Author: Michael Witthaus

Cirque Kalabanté brings kinetic World of Words to Concord

As Cirque Kalabanté’s new show begins, a thick rope splits the stage down the middle. On one side are performers dressed in orange; on the other is a tribe in blue. In a blur of tumbling, drumming and dance, they battle over territory throughout the evening, with the dividing line a central theme of their performance.

The two factions represent a world of stories, songs and rituals, delivered from one side to a sometimes fearful audience on the other.

“We just want to break this rope and unite people … that’s what this show is about,” Yamoussa Bangoura, Cirque Kalabanté’s founder, said in a recent Zoom interview from his home in Quebec.

World of Words, shortened to WOW by the troupe, premiered last year in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has since played a few dates near Montreal. This month marks the show’s first real tour, which stops in Concord on Sunday, Oct. 18. Though the company has appeared in New England before, this will be their first stop in New Hampshire.

The title is something of a wink, since there’s hardly any dialogue.

“We are physical acrobats. We just want movement to speak for itself,” Bangoura said. The name, he noted, also nods to audiences on the last tour. “Everywhere we go, people would say, ‘Wow, it’s a really good show!’”

Three guiding figures representing Trust, Respect and Wisdom lead the audience through the story. Respect, Bangoura said, means honoring elders, whom Bangoura feels the world too often forgets. It also applies to strangers. “You have to know people first before you judge them,” he said.

The performance, Bangoura continued, is a response to current events.

Bangoura once assumed humanity had outgrown its savage past; these days, he’s less sure.

“The only difference is people are wearing nice clothes now and thinking they’re better,” he said. His remedy is to offer audiences a little piece of peace through music, dance, story and theater. “All those beautiful things which can connect the whole world together.”

Bangoura’s story is one of leaving home to join the circus. The village he lived in growing up in Conakry, Guinea, shared a single television, and crowds packed in every Sunday to watch a circus broadcast. Parents found it magical, almost unreal, while kids like Bangoura were inspired and slipped off to the beach to imitate the acrobats.

When French filmmaker Laurent Chevalier came to Conakry looking for African acrobats, Bangoura auditioned, landing a part in Circus Baobab. The movie spawned a tour of Guinea, then Europe. There, he was recruited by Cirque Éloize, based in Montreal, and moved to Canada two years later.

Montreal began as a shock for Bangoura. People spoke Quebecois, not the French he knew, and leaving tropical Africa for Quebec’s winter was, he said, “horrible.” He’d go on to work special events for Cirque du Soleil, as well as with Cavalia, 7 Fingers and Inuit performers in Canada’s far north, a collaboration captured in the documentary Circus Without Borders.

Onstage Bangoura is both ringleader and musician, playing the kora, the West African harp-lute.

“I think the kora chose me,” he said. As a young man he loved anything loud and powerful, like big drums and tumbling. Then an injury sidelined him from both. Forced to slow down, he listened to the kora, felt it in his soul and went back to Guinea to learn it. It suits him; while acrobatics show things physically, the kora reaches a spiritual place the body can’t.

After years of nightly ovations from audiences of 2,000 while touring with major companies, Bangoura wanted to give back. He returned to Conakry and opened a circus school. Its first students were his own brothers and sisters; it is now training its fourth generation, and graduates join the touring company. Funds from shows support it.

The troupe brings 13 people on tour, with 11 to 13 on stage at a time, including Bangoura and a bass player as the musical backbone. Audience participation is always encouraged.

“We want the people not just to sit and watch the show,” he said. “The rhythm, it’s going and not stopping [and] you see Africa in front of you.”

Cirque Kalabanté – World of Words
When: Sunday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts (Swope Theatre), 44 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $59 and up at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Cirque Kalabante. Courtesy photo.

Arts Build Community moves to Queen City Center

After 17 years as a perpetual pop-up, Arts Build Community now has a permanent address.

Founder James Chase has run his Manchester nonprofit in borrowed storefronts, out of a U-Haul truck he dubbed the Drift Gallery and, more recently, in classroom space at New England College, where he also teaches. Now ABC is moving into its first real home, at the ever-growing Queen City Center.

“A lot of people know ABC for the murals, community listening sessions we hold year-round, and artist residencies, but making ABC more sustainable has been a vision for the last seven years,” Chase said in a recent Zoom interview. Among many activities marking the move is a monthly arts market.

Last summer the Manchester Chamber of Commerce pointed Chase to available space at the recently opened mixed use development. Its blend of eclectic tenants, like Harpoon Brewery, Barre Life, and the Wicked Joyful retro shop, felt right.

“It’s perfect for ABC,” he said. “There are so many businesses we can collaborate with.”

Originally scheduled for Sept. 12 but postponed, the next Second Saturday gathering is set for Oct. 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s happening outdoors for now, with plans to move inside in the winter. There will be 15 booths, hosting painters, printmakers, ceramicists, photographers, jewelers, woodworkers and other local makers at the event.

Vendors are a mix of art-fair veterans and first-timers.

“It’s a great way to dip their toes in the water,” Chase said of the latter, “and also to connect with other artists that are next to them.” ABC will also run its own tent at each market, with a free printmaking activity.

Chase hopes visitors will make a day of it at the Queen City Center, buying art, and then checking out the restaurants and shops.

“Harpoon is open in the middle of the day,” he said. “They’ll be able to grab some lunch, or go to Clyde’s and get a cupcake, and then go meet a couple of artists.”

The market is just one piece of what’s happening at the new space. ABC is also offering New Hampshire’s first community printmaking studio, alongside painting classes and professional development workshops in grant writing and online art sales it has long run through its Start program.

Classes began the third week of September, even with the buildout unfinished. “Things that don’t need ventilation; I don’t need the grease trap underneath the sink quite yet,” Chase said. “Being able to have those is another revenue stream to be able to then support local artists.”

For the Oct. 10 event, ABC will bring back a unique printmaking activity. Artists will carve oversized printing blocks in QCC’s parking lot, with a steamroller serving as a press. Also, a gallery at Harpoon is showing works from Claudia Rippee and Isaiah Gulino. “Two artists that are at different points in their careers,” noted Chase, “which is pretty awesome.” A new show will go up the following week featuring the work of Marcus Greene, Chase said.

None of it comes cheap. Fitting out the new space with water, electrical and ventilation service pushed ABC to launch a crowdfunding campaign, with a goal of $40,000. “Which is ambitious,” Chase said, and well above the roughly $25,000 the nonprofit has typically sought in past campaigns. At press time, donations stood around 35 percent of the goal.

The new home is a huge moment for the organization Chase began when he was a New Hampshire Institute of Art student newly appointed to Manchester’s Arts Commission. While settling into the role, he learned that he had a promotion budget of zero. His response was to look for empty downtown storefronts to fill with art instead.

His first installation was a pop-up called The Big Takeover, which drew 300 pieces from more than 100 artists. It was initially planned for a single evening, but the press coverage and landlord interest transformed it into a two-day event and, later, a long-term gallery on Elm Street.

From there, ABC began its popular mural events, school residencies, listening sessions and free community classes. It was all built on the idea of giving artists a platform and lifting each other up.

“I’m ecstatic that it’s come full circle,” Chase said. “Supporting local artists, and being able to give back.”

Arts Build Community Second Saturday Market
When: Saturday, Oct. 10, 10 a.m.
Where: Queen City Center, 215 Canal St., Manchester
More: artsbuildcommunity.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.