Difference between revisions of "Les Casaly"

Revision as of 23:18, 29 November 2008

GUILLAUME DUFRESNOY & MIREILLE FENWICK – Aerial Cradle

By Dominique Jando

Born in Grand-Lancy, Switzerland, on December 7, 1958, to an American father and a Swiss mother, Mireille Fenwick studied Latin before making her childhood dream come true: To run away and join the circus. In 1977, she enrolled in Alexis Gruss’s Conservatoire National des Arts du Cirque (École au Carré), the first professional circus school in Western Europe, which had opened in Paris only three years earlier. There, she met for the first time Guillaume Dufresnoy (born in Bordeaux, France, on October 26, 1959), who had also abandoned a promising career as an engineer to join the circus.

One year later, Mireille made her debut in the resident company of Alexis Gruss’s Cirque à l’ancienne in Paris, as an acrobat and aerialistAny acrobat working above the ring on an aerial equipment such as trapeze, Roman Rings, Spanish web, etc., in a trampoline act that mixed these two disciplines. Afterwards, she pursued her performing career in various European circuses, from Finland to Sicily.

Meanwhile, Guillaume created his own aerial perchA hanging perch, from where the performers hang with the help of hand or ankle loops. (French: Bambou - Russian: Bambuk) (bambou(French - Russian: Bambuk) Aerial apparatus, generally a hanging perch, from where the performers hang with the help of hand or ankle loops. See also: Aerial perch.) act, Les Casaly, with another École au Carré graduate, Frédérique Vanetti. When Guillaume was performing his aerial act in Switzerland, he and Mireille met again. They eventually decided to join forces, and created an aerial cradlePiece of apparatus (generally aerial) composed of two horizontal parallel bars in which a catcher locks his legs to be in position of catching a flyer. (Variant: Korean Cradle.) act under a legendary master, Jean Palacy, who, in his time, had revolutionized the specialty by shifting the audience’s attention from the perception of danger to more intricate and interesting tricks with the simple addition of a safety net.

Les Casaly, in the second version of the act, debuted at Circus Nock, in Switzerland, in 1985, and met with immediate success. In 1986, they were awarded a Silver Medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris; they were then featured in their alma mater, Alexis Gruss’s Cirque à l’ancienne. The following year, Les Casaly made their American debut at the Big Apple Circus, where they would stay until 1990, performing their cradlePiece of apparatus (generally aerial) composed of two horizontal parallel bars in which a catcher locks his legs to be in position of catching a flyer. (Variant: Korean Cradle.) act, and later a short-distance(Flying Trapeze) A flying act in which the catcher is in a static cradle, limiting the swing motion to the flyer only. Generally performed on a standing apparatus, above a safety mat. flying trapezeAerial act in which an acrobat is propelled from a trapeze to a catcher, or to another trapeze. (See also: Short-distance Flying Trapeze) act as members of the circus's resident company.

In 1991, Les Casaly performed their cradlePiece of apparatus (generally aerial) composed of two horizontal parallel bars in which a catcher locks his legs to be in position of catching a flyer. (Variant: Korean Cradle.) act for the last time at Circus Knie in Switzerland, and Guillaume and Mireille separated. Guillaume Dufresnoy returned to the Big Apple Circus, where he acted as Performance Director and production manager until 1997, and then became General Manager of the touring unit, eventually with the title of Vice-President. In 2009, he succeeded Paul Binder as the Big Apple Circus’s Artistic Director.

Mireille Fenwick returned to New York and worked in the theater, studying at the Lee Strasberg Institute and at New York University. She co-created a theater company, The Muse, worked at the Alliance Française, and eventually settled in Paris, France, where she married and had two daughters. There, she got a degree performing arts administration from the Université de Paris-Nanterre, and worked as tour and media manager for the Comédie Française, the illustrious French national theater company.

See Also