Hystory...


Acrobats, jugglers, aerialists, acrobalancers, some from Britanny, some from Lyon, some tall, some small, some with beards, some with curls… no, one with curls… well anyway, to get to the point… Sacékripa is firstly five people, five friends : Morgan Cosquer, Benjamin De Matteïs, Mickaël Le Guen, Etienne Manceau and Vincent Reversat. They have the same common values, a desire to please themselves and above all to share this pleasure.


They met in September 2001 during their professional training at the LIDO, the Centre for Circus Arts in Toulouse, France. Vincent and Benjamin came from Campelières Circus School in Mougins, where they had worked on an acrobalance act. Mickaël, Morgan and Etienne arrived from Britanny. The first an acrobalancer, the two others jugglers.


During the two years of training that followed, they got to know each other, in every day life and on stage, and quite rapidly it became clear that they had common interests at heart. In March 2003, all five decide to form a Company and to create a street theatre show. The Company Sacékripa is born…


In 2004, they associate with two Flemish performers for the creation of the show “Who goes on?” under the name of the Company Cirq’ulation Locale. This project, dedicated to the stage, received the award for Young Circus Talents 2004, (Laureat SACD). Following that, well targeted advice from Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Nienke Reehorst permitted the final micro-tuning of the show.
“Who goes on?” produced some 70 representations up until 2006 in France, Belgium, Holland and Portugal.


At the moment to start work on a new show, they wanted to use their experience gathered over the previous 6 years. The idea to introduce the public to a different rapport created between the stage and its’ surroundings could not be ignored. In February 2009, the Company Sacékripa, in collaboration with Nienke Reehorst, presented their new creation Coulisses. This show would be co-produced by La Brèche and the Dommelhof.

Today, the Company Sacékripa continues to hotfoot through the streets of festivals, to beat the paving slabs of towns in France and across Europe and to occupy theaters and village squares. On the programme : striking juggling, acrobalance, funny acrobatics, battles and accolades…

Team...

Morgan Cosquer

born on Saint Donation day

I was born in Paris, but my parents had the great idea to move to Brittany just after I arrived! Oh, to be beside the sea… and the girls! It was for one of these girls that I first juggled. I played the smart guy with three balls for a while, before discovering “The Juggling!” It was a revelation… I was just 20…

everything stepped up a gear, I stopped the studies I had been pretending to do, I met other furious fans of juggling, we got together an association and organized a Juggling Convention in Brest. With this project I gained a prize of distinction for Local and National Town Initiative…

I was 22… A little time goes by and I turn towards the stage. I go for an audition at the LIDO, but without success… So, I return to Brittany and get accepted at the Theatre Conservatory in Brest, but I’d taken a bite of the apple and wasn’t about to unclench my teeth, and I try again at the LIDO. Finally, they ask for my hand in marriage, I accept… I’m 24… Two years of training in circus, acrobatics, injuries and other clowning about… Then I’m liberated, but not alone, we are five, from the same promotion. Attention, Ladies and Gentlemen, here is Company Sacékripa. A beautiful adventure begins… I’m 26…

We jumped on airplanes, boats and trucks, we had a few accidents, but we carried on playing. Firstly in the streets, with Tourne Autour, then in theaters with Who goes on? (Young Circus Talent 2004). At 28, I dusted off my old chair, sat on the boards and picked up my solo project again. I wanted to use everything in my possession, to work hands and feet, with my balls. And in January 2008, once more after a second attempt, I realize an old dream… I am 30…I perform my solo in the World Circus Festival of Tomorrow. Everything goes as it should, even better than hoped, I clinch a Silver Medal, the Arte prize (and 5 others)… A bumper harvest of rewards which lead me to drag my old chair to many corners of the planet.

