Established 10 years ago, MagdaClan is one of the best known and loved Italian contemporary circus companies.
It combines the traditional image of circus and itinerant life with a poetic, ironic and many-sided language that connects different art forms and is a metaphor for the complexity that inhabits our present time.
A collective body, with vibrant muscles and an open mind, the Clan is composed by 15 members.
These acrobats, musicians and technicians – all younger than 35 – pursue together, with passion, kindheartedness and hard work, their common dream: spreading wonder through the language of the New Circus.
Based on an innovative and attentive artistic research and sincere self-irony, MagdaClan builds surreal scenarios, fragile imbalances, and collective scenes of acrobatics and acro dance.
MagdaClan is one of the first Italian contemporary circus companies with a circus tent, or as we call it, chapiteau. Its elegant, blue chapiteau is a scenic, creative and living space for MagdaClan.
The ritual of the setting up and tearing down the chapiteau is done by the members of the Clan, who also take care of its maintenance.
The chapiteau is also conceived by MagdaClan as an incubator of other arts and has hosted to date more than 120 artists with the aim of supporting budding creators and encouraging the interaction between different artistic expressions (dance, theatre, contemporary circus, music and poetry). Thanks to the small size of its chapiteau, MagdaClan has been able to reach the hearts of cities and communities, creating a unique relationship with the urban space, the audience, and local institutions.
MagdaClan has five major collective productions in its current repertoire: Era-Sonetto per un Clown (2012), Extra_vagante ( 2014), è un Attimo (2017), Emisfero ( 2018), and MasNada (2019). The company also develops site-specific performances, an “extra-ordinary” circus journey , which integrates circus disciplines in the locations’ architecture, ranging from Museums to a geothermic power plant. Finally, the most recent creation, Sic Transit , is a street performance played by two of the MagdaClan acrobats. In its 10 years of tours, MagdaClan performed in over 100 cities, in all main circus, theatre and dance industry’s festivals, as well as in theaters.
MagdaClan is among the founders of Forum Nuovi Circhi.
MagdaClan also organizes in the region of Montferrat in Piedmont two festivals: Fantasy – festival di circo contemporaneo, arte di strada e musica , now at its fifth edition, and Mon Circo – Officina delle Arti viventi, at its fourth edition.
The acrobats of the MagdaClan group graduated from the FLIC Scuola di Circo (Turin), Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque (ESAC – Bruxelles) and at the Ecole supérieure des arts du cirque de Toulouse-Occitanie (Le LIDO – Toulouse).
The innovative artistic research of the company and the professionalism of its individual members are acknowledged by the industry’s critics, organizers and the audience. MagdaClan’s projects are supported, among others, by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT), the Piedmont Region, Compagnia San Paolo, Piemonte dal Vivo Foundation, and GAI – Associazione per il Circuito dei Giovani Artisti Italiani.
Local, national and european press talked about MagdaClan and the company won a number of Italian and international contests.
In 2019, the company has been selected for Avignon OFF Festival and the Festival du Cirque Actuel of Auch (France).
In 2018, MagdaClan ranked first in the MiBACT’s list of endeavours in the category “Contemporary and innovative circus under 35″.
(no words, not spoken. possible in all countries)
Contemporary circus show for chapiteau
(from 7 years)
Duration: 60 min.
SYNOPSIS
“The mind is like a parachute. It only works if you open it” – Albert Einstein.
It happens again. Even right now. It happens 60,000 times a day. Without thinking.
You know them, those little molecules? They meet, kiss, walk, they dance.
Like chemical messages that respond to any stimulus. Constantly changing. They are thousands of particles of our being. They carry hate, fear, love and trust. EMISFERO is their and your journey, a tribute to the human being, and to their incredible mechanism, to the daily balance, to the circus of life.
Enter this warm and generous Italian circus. Imagine yourself transported to a dream world of MagdaClan, a collective body with vibrant muscles and an open mind.
