Witness the beauty and majesty of Africa under a big top at 'Cirque Africa', a one-of-a-kind performance blending culture and contemporary circus.
Cirque Africa promises a vibrant and highly entertaining blockbuster production which transports each audience to the positive side of Africa through modern stage a performance.
22 performing artists from 4 African countries including acrobats, dancers, percussionist, musicians and contortionists will perform a 60-minute awe-inspiring show.
'Cirque Africa' was established in 2003 as an underground acrobatic school in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. Its founder is Winston Ruddle aka Papa Africa, who explains what makes 'Cirque Africa' different to other international circus experiences.
“Most of the tricks are similar, but the way it's presented is very different.
“With African circus we use African music, we use African costumes and we try to incorporate all our cultural dances into the show so that it makes it different to the European, or the Russian, or the Chinese circus. It's more like a cultural show with acrobatics, dance and physical theatre in it.”
Formerly an acrobatic performer, Winston initially started the company as a way to maintain his career, eventually building it into an internationally-renowned travelling show and becoming known as ‘the father of African circus’.
“It was a way to continue my profession,” he says, “because I was getting older and I was an acrobat and dancer in the past, but I had to continue my profession somehow and the only way to continue the profession as you get older is to start managing people and building concepts of shows.”
“I noticed around the world there was never an African circus; there's always little dance or musical groups, but never an African circus. That's why I tried to open one, because I have worked in many circuses, but never in an African circus.”
Over the years, 'Cirque Africa' has trained over 150 acrobats and become home to smaller performance troupes such as the Ramdhani Brothers and the Hakuna Matata Acrobats.
“What the people can expect is a high-energy show,” Winston says. “It's 100% energy, 100% fun and 100% African, so that's the difference.”
As well as being the founder, producer and director for the circus, Winston also serves as its ringmaster and MC, trading the acrobatics for comedy. “I’m going to be doing a bit of comedy at the beginning, just a little bit of stand-up to add a bit of humour into the show.”
Last year 'Cirque Africa'’s Fringe season was a runaway success all-but selling out every show.
“We hope to do the Fringe every year with a different show and that is what we’re bringing in 2018. All-new, all-authentic, African circus.”
'Cirque Africa' performs at the Cirque Africa Big Top throughout Fringe and then continues at Wigley Reserve, Glenelg in April.
