{"id":1731,"date":"2013-06-14T15:18:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T15:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/?p=1731"},"modified":"2023-02-09T16:42:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T16:42:11","slug":"behind-the-scene-with-philippe-q-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/2013\/06\/14\/behind-the-scene-with-philippe-q-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scene with Philippe – Q & A"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Cr\u00e9dit photo :Lionel Montagnier<\/a><\/p>\n

From TheaterJones<\/a> An interview with Philippe Normand-Jenny<\/p>\n

Dallas\u00a0\u2014 The day after their show opened at the Winspear Opera House, I had the opportunity to speak with a performer fromTraces<\/em>, the avant-garde circus show running through June 23. I sat down with Philippe Normand-Jenny (who was my favorite from the opening night performance. His ease and humor put a smile on my face right from the start!), a hand-to-hand, teeterboard, and trampoline specialist. He displayed his masterful technique during a teeterboard piece that defies every single law of physics.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Montreal, Normand-Jenny trained at the Circus School of Qu\u00e9bec, and went on to perform in Munich and Munster, Germany (GOP<\/em>), with Cirque du Soleil, Les Grands Operas de Quebec, and more than 275 shows at Seabreeze amusement park Rochester, N.Y. Now, he is traveling the world with\u00a0Traces<\/em>.<\/p>\n

TheaterJones: How did you first get involved in the circus? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Philippe Normand-Jenny:<\/strong> I was doing flips on the grass with friends when I was a teenage and my mom saw me and decided to put me in circus camp\u2026I said ok, and I tried it, and I love it! And I just kept practicing. My friend had a trampoline in his backyard, and I just kept playing and playing\u2026<\/p>\n

But I went to school for biology and chemistry, but it didn\u2019t take long for me to realize that I preferred doing flips instead of counting molecules! So I went to circus school [Circus School of Qu\u00e9bec] for four years and I studied teeterboard, trampoline and a lot of acrobatics. We also did dance and theater there.<\/p>\n

Once you finished at the school, you went out and tried to get a job with a company or with your own act that you have created. I worked a little bit in Germany and in France with an act that I had with my partner, and then we both joined\u00a0Traces.<\/em> And that was three years ago.<\/p>\n

After three years, you must have traveled all the world. Where have you been so far? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We been to Denmark, France, Belgium, Holland, and we stayed 13 months off-Broadway in New York. We\u2019ve moved around a lot with\u00a0Traces<\/em>, that\u2019s for sure!<\/p>\n

What has been your favorite experience with the company so far? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We recently did\u00a0America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em>, and I must say that was pretty impressive. We\u2019ve done it two times as guest performers, and it was really stressful! Because, I think, more than 10 million people were watching that show, and when you\u2019re doing acrobatic tricks, there is so much pressure. Because no matter how well you know the tricks and you have it in your body, you can miss it at any time. And in front of so many people\u2026<\/p>\n

But being able to perform in front of all those people and nail it. That\u2019s such a good feeling! It was incredible!<\/p>\n

And what about being on tour? Living on the road is tough, but have you been able to make it a home-away-from-home? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yes! And my favorite time was when we stayed in New York. Just being a part of that theater scene there, it was amazing! Plus, the chance to share our work with the community\u2026it was so much fun!<\/p>\n

How do you all deal with accidents, or mistakes on stage? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Accidents and mistakes happen all the time, especially with circus work. It\u2019s just something that you need to be able to deal with, particularly, injuries. If it\u2019s a small injury, you just cut tricks in the show and cover so the audience doesn\u2019t know or realize that anything is wrong. It could be your shoulder, or knee, or whatever, so you just cut tricks that would hurt you further. <\/strong><\/p>\n

If an accident happens during the show, we just try to get a group together and make it look like nothing happened, or that it was part of the show. We all team up together, because we\u2019re always watching one another, we can quickly respond.<\/p>\n

But accidents tend to not happen during a show; we are very lucky for that.<\/p>\n

Yes. You are so well-trained and so present on stage. You\u2019re absolutely there for each other 100 percent, so I can tell that you wouldn\u2019t let anything happen to each other. <\/strong><\/p>\n

We try.<\/p>\n

Personally, how does this performance differ from traditional circus shows? Those are generally over-the-top, crazy spectacles, but this is so human and real. <\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s really a strength of 7 Fingers, to put the artist out there on stage as themselves. I go out there as Phillipe. I do the skills that Phillipe can do. What I have learned in my life, I am doing right now. It makes it really human\u2026<\/p>\n

When you enroll with the company they try to learn everything they can about you. They try to make your person on stage the best you, you can be. They aren\u2019t trying to make you someone you aren\u2019t. That\u2019s an amazing feat for a company. It really makes you feel comfortable and like yourself.<\/p>\n

Did this help you open up as a performer? <\/strong><\/p>\n

For sure! We\u2019ve done this show more than 700 times and I\u2019ve learned piano for it, and we\u2019re doing skateboards and so many other new and different things, but they [7 Fingers] present it all in a way that you want to learn it. So some days, you put your focus on the piano, or on the skateboard, or on new acrobatic tricks you want to do\u2026And we\u2019re not actors, but there is a lot of acting in the show. Luckily, there is a lot of repeated action, so we get to work on our comedic timing, or really just timing in general. It\u2019s so important for the humor in the show, and for the tricks. Timing really is everything\u2026<\/p>\n

7 Fingers gives us a lot of liberty on stage. They want us to explore new things, and they want us to feel comfortable. So for an acrobat, to be able to dance, to play music, and then do some acting, it\u2019s just incredible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cr\u00e9dit photo :Lionel Montagnier From TheaterJones An interview with Philippe Normand-Jenny Dallas\u00a0\u2014 The day after their show opened at the Winspear Opera House, I had the opportunity to speak with a performer fromTraces, the avant-garde circus show running through June 23. I sat down with Philippe Normand-Jenny (who was my favorite from the opening night performance. His ease and humor put a smile on my face right from the start!), a hand-to-hand, teeterboard, and trampoline specialist. He displayed his masterful technique during a teeterboard piece that defies every single law of physics. Born and raised in Montreal, Normand-Jenny trained at the Circus School of Qu\u00e9bec, and went on to perform in Munich and Munster, Germany (GOP), with Cirque du Soleil, Les Grands Operas de Quebec, and more than 275 shows at Seabreeze amusement park Rochester, N.Y. Now, he is traveling the world with\u00a0Traces. TheaterJones: How did you first get involved in the circus? Philippe Normand-Jenny: I was doing flips on the grass with friends when I was a teenage and my mom saw me and decided to put me in circus camp\u2026I said ok, and I tried it, and I love it! And I just kept practicing. My friend had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,6],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-1731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-traces","tag-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1731"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}