2024-05-02 23:17:43
The new circus Cirk La Putyka celebrates 15 years of existence with a production called Okamžik, in which long-time members of the ensemble, Ukrainian students and young acrobats perform. The new film, directed by Finn Maksim Komar, premieres this Thursday, May 2, in the Azyl78 space at the Holešovice exhibition center.
Visitors to the show can enjoy aerial and ground acrobatics, juggling, walking on shards of glass or a technique called the Ukrainian bar, which is not often seen in the Czech Republic. The moment will be on the program a total of twenty-three times until May 25.
“The performance is a celebration of circus art, La Putyka, a celebration of the people who are on stage. It will be a supremely circus thing full of circus techniques and scenes,” promises the group’s artistic director, Rostislav Novák Jr.
Actor and ensemble principal Rostislav Novák Jr. | Photo: CTK
“There are surprising moments. There are a lot of unique things that we are bringing to the stage for the first time. A unique swing from which you will jump into a large net. There is a Ukrainian bar, which is a special discipline where two guys hold a bar made of from the vaulting bars. And at the top there is a flyer who jumps somersaults, bounces off this bar and has to return to this seventeen-centimeter beam, which is flexible,” describes the principal.
The roughly hour and a half long performance consists of about 30 moving pictures. It will contain references to productions from the entire history of the ensemble, which in its 15 years of existence performed over 2,200 performances in the Czech Republic and visited 24 countries. “My goal is to fit the entire fifteen-year history into this ‘moment’ or ‘blink of an eye’. During the evening, all the previous performances will appear in some free way. On the other hand, I am creating a completely new work that will take place right now and here,” adds the director Mosquito.
The novelty started to be created last September. Novák chose Komar because he knows how the file works. With Cirke La Putyka, he rehearsed the first work Slapstick Sonata in 2010, recently they collaborated on the Senses project, for example.
According to artistic director Komaro, he approaches productions through emotions. “Maxim’s world is definitely different from my direction. It does not base the performance on a narrative story, but it is emotional stuff, images and a great tribute to the traditional circus. So you will see things on stage that we have never done on stage before,” advises Rostislav Novák Jr.
The two circus techniques used in the production were originally named Russian, Russian swing and Russian bar, but director Komaro decided to rename them Ukrainian. “In the cast of this show we have three young Ukrainian artists who had to leave Ukraine in March 2022. I thought it was cruel and insulting to remind them of the name of the evil empire on a daily basis,” the Finnish director reasons.
The performance is accompanied by a live band CLPBND, the music was written by Jan Balcar and Kryštof Záveský. Many award-winning creators participated in Okamžik, for example Jan Rosén, a well-known European trainer of dynamic acrobatics and teeterboard jumps, or the Finnish aerial choreographer Ilona Jänttiová.
The parents of the group’s founder, Rostislav Novák Sr. and Anna Nováková from the Kopecky puppet family, will also be part of the performance. In one scene, they will use a variety puppet of an ostrich, from which another puppet – an egg – will fall out.
Circus La Putyka is dedicated to a new circus. It combines acrobatics, dance, puppets and sports performances with live music. His first production, La Putyka, premiered in 2009 at La Fabrica in Prague. Since its foundation, it has played 2,279 performances in the Czech Republic and performed on five continents.
Video: Circus La Putyka helps Ukrainian schoolchildren
“These are incredible stories,” said the principal of the Cirk La Putyka troupe, which helps students of the Kyiv circus school, on DVtv last year. | Video: Michael Rozsypal