{"id":46295,"date":"2023-04-19T12:23:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T08:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=46295"},"modified":"2023-04-19T17:42:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T13:42:06","slug":"fiq-a-high-energy-floor-filler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/fiq-a-high-energy-floor-filler\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiq! \u2013 a high energy floor-filler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Circus has come a long way from the days of lion tamers, big tops and clowns with scary faces and big shoes. There\u2019s no less entertainment today in \u2018circus\u2019 acts, but it tends to come either from embracing the extraordinary (juggling with chainsaws?) or from pushing acrobatics to the limits of the art \u2013 which in many cases takes it into the territory of dance, especially street dance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger, acrobatics is obviously their thing \u2013 but you probably won\u2019t have seen tumbling quite like this before. The show brings together 15 performers for a whirlwind of traditional and modern floor acrobatics, dance, and breakdancing, with a touch of taekwondo and freestyle football too. It\u2019s \u201can otherworldly collection of acrobatic feats, figures, colours, music, sketches, headspins, and choreography [that] explode in a colourful visual world\u201d; so says the promo from The Arts Center at NYUAD, where the group\u2019s show Fiq! (\u2018wake up!\u2019)s performing for just three shows on 28, 29 and 30 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The absence of conventional clownplay doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no humour; the Groupe\u2019s performances typically have a warmth and jollity that is engaging and attractive. What you do<\/em> get is a group of supremely talented performers, brilliant tumblers and specialist acts, feats of balance, strength and dexterity that also involves a hundred coke bottle crates, a human trampoline, one acrobatic motorbike, and a few footballs (the performers come from various acrobatic styling \u2013 traditional and modern tumbling, modern and street dance, even martial arts and foot-freestyle). The pace and the choreography are breathtaking; there\u2019s no danger that anyone in the audience will be dozing off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And unlike most circuses, Fiq! has a DJ \u2013 and a good one too: it\u2019s not easy to match live scratching to the complex acrobatic routines, so props to DJ Dino. Along with the rapping it all contributes to the street-performance B-boy-plus feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger was set up in 2003 by Sanae El Kamouni. Her idea was to work with acrobats from Tangier and produce something new, something contemporary that would speak to audiences across the board with accessible shows that preserve and promote one of the great traditions of Moroccan popular culture,. She invited European theatre makers to come to Tangiers to create contemporary productions, exponents of boundary-crossing and physical theatre like Aur\u00e9lien Bory from Compagnie 111 in Toulouse (he\u2019s done two shows with the Groupe) and the Swiss pair Zimmermann & de Perrot (Dimitri de Perrot and Martin Zimmermann).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combination of traditional and contemporary creation is now being continued with Maroussia Diaz Verb\u00e8ke, a rope acrobat, stage director and circus specialist who now terms her staging of circus arts \u2018circography\u2019. She originally directed Fiq! back in 2020, with Sanae El Kamouni assisting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show also mines the visual universe of contemporary artist, photographer and filmmaker Hassan Hajjaj. He\u2019s been called \u201cthe Andy Warhol of Marrakesh\u201d for a signature style that combines \u201celements of high fashion with trashy pop culture\u201d, and he created the stage designs and costumes for Fiq! \u2013 a mix of explosive pop and kitsch with stylings from traditional culture. It\u2019s visually exciting, clever and good fun \u2013 not unlike Fiq! itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is superb stuff, the right tone, the right length\u201d said one reviewer. We\u2019d second that; when we saw Fiq! in the UK a year ago, it had the audience on their feet shouting for more at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiq! Is in The Arts Center\u2019s Red Theatre at 7.30pm on 28 and 29 April, and at 3pm on 30 April. Tickets are AED 105, which is a bargain for this much verve; .<\/strong>

As well as the two Red Theater performances, the Fiq! team are doing two workshops<\/strong> for The Arts Center’s Off the Stage programme. One is on Moroccan Acrobatics<\/a><\/strong> (24 April), the other on Street Dance<\/a><\/strong> (25 April). The workshops are free and open to all, but will fill up quickly \u2013 so move fast if you want to request for a place …<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Circus has come a long way from the days of lion tamers, big tops and clowns with scary faces and big shoes. There\u2019s no less entertainment today in \u2018circus\u2019 acts, but it tends to come either from embracing the extraordinary [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280,112,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-circus-arts","category-dance","category-performance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}