Credits :
Direction: MagdaClan Circo
Acrobats and co-authors: Elena Bosco, Davide De Bardi, Lucas Elias, Giulio Lanfranco, Davide De Bardi, Tiphaine Rochais, Daniele Sorisi.
Musicians and co-authors: Veronica Maria Canale, Antonio Petitto, Achille Zoni.
Artistic disciplines: Icarian games, collectives and acrobatics portés, balancing ladders, chinese pole, german wheel, acrodance
Live Music: typewriters, accordion, double bass, charango, didjéridoo, voice, electrique guitar, duduk, tambourins, harmonic flute, toy piano
Production: MagdaClan circo Co-production: FLIC Scuola di Circo, Dinamico Festival With the support of MiC, Ministero dei Beni e Attività Culturali, CIRQUEON Praga, Bunker Torino, Blukippe ginnastica – Padova, La Corte Ospitale – Teatro Herberia residenze 2018
Download Dossier in: ENGLISH – FRENCH – SPANISH
( spoken show: possible to play where French is spoken)
Avec Alessandro Maida
DUREE: 55 MINUTES
PUBLIC: A PARTIR DE 6 ANS
SYNOPSIS: ENTRE NOUVELLES DOCTRINES ET ANCIENNES VÉRITÉS. ORTHODOXIE ET RÉINTERPRÉA TIONS INATTENDUES. VOICI UN SPECTACLE ACROBATIQUE, OU PLUTOT UN SERMON POSTMODERNE ADRESSE DIRECTEMENT À UN FIDELE PUBLIC.
UN DIEU SE RACONTE : DES SIÈCLES PASSÉS À FAIRE ENTENDRE SA VOIX SANS SUC CES, FACE À UNE MULTITUDE D’INTERPRÉTATIONS CLAMÉES SANS RÉPIT.
QUANT À SON UNIQUE FILS À QUI IL A TOUT TRANSMIS? FINI HUMILIE, TORTURÉ, ÉXÉCUTÉ…ALORS SI DIEU EST REVENU, C’EST POUR TROUVER LE MESSAGER D’UNE
NOUVELLE HISTOIRE, PLUS MODERNE, PLUS ACCESSIBLE. EST CE QUE TOUT LE MON DE EST PRÊT À NOUS ADORER?
CREDITS
ECRITURE LE RECHERCHE: ALESSANDRO MAIDA GIORGIA RUSSO
AVEC:ALESSANDRO MAIDA
AIDE ET MISE EN SCENE: GIORGIO BERTOLOTTI
MUSIQUES ORIGINALES: PINO BASILE
JINGLES TV: LORENZO CRIVELLARI
SCÉNOGRAPHIE ET ARCHITECTURE: STEFANO BOCCARDO
LUMIÈRES: FEDERICO CANIBUS
COSTUMES: GIORGIA RUSSO
CONSEILS MAGIQUES: ANDY HOPE
TECHNIQUES: MANIPULATION D’OBJETS, EQUILIBRE, ACROBATIE AERIENNE. THEATRE. MAGIE. PAYSAGES SONORES ET METAPHORES BLASFEMES
CO-PRODUIT PAR: MON CIRCO, CIE CIRCONCENTRIQUE. VEREGRA STREET FESTIVAL DINAMICO FESTIVAL
AVEC LE SOUTIEN DE MIC, CIRCO ALL’INCIRCA.CIRK FANTASTIK PLAY
Download Dossier in FRENCH
Theatre, chapiteau
no spoken
Avec Alessandro Maida, MagdaClan
SYNOPSIS:
A survivor, alone in a rocky desert, survives thanks to his particular symbiosis with stones, sand and minerals. Like a wild wolf, he is a solitary soul that sniffs, digs, prays and dances all alone. Sometimes he comes across weird objects and garbage left behind by his human predecessors that are now vanished. He is looking for a meaning, he searches for his past and goes back to the history of his ancestors through some unusual findings. He sorts out the relics he finds, fossils of an ancient past that he no longer recognises and that maybe will never return. What is a smartphone in a deserted and uninhabited world? What does a Coke taste like when water becomes a very rare commodity? Stonoj is an existential investigation through the gaps of history and the nuances of the past in all its mistakes and wonder.
