiga la disciplina de trapezi des de l’any 2008. Es forma a la Escuela de Teatro Callejero i a la Escuela Integral de Circo de la EMAU (Escuela Municipal de Artes Urbanas) y Dirección de actores en la Escuela Provincial de Teatro y Títeres (Rosario). Des del 2015 treballa en espectacles de carrer fent solos i amb diferents companyies, i participa en diverses peces de trapezi, humor i com a presentadorx, recorrent i coneixent espais de circ d’Argentina i els seus països limítrofs.

Està en procés de creació de la peça “Febril”. Una persona humana en recerca creativa. Un laberint de preguntes, intents, ensomnis, records, salts, vols i caigudes.

El raciocini esclatat: seny i demència, il·lusió i realitat, difuminen la seva línia fronterera.

Mentrestant soroll, aquella cerca d’inspiració es converteix en el camí cap a retrobar-se amb la seva essència: serà llavors quan aconsegueixi trobar l’autèntica obra mestra.

After 12 years of circus in Finland where she was burned, Viivi came to France in 2009 to go to Centro Nacional de los Artes de Circo in Chalon en Champagne. From there, Viivi were involved in a lot of project with her circus agres : the rope. She co-created two shows Metsa – the forest project with Sade Kamppila and the duo Dans ton cirque with Fragan Gehlker and Ana Tauber. She’s now creating her first solo with a mini rope called « V ».

Delving into Viivi’s innerself, V is a performance in which the artist reveals her personal mythology. Her relationship with the rope is the subject matter of the show. In V, Viivi has chosen to shorten it thereby opening a new range of possibilities by instilling a greater void and a different apprehension of the ground. Infused with the pleasure of her first solo performance, she embarks the audience on a journey to her inner depths reminding us of our multiple selves.

Circus artist (Rogelio Rivel Circus School – 2016) and social teacher (University of Barcelona – 2013) by training, and by untraining, all the rest: investigator of the performative action and movement, driving force behind pedagogic projects with art as a transversal pivot, trainer, creator and highly interested in interdisciplinarity.

She studies with professors like: Mal Pelo, Hamza Benlabied, Andrés Corchero, Alexander Gavrilov and Semolina Tomic, amongst others.  In 2016 she cofounds the Cia. Capes (CAT) company, a hand-to-hand duo. In 2018 she becomes a co-founder and artist of the Ino Kollektiv (FR) female hand-to-hand collective, with which she currently works. Together with this collective, she forms part of a new circus, song and psychology project: Ekco (MX-IT-FR-ES) and another spontaneous circus and improv project about acrobalance: Improportes (FR-ES), together with another company: Kolektivo Konika. In 2022 she commences the personal research for the Cavitat f project.

Cavitat f.

Each body is a synthesis of his own history. Memory can be explicit when we can reasonably explain or describe a concrete experience, or implicit when the body reacts to experiences that cannot be processed by the mind. “Cavitat f.” is an artistic project that investigates the materialization of memory in the body, or in other words; embodied memories: everything that is recorded on the body as a movement, gesture, sound or posture in memory (mostly unconscious) of a concrete experience. The idea is to facilitate a work that puts the body in relation to the codification of these memories, to understand the forms and their learning processes, to see which ones and why they have been forgotten and if it is necessary to make them visible and perhaps resignify them. The project wants to observe how the context affects all this and also the relationship between two or more bodies and think how to generate collective body memories.

Picture: Helena Roig Prat

Vermut a Venus

Vermut a Venus’ is about the physical and intellectual need to socially connect and to network. It is an ode to this spirit, which inhabits both the body and the mind. It is a union, when everything seems to lead us to separation.

‘Vermut a Venus’ is the answer to the rules that have been imposed on us. It is the rewriting of the roles we have been assigned as people, women and workers. It is our most absurdly common and current reality; the ritual of the everyday that becomes sacred. “I meditate in the morning, I dance at night.”

‘Vermut a Venus’ is the discomfort of not knowing what is true and what is fictitious. Feeling confused, lost – reaching other realities that we had not imagined.

‘Trying to say what’

Specializing in rope and aerial silks, Gaia Panero is currently in the process of creating the piece ‘Trying to Say What’. The research she seeks to develop has started as a physical and technical research around the discipline of rope, transforming it into an investigation into the possible relationships between the rope, the artist’s body and the space that hosts them.

From this first research, the need has arisen to create a structure that is at the same time performance space and art installation, where circus art interacts with architecture. It will be a tensegrity structure, a name derived from the words “tension” and “integrity” and will be sustained by opposing forces.

LP (Long Play)

A visual and acoustical underworld hidden behind the mask of everyday life; an escape gate through which our dreams and fears pass. A millennial temple in which we can celebrate the error; open a gap of human fragility. Wires, software, high-heeled shoes and a beard. The bodies strain under tricks of light and sound, political speeches, cellphones and pop icons. On the eve of the apocalypse, Long Play is a cry of resistance that pays tribute to the generation of the new millennium.

Catalina Aguayo and Alejandro DutraWe create an authentic discourse, highlighting the fragility of bodies, driven by essential states. They nurture themselves from the circus but also from many other things: electronic music, Xavier Dolan’s movies, Vivienne Westwood’s costumes…