Arts Printing House in Vilnius presents International contemporary circus festival – “New Circus Weekend”, which will occupy the city of Vilnius on the 3rd to the 9th of September. Circus is coming to town, but this circus is not for children!

The annual event for modern circus will present performances which demonstrates that circus can contain both states of being sombre and jolly, deep corners of unconsciousness and humour, capability to visualize, musical perceptiveness, enough of space and intimacy. There will be jugglery, plastic acrobatics and combinations of visual arts. The contemporary circus can be varied, not a mere shallow show without any artistic ambitions.

The Arts Printing House, which is one of the organizers, with the help of Lithuanian Cultural Foundation in collaboration with British Council and The French Institute presents the program of the festival which includes different disciplines of the circus, combined with live music and touching stories, which will be presented by well known companies from United Kingdom, France and Finland, new works of Lithuanian artists and an educational program for the circus professionals.

The New Circus Weekend will begin with the guests from France – Cirque Plein d’Air with their acrobatic and music show “Train of lives” (Train de vies). The troupe will establish their circus camp with the yurt in the middle of the old town of Vilnius – those who expect trained animals and clowns must be ready to experience new forms of circus. Two acrobats and the accordionist will flow your mind into the times of war and the audience will see love story of people who have actually never met.

Finland is known for its contemporary circus traditions and academies – a young troupe Clunker Circus will perform their debut piece “Fuzzy Dices Circus”. Three fresh graduated performers (Saana Peura, Jori Reunanen and Rasmus Witikka) from Turku Arts Academy are working with director Maksim Komaro, who is one of the driving forces of circus arts in Finland. Mr. Komaro is one of the founding members and artistic directors of Finland’s first contemporary circus company Circo Aereo.

For the first time in the festival the troupes from Kaunas – Fire Circus and “Teatronas” (Lithuania) will present a piece called “Maya”. Dramatic characters are expressed using circus’ techniques – jugglery, acrobatics, clownery and contemporary dance elements.

There will also be representatives from three art academies: ESAC (Belgium), CODARTS and ACaPA (Netherlands), who will join New Circus Weekend to collaborate for one night and to introduce to the audience the best sketches of their students works. Interactive Open stage will present different kinds of new circus disciplines and will invite the viewers to join the stage. As well there will be workshops and seminars for the students and young artists being held during the Festival.

The closing act of the festival will be “Smashed” performed by The company Gandini Juggling straight from UK. “Smashed” is a performance where nine members of the troupe dance, act and juggle their way into the heart of the audience with a flirtatious and comedic attitude. One of the most popular contemporary circus performances proves, that – “Juggling: not just artful but art.” (Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, Jan. 2012).