Gandini

We feel a tremendous sense of pride that the mesmerizing and luminous ENO production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten won an Olivier Award for The Best New Opera Production!  

In 2016 Gandini Juggling had the privilege of choreographing the Skills Ensemble while endowing a highly symbolic and emblematic quality within Akhnaten with their performance. For us, Akhnaten could be seen as a prolific connection of historical and archaeological fragments that create dynamic images.  

The Gandini’s contribution in this fascinating opera is unambiguous and a live depiction of the multifaceted perspective of circus arts. As one member of the audience has stated, “who’d think opera and juggling would make such natural bedfellows”.  

In January 2017 Gandini Juggling created and performed a very special version of our cult show Smashed to launch and celebrate the London International Mime Festivals 40th anniversary.    

Having initially premiered an outdoor version of Smashed at the National Theatre's Watch This Space Festival in 2010, the show received its first theatre performances at the LIMF and has since gone on to be performed more than 500 times across the globe.  

A sensational mix of skill and theatricality Smashed: Special Edition featured some of the world’s greatest jugglers, hundreds of apples and crockery galore. Special guest appearances included ENO Mezzo-Soprano Emma Carrington and live music from Camerata Alma Viva, plus newly created scenes and a new sound track.

The nostalgic filmic scenes of Smashed hint at tense relationships, lost love and the quaintness of afternoon tea. The show has become a worldwide sensation and returning and being embraced by the Mime festival for a 3rd time was a great privilege for Gandini.   

Smashed is inspired by the work of seminal dance-theatre maker, Pina Bausch and for the LIMF's 40th anniversary the show was re-imagined from its original nine to include more than twenty performers with guidance from long-time Pina Bausch leading dancer and choreographer, Dominique Mercy. Mercy’s time on Smashed: Special Edition was an ultimate accolade for the piece which was performed at Sadlers Wells Peacock Theatre.  

Here is a sample of some of the reviews:    

“The inventiveness of Gandini’s virtuosic sequences is endlessly impressive. From formation juggling en masse, to the complex and beautiful patterning of a juggling duet” Exeunt Magazine   "It's saucy yet sophisticated about sexual politics and peppered with shrewdly funny observations on the absurd cruelties of human nature" ★★★★ Donald Hutera, The Times

"Beyond the dazzling circus spectacle, however, there’s satire – like all the best apples, this has bite... Stunningly skilful. Outstanding" ★★★★★ Anna Winter, The Stage

"This hour-long piece from Gandini Juggling is so clearly inspired by the work of the great Pina Bausch, a woman who said balls to ballet. You can see it in the line of performers sitting facing the audience, in the cast's semi-formal attire and the use of popular songs, and in the disrupted spectacle of an afternoon tea party that turns savage. But you can feel it, too: this is a show in which the tensions between mind and body, concentration and distraction, surface blandness and hidden emotion, mathematical patterns and chaos often threaten to explode, and do in a finale of smashed crockery, which is as terrifyingly vicious as it is funny." Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Photo credits top and above: Muir Vidler





Photo credit: Peter Nahum

Gandini Juggling are very excited to announce our eagerly awaited publication Jugging Trajectories - a book which depicts the last two decades of one the world’s most prolific and adventurous circus companies!

Founded with the aim of fusing juggling and dance, we aspired to push the artistic and technical boundaries of juggling, with performances that delight, astound, and defy easy categorisation. Iconic and iconoclastic in equal measures, we hope to change the perception of what juggling is and what it can be transforming what might be considered a parlour-trick into a rich and distinctive art form in its own right.  

In Juggling Trajectories Thomas J M Wilson maps out the nature and growth of our pioneering and innovative company, from our formation in 1991 to 2015. Covering the breadth of our diverse output, he examines not only Gandini Juggling’s cutting-edge experiments that blend juggling with other art forms, but also our spectacular street art events, virtuoso juggling to music, and theatrically-charged performances. 

Wilson takes a distinctive approach, providing a catalogue of over 25 of Gandini Juggling’s major performances, alongside accounts charting the trajectories of our working practices, and accompanied by in-depth essays examining key features of our work.

Supported by an extensive array of full-colour photographs and contributions from many of the company’s key collaborators, this book is a uniquely rich and detailed insight into Gandini Juggling’s ground-breaking approach to circus.  

About the Author:

Thomas JM Wilson is a Module/Year Coordinator for Rose Bruford College’s unique BA European Theatre Arts degree programme, and an Associate Editor for Routledge’s Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training Journal. A performance-maker and educator, he has a long association with dance and circus disciplines – originally training in Equestrian   Voltige, Contact Improvisation, and Butoh dance. Since 2001 Wilson has written regularly on theatre, circus and dance, with a particular interest in work that crosses artistic boundaries.   Wilson has followed and commented on Gandini Juggling’s work since 1996, making him one of the few people outside of the company with an intimate knowledge of the full range of their work.

To obtain a copy of the book please visit our press site here

2016 commensed with us fully immersed in the world of opera with the luminous and beautifully designed ENO production of Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, Directed by Phelim McDermott.  

We had the privilege of directing and choreographing the Skills Ensemble with ten of us: Tedros Girmaye, Doreen Grossman, Francesca Mari, Christopher Patfield, Owen Reynolds, Iñaki Sastre Fernandez, Bibi and Bichu Tesfamariam, Kati Ylä-Hokkala and Sean Gandini performing in the production. 