In amongst all that, in February 2009, with the company we create a new show for theater, Coulisses. So… Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please…Here for you again the Company Sacékripa. Their clowning around continues… and long may it last… I’m 32…

Benjamin De Matteïs

born on Saint Thierry day 1978

It was in the circus workshop at the Lycée Louis Aragon in Givors (69) that I took my first circus steps. I learnt to juggle, which gave me the idea, once summer came, to go and play the clown in the streets. With three friends we created our first company Tombé des Nues, and our first show “L’Envers du décor” (Behind the Scenes).

The holidays were the pretext and we left for the roads of Ardèche on our first tour. Back to Lycée (college) and I found myself reminiscing for those magical summer moments.
The idea to make circus my career began to form. I decide to go get trained to do things properly. I integrate the Circus School at Campelières in Mougins (06). It’s a whole new world being offered to me, I taste a little of everything. I try the red nose, I participate in a dance creation with the Company Bruno Jacquin… but I’m particularly drawn to acrobalance with Vincent, who I meet in my second year at Mougins. We work together for just a few months and then get crazy, and we’re off on a conquest to the LIDO, the famous circus school in Toulouse. And it works. We enrich our technical repertory, our scenic experiences, and the duo grows…

We welcome Mickaël, an abandoned base and orphaned flyer. I make a small detour as a dancer in a piece by the Company Dadaazzo. Training at the Lido touches its’ end. Links have been weaved during the two years, and here we are, five to give birth to the company Sacékripa and a street theatre show Tourne Autour. The profession is starting to be assimilated. The public and professionals welcome our work with enthusiasm. On a parallel, with my four acolytes, I participate in the creation of the show Who goes on? under the name of Cirq’ulation Locale; we obtain a prize of distinction in Young Circus Talents 2004 for this project. I was also engaged to direct the Belgium company Pol and Freddy, in their new show, Ready, which has played all over Europe since the summer of 2007. Finally, in 2008, Sacékripa closes itself within four walls to work on a new creation. Coulisses is played for the first time in February 2009.

Mickaël Le Guen

born on Saint Aimé day 1978

Best apprentice cook in Brittany in 1996, it seems that I’m destined to roast in front of the ovens. But, something isn’t quite right for me, I’m young and would prefer to go bald on the road.
So I change everything, and I turn to my second passion, circus arts. With a friend, I go knocking on the door of the circus school in Rennes. I begin my training and integrate the year after in the school at Chambéry.

It’s cold there, so I don’t hang around to get white hair, I finish the year and go back to Brittany. With a group of friends, we create the Company Art’atouille, we imagine our first shows and we elaborate a living space. It’s the circus…life in a caravan, the Big Top made out of bits of this and that, and a crazy ambiance.

It all suits me fine. I start acrobalance and decide to look for professional training to highly polish my practice. It has to be the LIDO or nothing. And so with Jérome my partner, I once again leave my homeland of Brittany to go knocking at the door of the LIDO. It’s O.K. They take us in. It’s a school made out of bits of string, and I feel good there. We find some space to work and things start to bubble and boil, the process of creating has begun.

Jérome stops with the acrobalance and I form a trio with Benj and Vincent. The clowning about is well on track.

We imagine a hymn, “Live the Acrobats”, and with our two jugglers we create Sacékripa and the show Tourne Autour.

In 2004, thinking that Belgium was next to Toulouse, we joined up with two Flemish artists for a new show, Who goes on?

In 2005, we’re juggling kilometers and the two shows. In October 2007, it is with great honour that I rejoin the Company Anomalie. It’s thanks to them that I got into circus. I was a fan of their first show, and there I was, rubbing shoulders with them in Les Tailleurs.

In 2008, Sacékripa throws itself into a new creation for the theatre, Coulisses. Thanks to the success that it has found, the story of Sacékripa continues to write itself with trust and enthusiasm.

Etienne Manceau

born on Saint Clémence day 1978

After an unremarkable education, a BAC S and two DUT in the pocket, the day arrives when the famous question is posed. What the devil am I going to do with my life? Having been drawn to the stage for a long while, apprentice juggler in my spare time, I admit that circus had been playing footsie with me under the table. In June 2000, I handed back my model school blazer and leave with the idea in mind to pass an audition to enter the LIDO.