CREDITS:
Author and interpreter: Alessandro Maida
External eye: Giorgio Bertolotti
Lighting design: Flavio Cortese
Sound design: Pino Basile
Scenography: Francesco Fassone and Jessica Koba
Costumes: Augusta Tibaldeschi
Production: Magdaclan Circo
Co-production: Dinamico Festival
With the support of: MiC, Piedmont Region, Municipality of Montiglio Monferrato
BIO:
Alessandro Maida graduated in 2006 at the circus school Flic Circus School of Turin and in 2009 at the ESAC of Bruxelles in walking globe and juggling. Alessandro Maida inherits the method of the “circus actor” by Roberto Magro. In 2010, with Dieu me doit des explications, he wins the audience prize at the Pistes de Lancement festival in Brussels. In 2011 he joins Complicité, a project of Espace Catastrophe in Brussels, where professional artists meet young people with mental disabilities. His talent emerges together with Maxime Pythoud with whom he founds company Cie Circoncentrique where he debuts with Respire (more than 450 performances worldwide) now in its eleventh year of tour. He is co-founder of the circus company MagdaClan, with whom he creates Magda Cabaret, ERA – Sonetto per un clown, Extra_Vagante, È un Attimo, Sic Transit and Masnada as a director.
He works as an artistic consultant or director following different projects such as 193 Problemi (Laden Classe), Piani in Bilico Quattrox4), Emisfero (MagdaClan), Tre piccioni con una favola (Cieocifa). He teaches courses and workshops on the creative and narrative research of the circus actor; his workshop called La Grammatica della Fantasia Circense, inspired by Gianni Rodari, is regularly offered in Circus schools like Flic and Vertigo. He is now co-director of Mon Circo, the contemporary circus festival of Monferrato.
“La joyeuse et accueillante troupe du Magda Clan nous offre une bienbelle démonstration du cirque contemporain italien. Eccellente Emisfero-est un spectacle qui marie acrobatie, équilibre et poésie. Accueillis dans le chapiteau baigné de fumée et de lumière jaune, les artistes de la compagnie qui ont chacun leur spécialité vont rivaliser d’énergie et de virtuosité. Les numéros s’enchaînent au sol ou dans les airs sans aucun temps mort pour le plus grand bonheur du public réparti tout autour de la piste.“ La Provence
“The strength and power of contemporary circus lies in the creation of a double track of listening; if on the one hand the “numbers” and the artistic and acrobatic routines of the performers emerge, on the other hand a story, a plot, a dramaturgy develops and the different performances of the main characters connect into it. […] And MadgaClan, young but already experienced group, are among the best in this kind of new circus philosophy and concept that gives a lot of space to writing and theater…” A rich and deep structure, made of physical effort and complicated acrobatics, that has managed to well combine body, muscles and, indeed, brain.” / Tommaso Chimenti
“MagdaClan is a reality to get to know, for its high quality and for the gust of new ideas and fantasy world of imagination that brings with it. Six are the wonderful artists on stage, and three musicians, all connected in a whole that builds, through the immediacy and the visual and sound impact, the strength of a nouveau cirque that absolutely needs be discovered” / Nicoletta Cavanna
“Six circus poets, three musicians, a chapiteau that holds about 200 people… poetry and prose in unison. Street acrobats, articulated puppets in flesh and blood. And you will discover, in each of them, the genius. THE NATION
“Extraordinary” is an overused adjective, one that one should be wary of. Yet, observing with astonishment the rapid and precise evolutions, no other definition is suitable for the MagdaClan. It happens under a chapiteau […], the six artists, all Italians, alive, half dead, masterful in the collective scenes, sew the disciplines of the circus in a fantastic marquetry and the mathematical exactitude of the gestures (risking their life) get lost in the imagination, which floats blissfully.” / Maura Sesia