The opera depicts the rise, reign and fall of the Pharaoh Akhnaten (estimated dates of his life 1385-1357 BC) and was written by Glass in 1983. It is part of his ‘portrait’ trilogy, alongside Satyagraha, a portrait of Ghandi and Einstein on the Beach, a portrait of Einstein. Glass' interest in these three men being the impact their ideas had on society.  To that effect Akhnaten references ideas of governance, power and belief, cities and structures, relics and artifacts, and the multiple layers of society and history.

The Gandini Skills Ensemble performed a highly symbolic and emblematic role within Akhnaten, as well as connecting the piece to historical and archeological references.   The earliest known recording of juggling is found in a painting on the wall of a Tomb in Ancient Egypt’s 11^th dynasty and depicts toss juggling. Likewise the libretto for the opera is made up of a collection of fragments about the Pharaoh Akhnaten and his reign, taken from monuments and clay tablets written in hieroglyphs and Babylonian Akkadian.

Alongside our work in main stage production Akhnaten was used as a springboard to create a 30-minute music theatre performance with non-professional performers of mixed ages, working alongside the professional artists from the opera.  As part of the ENO Baylis Community Learning and Engagement programme, Gandini Juggling had an opportunity to develop the technical and physical skills of student, amateur and emerging jugglers - exploring the music and structural patterns drawn from the music and text of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten.    

The community group used the physical language of ritual to access the ancient world of Akhnaten and four vignettes were created, each responding to a scene in the opera and the project culminating in a public performance at The British Museum. Professional performers from ENO production joined the participants and a short film has been created to document the journey and tell the story of the ‘Millions of Years project’. Click here to watch a short film of the project

Below are links to a selection of reviews for the Opera:

‘Five Stars’- ‘Mesmerizing’ - The Stage 
‘Moments of great beauty’ - The Guardian 
‘It’s a spectacle not to be missed’ - Arts Journal
‘Hypnotic, mesmerising, extraordinary’ - Lucy Loves Circus
‘Akhnaten bathes the senses in rich sonic and visual colour’ - The Circus Diaries
‘A thought-provoking, absorbing experience’ - Broadway World  
‘startlingly lovely’ - The Art Desk

To celebrate the run of Smashed so far here is a cheeky list of alternative and live versions of some of the tracks in the show:

• I’ve Always Wanted To Waltz In Berlin
Little Jack Little
Regretfully we have only found one version of this one: click here

• I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones
Hossier Hot Shots
British Version |  The French version

• The End of the World
Bill Frisell
Live version |  Lena Zavaroni

• Stand By Your Man
Tammy Wynette
Motorhead with Wendy O. Williams

• In the Shade of the Old Apple
Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong
Petula Clarke

• That Cat Is High
The Ink Spots
Listen here

• Sorry
Brenda Lee
Listen here

• Ezekiel Saw The Wheel
The Charioteers
Listen here

• Il Farnace, RV 711
Vivaldi
Gelido In Ogni Vena

We are very excited to announce that Gandini Juggling and 4x4: Ephemeral Architectures have been selected to represent British perfromance at the British Council Showcase in Edinburgh 2015. The Gandini's with 4x4: Ephemeral Architectures were one of the 30 companies selected from 250 applications to showcase the diverse work currently being created in the UK.

The British Council Showcase runs from the 24 - 29 August 2015 where audiences will be able to see 4x4: Ephemeral Architectures, a dazzling mix of juggling, classical ballet and a string quintet.  

The British Council Showcase programme includes a varitety of theatre and dance genres including physical theatre; new writing; live art and installation; interactive and immersive theatre; and dance theatre. It will be presented to a delegation of visiting international programmers so that a new global audience can experience British performances.

Gandini Juggling’s Pina Bausch-inspired Smashed, a Herald Angel award winner, was one of the hits of the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe. In 2015, the company returns with its latest work, 4x4 which sees four of Gandini Juggling’s extraordinary elite jugglers joined by four classical dancers – including Erin O’Toole from Cumbernauld. In spectacular fashion, they explore the company’s love affair with patterns and rhythm in an elegant and entertaining show full of fleeting steps and flying objects.  

4x4 has a team of high quality collaborators. The score is by Nimrod Borenstein, a protégé of Vladimir Ashkenazy, whose composition for string quintet, Suspended opus 69, will be played live from 26 to 30 August.  Choreography is by former Royal Ballet First Artist Ludovic Ondiviela and atmospheric lighting by Guy Hoare.

The show is directed by the company’s artistic director, Sean Gandini, who set up Gandini Juggling with his wife, world renowned juggler Kati Ylä-Hokkala.

4x4: Ephemeral Architectures can be seen at the Assembly George Square Theatre from the 5th to 30th August 2015 at 5.30pm.

Gandini Juggling announce their latest outdoor production 8 SONGS with a series of UK tour dates. The company will be showcasing this exciting and innovitive new work at some of the biggest festivals in the country this summer. Where will you see it??

03 & 04-05-2015: Brighton Festival

16 & 17-05-2015: Norfolk & Norwich Festival

24 & 25-05-2015: Ageas Salisbury International Festival

25 & 26-06-2015: Imagine Watford Festival

27 & 28-06-2015: Greenwich+Docklands International Festival

29-06-2015: Canary Wharf

04-07-2015: Hat Fair, Winchester

TBC 01 or 02 -08-2015: Stockton International Riverside Festival