Next Door Circus Magazine Next Door Circus Magazine No.1 | Page 6

TALLINN TREFF
FESTIVAL
In June 2014, for the 8th time since going
international in 2007, the Talllinn Treff festival
was held in capital of Estonia. Even
though labelled ‘visual theatre’ festival ‘Treff’
has long experience of including street performers, acrobats, puppeteers, dancers, musicians
and performers from various fields. Unfortunately, due to lack of financial support from Tallinn City Council, the street performance part
this year has been cut down. In spite of this, on
two mornings spectators had the chance to
see aerial silk demonstrations in the park. And
different groups from local circus studio Folie
presented their work.
Of course, it is visual theatre festival, but as for
the context in Baltic states, where the number
of international festivals can still be counted on
both hands, in a way Tallinn Treff lies the closest to contemporary circus, than many others.
Why? Essentially, because it is balancing on the
edge. Using performing objects as not only the
tool, but the medium, is common both in contemporary circus and contemporary puppetry.
As well, for example, the Italian companies
Scarlattine Teatro performance ‘Unleashed’,
created for the children, has no clear narrative,
but plays on the senses – sound, touch, movement…
Or the Philippe Genty show ‘Forget me not’,
which was the culminating event of the
festival, has always caused troubles for someone willing to put it in a certain frame. Is it
puppetry, dance performance or circus? If the
dance is so refined that it seems not to have
been done by ‘just dancers’, how far is it from
acrobatics? The elements they use, such as the
enormous satin wraps that were manipulated
so lightly, leave an impression of a fragility
comparable with that of observing wire dancers.
The question is – when does contemporary
circus start? And do we need to distinguish it
so much? Tallinn Treff festival has no intention
to be a circus festival, but what they do show
lies very near, and it deserves to be noticed
internationally!

By Māra Ganģe, theatre critic and student of
theatre directing in Latvian Academy of Culture.
Festival organised by http://www.nuku.ee/

6

LATVIA
T

he tradition of circus in Latvia is very old
and strong, and because of government support traditional circus is in privileged position
compared to both Lithuania and Estonia, as
well as contemporary circus. Contemporary
circus here is mainly known thanks to guest
performances organized by New Theatre
Institute of Latvia. In 1997, Latvia was the first
of the three Baltic States to receive a foreign
contemporary circus artist. Contemporary
circus performances have mostly been part
of the contemporary theatre festival “Homo
Novus”. Subsequently, the audience encountering contemporary circus, was generally the
one with an interest in theatre. Workshops for
professionals in various fields have been held
at the time of some guest performer visits, but
have failed to evolve into lasting contemporary
circus projects. However, there is good news:
for the first time there is one person from Latvia studying circus in professional circus school
in Switzerland, different towns has started to
invite circus for their festivals (Liepāja, Ventspils,
Kuldīga) and RE RE RIGA! has started a new
tradition of creating a festival that focuses on
presenting contemporary circus and street
theatre.
New Theatre Institute of Latvia www.theatre.lv
Festival RE RE RIGA! www.rereriga.lv

Cie Nuua, Lento
Nuua’s (Olli Vuorinen and Luis
Sartori do Vale) circus performance LENTO will represent Finnish
circus at Re Re Riga! Festival in
August 2014. The Baltic-Nordic
circus network aims to improve
the visibility of the contemporary
circus regionally.
Photo by Luis Sartori do Vale