The Montreal-based African circus company Cirque Kalabanté performed at IU Auditorium on Feb. 2 as part of its U.S. tour. The show displayed African acrobatics, dance and music that had the audience gasping, laughing and cheering along.
Cirque Kalabanté was created by multidisciplinary Guinean artist Yamoussa Bangoura in 2007 after years of dreaming of creating his own African circus. Bangoura said he worked in the performance and circus industry for several years, first in Africa and then in Canada as part of Cirque Eloize. However, he noticed a distinct gap in the industry for African art.
He decided to go back to Guinea to give back to his community by opening a school to teach others the skills he had acquired. After a couple years, his students were performing at the level of professionals, so Bangoura brought them to Canada where he went on to create Cirque Kalabanté, a circus specializing in African art and music.
“Afrique en Cirque,” aims to bring Bangoura’s everyday life in Guinea to the stage and share his culture with audiences all over the world.
“They will feel our music through their bodies, and also they will fly, they will go to Africa without taking the plane,” Bangoura said. “They will live African life.”
This proved to be true from the moment the show opened with the bustling sounds of a fish market. Bangoura introduced the show to the audience, setting the scene and transporting the audience to West Africa.
The show began with an ensemble of all the performers putting their acrobatic and dance skills on display to the backdrop of Bangoura playing the kora and vocals. The music was interwoven into the fabric of the show, at times accompanying the performers and other times taking center stage.
After the introductory performance segment, the performers brought out large drums, creating a show out of playing the percussion instruments. The performance then started to break the fourth wall, with Bangoura performing a juggling routine in which audience members tried to toss a baton to him on stage, with limited success.
In this portion of the performance, the performers also displayed their comedic skills by making fun of Bangoura and teaching the audience how to list numbers in their native language counting up to the amount of batons Bangoura would have to juggle with increasing difficulty.
As Bangoura would juggle the batons, a guitarist would translate the movements to sound, creating a lively act.
Bangoura continued to interact with the audience, teaching them a call and response singing phrase, still keeping his humoristic spirit in trying to get the audience to repeat a quick scat-like melody, which they didn’t even attempt.
He went on to perform acrobatics with a hoop, once again animated by music, which received much applause from the audience.
After this, there was a segment featuring a contortionist that had the audience gasping, cheering and sometimes covering their eyes.
Audience members in the post-show talk with the performers asked many questions about the feasibility of the contortionist’s abilities. They showed concern for the wellbeing of his back and organs, to which he laughed and assured them everything was fine.
Pat Robinson, an audience member, said she loved everything about the show from the music to the togetherness of the performers, but said her favorite part was the contortionist.
The male performers took to the stage next dressed as construction workers, performing a somewhat steamy, but impressive, display of acrobatics. Climbing on top of an elevated plank, they climbed on each others’ shoulders, balancing in the air and forming elaborate human towers.
The show closed with one last ensemble performance from all the acrobats, where they each demonstrated their specialty skill, seeing who could garner the most applause.
At the conclusion of the show Bangoura thanked audiences for attending and the performers took a group picture with the enthusiastic audience.
While the show’s acrobatics may have drawn audiences in, it is the coinciding dance, music and stage presence that makes Cirque Kalabanté stick with people, audience member Toby Barco said at the end of the show.
“I think the whole thing put together as a whole was what was outstanding,” Barco said. “I very, very highly recommend it.”
