This performance is part of the Krannert Center Youth Series, weekday performances for public schools, private schools, and home school groups.

Afrique en Cirque is inspired by daily life in Guinea. Through gravity-defying moves, dance, and human pyramids this performance shares the strength, agility, and life’s joys of young Africans, accompanied by the contemporary sounds of live Afro-Jazz, percussion, and kora. Welcome to the universe of Kalabanté Productions, and prepare for an unforgettable journey.

Kalabanté Productions was created by Yamoussa Bangoura, a multidisciplinary artist of Guinean origin. Yamoussa first became interested in the Circus Arts as a young man growing up in Conakry Guinea in the 1990’s. He studied the circus performers he saw on European TV and practiced on the beach and dirt around his home. He also studied the Nyamakala tradition of circus, practiced by the Fula people of West Africa. He eventually joined Guinea’s original circus company, Circus Baobob, with whom he toured Africa and Europe.

In the early 2000’s, Yamoussa was recruited to come to Canada with Cirque Eloize, a Montreal based Canadian cirque company. While in Canada he also performed with Cirque du Soleil and Cavalia (cirque with horses). In 2007 Yamoussa realized his dream and opened his own company, Kalabanté Productions in Montreal Canada.

Recommended for grades 1–8.