AFRICAN CIRCUS AND MORE CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL
Afrique en Cirque, which travels to the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, traces its roots back to the sands of Guinea
If you love contemporary circus, chances are you’ve seen Yamoussa Bangoura perform—and picked your jaw up off the floor afterward. He was the leader of the exuberant Guinean acrobats in Cavalia’s spectacle Odysseo, whose feats of strength, agility, and balance drew roars of disbelief for their speed and audacity. Bangoura is coming back to town for this year’s Vancouver International Children’s Festival with his own circus troupe, Kalabanté, and the show Afrique en Cirque, in a more intimate setting.
Although the hyperathletic company is based in Montreal, Kalabanté’s spiritual home is in Conakry, the capital of Guinea—where Bangoura was brought up and where he operates a circus school, also called Kalabanté.
“There are about 30 students currently, plus 10 others who are here with me, and 15 who are touring with Cavalia,” he says, reached in Boston. “We’re always looking out for young people who are able to work well in a team setting, and have a good understanding of others, rather than those with outstanding individual skills but poor communication with colleagues. They must show discipline and mutual respect. Then we can find work for them. Kalabanté is above all about community.”
When Bangoura started out as an acrobat in the ’90s, there was no such training available in Conakry. Amazingly, with the help of telecommunications, he managed to teach himself. “At first I watched carefully retransmissions on TV of European circus spectacles, and from there I would go and practise beside the sea on the sand and dirt with my friends. Those are the origins of Kalabanté.”
Bangoura rapidly gained experience and confidence, and was soon able to extend his range of skills, learning directly both at home and overseas.
“I watched how the Nyamakala—the traditional performers of circus arts in Guinea— worked together. They’re from the Peul [or Fula] people, who are scattered over a large area of West Africa from Nigeria to Senegal, and have always been known for their fireeaters, acrobats, women who juggled oranges, and the like. There were no schools for them— the skills were passed down in the family, from father to son, mother to daughter. When I became a member of Circus Baobab [the first circus company to be formed in Guinea], we went on tour with Nyamakalas and learned acrobatics in their own way. After that, I went to France and Spain, where I discovered European circus traditions, and took courses.”
His prodigious talent came to the attention of Montreal’s Cirque Eloize, and Bangoura became a member of its performing team for five years, before founding Kalabanté—both the company and the school—in 2006. Since then, Bangoura’s reputation as performer and artistic director has grown, spurred by his work over several years with Cavalia.
“For this latest show, Afrique en Cirque, we have dancers, two female contortionists and gymnasts, and equilibrists. Musicians, too—a kora player, a djembe player, a bassist, a drummer. There are 11 of us in all.…we’re trying to create a bridge with the public, so they really feel a part of what’s going on. There’s a little bit of talking, not much—it’s very high-energy. There’s a narrative element too, with a character who steals people’s dreams. In the end the message is a simple and positive one: don’t lock thieves up in prisons, but give them instead the opportunity of becoming dancers and musicians.”
Apart from presenting Afrique en Cirque, the company hopes to venture further afield—to New Zealand, Paris, and possibly Mexico—on the strength of the prizewinning documentary Circus Without Borders, which focuses on the close relations that have developed between Kalabanté and the young Inuit circus company Artcirq.
“Inspired by all of that, we’re touring schools in the U.S. to give encouragement to young people, and help them work out what it is they really want to do in life, and pursue their dreams—whether or not that involves the circus arts,” says Bangoura.
Afrique en Cirque is at the Vancouver International Children’s Festival Granville Island Stage from Monday to next Sunday (May 29 to June 4).