I really had no idea of where I was putting my feet, but it proved to be an amazing day… amazing…
I wasn’t accepted, but I had been seduced… and was asking for more.
So, I decide to spend the year preparing myself.
Objective : to integrate professional training as a circus artist Priority : the LIDO.

The work pays off and the LIDO finally adopts me. Two years of training, all is not idyllic, the training brings with it a whole load of questions, and doubts, but I feel that I’m forming myself and my wants and ideas become more precise.

With Benjamin and Vincent, we spend a few weeks in the summer of 2002 testing out street theatre. Bingo. That’s it… Summer ends and we go back to the LIDO to finish our training. But a new project arises through the course of the final year, Mickaël and Morgan come and join us to beat the paving slabs, Sacékripa is born.

We can no longer sit still on the old school bench, and when finally the year ends, we attack the real thing. We start from nothing, while coursing through the streets our weapons in front of the tourists evolve and take precision. Then we become seven to imagine a circus show in a theatre : Who goes on?

It’s all go. Motor… and action! I’m on stage and it feels good. We take the time to evolve our shows, our disciplines and our play. The profession inspires me, and in 2007, it’s a year of new projects : a juggling solo Vu, a shot at clowning with Amélie and Quentin, two friends, and we’re now even talking of a new show with Sacékripa.

Vincent Reversat

born on Saint Aubin day 1979

Everything began when I was 15. As some went to football after school, I went to circus, at the Acrobatic Theatre of Marseille. I became passionate about this little world, above all for the juggling, the acrobatics and acrobalance.

I take lessons, then I give some, and in my spare hours I dabble in dance. And naturally when I arrive at the end of my schooling, I vacate my place on the school bench with joy, and I look for another school, of circus this time.

I land at Campelières in Mougins, where I meet Benjamin, with whom I start acrobalancing. But just these few months together aren’t enough so we try at other schools, and when the LIDO at Toulouse says Yes to us, we abandon immediately all other trails. We move to Toulouse… in the same building.

And as in the circus, Benjamin the base is downstairs, and me the flyer, upstairs. And so begins two years of intense training, where friendships are forged and projects are born.

At the end, five of us decide to be called Sacékripa. Since 2003, we’ve been playing in the streets of France and elsewhere, the show Tourne Autour, which has an ever increasing success. In summer, the street sun warms us in our choice, but in winter the cold holds reason and we refuge in theaters to create other worlds.

Firstly with Who goes on? In 2004 to 2006, and then today with our latest Coulisses.

 


Amélie Venisse

En 2005, Amélie sort diplômée de l’École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque de Bruxelles en tant que trapéziste. Très vite, elle intègre le clown dans son travail et remporte quelques prix (Festival mondial du cirque de demain, Solycirco…) et se produit sur de nombreuses scènes (GOP-variete, Wintergarten, la TOHU…) avec son personnage Mademoiselle Cerise.

C’est au tour de la magie d’entrer dans son processus de création et elle tourne à l’international depuis 2016 un numéro de Quick-Change.

En 2018, elle suit la formation de Magie Nouvelle au CNAC à Châlons-en-Champagne sous la direction de Raphaël Navarro et Valentine Losseau. Elle y donne aujourd’hui des cours de Quick-Change. Elle cofonde la Compagnie Juste avant l’oubli avec Quentin Marotine en 2020. La première création de la compagnie, « Ma Louve » sort en 2022. La même année, Amélie devient interprète du spectacle « Vue », Cie Sacékripa, solo pour manipulatrice d’objets. Parallèlement à sa carrière de comédienne et circassienne, Amélie est auteur-compositeur et interprète en chant et accordéon pour le duo «Les Folles de Léon».

Elle a travaillé ou travaille encore avec différentes compagnie (Underclouds Cie, Cirque Hirsute, Collectif curieux…)