More than thrills

The annual French-Thai cultural festival known as La Fete opened last Thursday at the National Theatre with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra performing French tunes, accompanied by a chorus of students from various universities, Jean-Paul Penin was the conductor and Henri Pompidor the choir master. The following day saw the launch of the “Retrospective” exhibition by Pakitsilp Varamissara at the National Gallery, which continues until February 29. On Saturday at Alliance Franaise, advertising was the theme of this year’s “Fete de la francophonie”, which promotes study of the French language.
This week, the festival’s spotlight will be shining on modern circus and dance performance as the Toulouse-based Compagnie Ieto take the stage for “Ieto”.
This innovative show mixes tightrope and acrobatic skills with street-dance, pantomime and comedy and makes extensive use of wooden benches.
It starts with two men sitting on a bench as if waiting for a bus. One has a goofy grin and curious demeanour; the other is cool and austere. The former tries to make friends with the latter, who snubs him by exploding in a whirl of speedy, light footed back-flips and cartwheels, to which of course, he’s man enough to respond.
What follows is a adrenaline-pumping series of body curls and flying jumps, with up-ended benches being climbed, hung from, raced along, and balanced upon with the ease and agility of wild monkeys. They form a giant T out of two benches, race up it, and use it like a seesaw with absolute precision and sheer fearlessness.
Says company’s co-founder, acrobat Fnico Feldmann, “I was 14 when I met Jonathan Guichard and we decided we wanted to work together. At the end of our circus studies, we tried it. At the beginning, we worked on a short performance, which lasted eight minutes. By luck it worked really well and we decided to create a one-hour show. I’ve been working with wooden benches for a long time. Jonathan agreed to work with these benches but we had to build a wire for him too.”
Feldmann says that the show has changed over the years, “because we’ve been working with director Christian Coumin several times a year. It changed also because Jonathan decided to stop performing to study music. In August 2010, Mosi Abdu Espinoza substituted for him. In fact, the audience is always different and the show is different all the time because of the audience’s reactions.”
In 2008, they won the prestigious award for young European circus artists – Jeunes Talents Cirque Europe, which encourages artists to cross boundaries of arts.
Feldmann says, “We cross boundaries with other art forms because as part of our training, we practised dance, theatre, capoeira, breakdance and more. So we’re now using what we’ve learned. While we were creating the show, we never asked ourselves if it was circus or something else. The award encouraged us because it gave us the chance to meet a lot of professionals who are interested in our work.”
Apart from touring extensively in France, Ieto appeared at the London International Mime Festival two years ago to critical acclaim. Last year, they were part of “Le French May Festival” in Hong Kong and “Croisements Festival” in Guangzhou, Kunming and Beijing, so Thailand will be the second Asian country to witness this spectacle.
“It’s a really great experience to perform in Asia, says Feldmann. It’s always different when we perform in front of people from another culture. The humour is different, so they tend to react at different moments. That makes it very interesting for us. It was more predictable in Hong Kong than in other Chinese cities because people already knew nouveau cirque.”
Thanks to “La Fete”, Bangkok audiences are also quite familiar with nouveau cirque - we know that it’s not just about thrilling acrobatic skills but underlying messages as well.
Feldmann says, “There are different ways to understand our show. You can just enjoy the acrobatic performances, sibling rivalry and the aestheticism but there are also other underlying messages like the usefulness and the sense of our acts. Each person has his own sensibility and his own reading of the show.”

GRAB A BENCH
"Ieto" will be at Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts on Thursday and Friday, 8pm.
There will be a post-show discussion on both days.
Tickets are Bt400 (Bt 100 for students) at and at (081) 559 7252.
Visit www.IETO.fr and www.LafeteBangkok.com.