Circus Cabaret
Are you ready for the first Circus Cabaret of the year of Le Monastère?
Welcome to this new and very special edition which promises to be emotionally rich!
Straps, aerial silks and hand balancing canes will come to life under the century-old vault, making you the privileged witnesses of acts that showcase extreme physical risk and insight into the deep emotions of the artists on stage.
Visit Le Ptit Sacristain during intermission to order your favorite Quebec drink!
#lemonastere
THE ARTISTS
LES CHARMANTS
Les Charmants, a duo composed of Becky Priebe and Philippe Thibaudeau, will be our MCs for the March cabaret!
These two acolytes create and perform comedy acts based on contemporary clowning techniques.
They particularly appreciate absurd humor accessible to all, strong images and a direct relationship with the audience! Both goofy and graceful, Les Charmants surprise both visually and aurally.
Inseparable on stage, Philippe and Becky are also husband and wife in life and have loved to laugh together and make people laugh for years. Their backgrounds are similar: training in clowning and more than ten years of experience in the field respectively!
This couple has developed over the years several physical humor acts, mixing singing, hula-hooping, and absurdity that we will discover on Le Monastère stage!
EMCEES
ALEXANDRE ALAIN
« OSMOSIS »
Through circus arts, Alexandre has a great connection with movement and transposes this connection in the air with his fabric. His aerial silk becomes an intermediary between his words and his movement. In other words, it becomes his best partner.
Alexandre will present “Osmosis”, an aerial silk act inspired by Amin Maalouf’s quote: “Identity is never given once and for all, it is constructed and transformed throughout one’s existence” and the following reflections:
“What makes something masculine or feminine? Is it the connotation we give it? Is it the stereotypes that build our personalities? We must return to the essence of our person in order to rebuild our identity. Take what is essential to keep our authenticity. Through our imagination, we find our masculinity, our femininity, our sensuality, our aggressiveness, what makes us, us.”
According to him, by going through different stages and energies, the body is pushed to adapt to the different constraints posed. The silk thus becomes an extension of the movement, of the individual, to form only one whole.
AERIAL SILK
JOAQUIM VERRIER
When Joaquim bought his first cigar boxes, his little brother told him “Oh no! not new circus equipment again that will collect dust”.
He was not wrong, Joaquim could not decide what he really liked in the circus… But strangely enough, he found in these wooden squares enough fulfillment to continue practicing and not abandon them for something else.
Thanks to these boxes, he was able to train for 3 years at the Balthazar circus arts center (France) before joining the National Circus School of Montreal for another 3 years.
Since his graduation in 2020, he has created his own collective with 2 cohort mates and has had the chance to perform on several stages with Cirque Eloize, Cirque Alfonse and Haut vol!
He will share with us his unique relationship with his cigar boxes through an act prepared in collaboration with Michel Michel as part of Cirque Easy, a festive outdoor event of the Montreal Complètement Cirque festival! We invite you to rediscover him this summer during the festival.
CIGAR BOX JUGGLING
JUNRU WANG
Junru is originally from Wuhan, China. She began her acrobatic training at the age of 4, and at the age of 9 she joined the tour of Dralion by Cirque du Soleil as a solo hand balancer. After 5 years with the company, Junru won season 4 of China’s Got Talent, as well as a Guinness World Record for handstand, a title that she still holds.
In 2015, she starred in a feature film jointly produced between China and Austria. In 2019, she was accepted to the University of Southern California, where she majored in film and television production while also focusing on cinematography and directing. She also acted in a few student films and won several awards.
In 2022, Junru joined the original cast of the 7 Fingers’ resident show “Dear San Francisco”. This inspiring experience with this pioneering contemporary company reconnected her with the circus.
In her cane balancing act, she imagines herself as water and flows with the music.
HAND BALANCING
LAURA LIPPERT
A true spinster and seasoned professional, Laura has toured around the world, bringing a beautiful mélange of both traditional and contemporary technique to her audiences.
You may have seen her on late night shows such as The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show or on stages, in theaters, and in circus tents across North America, Europe, and China, including Montreal’s infamous circus festival, Montréal Complètement Cirque.
Laura continuously pushes herself to explore the new and the unusual while maintaining a strong foundation in the traditions of her trade.
Her performances are skillful, amicable and generous; she demonstrates old-school technical mastery, profound artistry, and a deep sense of fun, all at the same time. She’s a real character!
She will fly under the vault of the St Jax Center with a hair suspension act!
HAIR SUSPENSION
OWEN WILSON
An interest in the physical aspects of circus brought him to Montreal and to l’Ecole Nationale de Cirque. Once here his focus shifted quickly to the infinite possibilities of performance art, choosing to put all his energy towards developing his presence and intention as an artist. And you will thank him!
