STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Dance in public spaces
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Street Artists in Europe
Dance, in streets, squares, parks, on horizontal and vertical, flat and uneven surfaces, is also an
established form in public spaces. In those settings it is freed from the shackles of tradition, its
elitist image and the technical constraints of the stage, creating new spatial relationships with
the architecture and the moving audience. In the hubbub of the town, it uses movement and
gesture to reveal to the audience what they would not normally see or be able to imagine.
Examples: Ex Nihilo, Compagnie Retouramont, Cie Beau Geste, Artonik (France), Tango Sumo
(France), Die Audio Gruppe-Benoit Maubrey (Germany), Lemmings (United Kingdom), Malaje
(Spain), Producciones Imperdibles (Spain), A.I.E.P (Italy).
Urban festivals and storytelling
One of the skills of street artists is to bring the people of a town or district together and tell them
a story. To surprise them, capture their attention and then transport them into a reverie, a
communal dream world, as if it were still possible to live together without social or cultural
barriers. At the end of the performance every member of the audience is left with memories of a
sensual, communal celebration. And thus a new urban mythology takes shape year by year.
Examples: Transe Express, Cie Off, Oposito, Royal de Luxe.
This category includes music, circus acts, parades, pyrotechnics and stilt-walking. These various
disciplines are often combined in urban festivals and storytelling, each contributing a dynamic
element to the moving stories that appeal to all the spectators’ senses.
Circus acts include trapeze artists, tightrope walkers and dancers, fire-eaters, stunt artists and
jugglers. These extreme experiences appeal to the artists and lead them to perform often
impressive, difficult and graceful feats.
Companies include: Theater Titanick (Germany), Couleurs mécaniques (France), Clinch
(Netherlands), O Bando (Portugal), Chipolatas (United Kingdom).
Typical examples of street parade companies are found mainly in France, Spain and the United
Kingdom: Cie Macnas, Oposito (France), Brayse (France), Cie Off (France), Generik Vapeur
(France), Xarxa Teatre (Spain), Neighbourhood Watch Stilts International (United Kingdom).
These are often associated with companies using giant figures and structures, incredible
machines, which are sometimes gigantic like those of the Royal de Luxe troupe, as tall as the
buildings, built for street parades through the town.
Companies: The Lunatics (Netherlands), Dogtroep (Netherlands), Transe Express (France),
Theater Titanick (Germany), Metalovoice (France).
Pyrotechnists such as Groupe F (France), Carabosse (France), Theater of Fire (Ireland), Flup &
Ju Bedrijf (Netherlands) are also associated with this group.
The stilt-walkers who often walk in front of, alongside or at the end of these big parades are
represented in many countries by companies such as Stalker (Australia), Grotest Maru
(Germany), Irrwisch (Austria), Alien Voyagers (Netherlands), Biuro Podrozy (Poland).
PE 375.307