After participating to the Cabaret du Jugement Dernier in July 2022, this innovative and dedicated artist will present us a new Cyr Wheel act that will make us “tone up our stubborn love handles”.
Remember the Television Aerobics classes back in the day? Owen is inspired by them to embody a satire based on this microcosm of performance fitness.
You will love his derision and boundless energy!
CYR WHEEL
MADISON WARD
« RELUCTANCE »
Madi is an American artist who has been doing theatre since early on in her life, but she didn’t start circus until phenomenally late at the age of 17. She attended the National Circus School of Montreal majoring in aerial rope, and minoring in acrobatics, Chinese pole, and hoop diving. Upon discovering the limitlessness that a single line of rope could offer, she began channelling her artistic visions into it.
Since graduating in 2019 she has worked for various companies and creative endeavors worldwide, enjoying all ranges of performance and experimentation.
Each creation or act is an experiment, it is an evolution for her that brings both failure and success, which any artist can attest is a great gift.
AERIAL ROPE
SAFFI WATSON
Saffi grew up in a family of artists. Surrounded by inspiration, he spent the majority of his childhood training in rhythmic gymnastics and at the Circus School in Seattle.
Several of Saffi’s trainers and models were graduates of the National Circus School, which made him want to study there too.
His experience at the ENC taught him to create without judging himself and that the circus is much more than being pretty and impressive. He also learned to use circus arts to express himself in an authentic and profound way. He graduated in 2022, specializing in contortion and aerial acrobatics.
Saffi will present a new contortion act for which his mother has composed the music.
CONTORTION
LAURA LIPPERT
Surprise, Laura Lippert is back with a second number she is preparing for the cabaret, in a unique discipline.
Indeed, when Laura is not hanging from her hair… it is objects that are hanging from her hair!
She will be staging a character with long braids and believe us, she has not finished to surprise you with what she is able to do with her hair!
We will not tell you more, we prefer to let you discover this act by yourself…
BRAIDS
ARTHUR MOREL VAN HYFTE & GUILLAUME PAQUIN
« Magnetic Field »
At a very young age, Arthur trained as a ballerin and then soared through the air on the trapeze-dance. Gold medalist of two major festivals, he arrived at the top of his art. As for Guillaume, he fell in love with the art of circus at the age of 7 and has never stopped creating since. Having now more than 5 acts, he loves to create and explore.
They both met at the National Circus School and then toured the world separately. For the past two years, they have been devoting a lot of their time, along with three other artists, to the development of their collective Project Sanctuary in order to create their version of today’s circus.
They will present “Magnetic field”, a duo act that combines the virtuosity of these two aerialist artists. This new act between sky and earth will be accompanied by a song composed and performed by Arthur Morel Van Hyfte.
AERIal straps DUO
DJ MICHEL MICHEL
Guillaume Biron is a multidisciplinary artist from the circus arts. He joined the Quebec company Les 7 doigts for a world tour in 2009.
In 2012, he co-founded the company Tête d’Enfant with Naël and co-produced the show Me, myself and Us. He is also co-artistic director and performer for the company Throw2Catch and has performed in Made in Kouglistan and Zkruv Lös.
Solicited by the National Circus School of Montreal, he was in charge of directing students during the 2015 Designers’ Week, and of leading the end-of-year shows in 2018.
He finds in contemporary dance another vector of creation and interpretation. In parallel, his taste for music also leads him to work as a sound designer and DJ under the name DJ Michel Michel.
Today, Guillaume works as an assistant director, notably for the Montreal Complètement Cirque festival and on the revival of the show Passagers des 7 Doigts. Since 2021, he has joined the same 7 Doigts team as a tour director and as a performer in the film project En Panne.
DJ
The Monastère Team
Godwin Sam Joseph
Technical Director
BREAGH LUNN
Stage Manager
Raphaël Vincent-Rochette
Conceptor and Light Operator
Jérôme Guilleaume
Sound Conceptor
Jean-Philippe Cuerrier
Stage Technician
Annie-kim déry
Artistic Co-Director & Casting Director
Guillaume Blais
Co-Director & et Artistic Co-Director
Rosalie Beauchamp
Co-Director
Manon Fath
Marketing and Communication Director
alizé honen-delmar
Sponsorship and Partnership Manager
Carolyn Auclair
Public Funding Manager
Camille Faron
Marketing Coordinator
Léa Orlandini
Marketing Coordinator
Anaëlle gérard
Special Event Coordinator
Melina teppe
Special Event Coordination Assistant
kathy maguire
Project Coordinator and Bar Manager
Hélène Nguyen
Admin Assistant
Luis edgardo molina medina
Admin Coordinator
Thank you for the support!
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada.
