CARNÉ(T)
Ensaios de Circo is the result of an artistic residency at Clube Erva Daninha, in the Erva Daninha space at Espaço Agra. This program supports shows that are in the creation phase and have yet to premiere. They are presented here in an open-rehearsal format, with content and duration still under development. This initiative seeks to stimulate the creation of contemporary circus and to establish contact between creators, audiences, and programmers in a relaxed and constructive environment. In addition to rehearsal space, Erva Daninha provides financial, technical, and communication support to the artists.
Ensaios de Circo is part of the 25/26 programming cycle of Clube Erva Daninha, with the support of the Criatório program from Ágora – Cultura e Desporto do Porto, E.M., S.A.
CARNÉ(T) is a performance by Elsa Caillat, an aerial rope acrobat and co-founder of Cie Toron Blues, who here revisits her own artistic and physical journey at the age of 40. At a crossroads between past and future, strength and erosion, the artist dives into an intimate account of the body that has accompanied her for decades — an allied body, an injured body, a protesting body, a body that persists.
Born from a process of writing, research, and artistic experimentation, CARNÉ(T) questions the obsolescence of the performing body and the place of the woman artist in contemporary circus. Between spoken word, stillness, memory, and gesture reduced to the essential, the performance exposes the doubts, fears, fractures, and persistence that inhabit those who live through their own body.
The show opens space for a new way of being on stage: less dependent on physical prowess and more on presence, listening, and reinvention. A body that stops dominating the apparatus and begins to converse with it. An artist who, by shifting circus codes, imagines other possibilities, other ways of belonging, resisting, and continuing. CARNÉ(T) is, above all, an urgent gesture: that of transforming fragility into strength, wear into artistic material, and the passing of time into hope for continuity.
Artistic Team
Performance, Aerial Rope Acrobat, Actress and Painter:
Elsa Caillat
Writing and Direction:
Elsa Caillat
Sound Design and Editing:
Elsa Caillat and João Pereira dos Santos
Lighting Design and General Stage Management:
João Pereira dos Santos or Chloé Avoiron
Administrative Management:
PEPSpectacle
Production/Distribution:
Emilie Touron
Ensaios de Circo is part of the 25/26 programming cycle of Clube Erva Daninha, with the support of the Criatório program from Ágora – Cultura e Desporto do Porto, E.M., S.A.
CARNÉ(T) is a performance by Elsa Caillat, an aerial rope acrobat and co-founder of Cie Toron Blues, who here revisits her own artistic and physical journey at the age of 40. At a crossroads between past and future, strength and erosion, the artist dives into an intimate account of the body that has accompanied her for decades — an allied body, an injured body, a protesting body, a body that persists.
Born from a process of writing, research, and artistic experimentation, CARNÉ(T) questions the obsolescence of the performing body and the place of the woman artist in contemporary circus. Between spoken word, stillness, memory, and gesture reduced to the essential, the performance exposes the doubts, fears, fractures, and persistence that inhabit those who live through their own body.
The show opens space for a new way of being on stage: less dependent on physical prowess and more on presence, listening, and reinvention. A body that stops dominating the apparatus and begins to converse with it. An artist who, by shifting circus codes, imagines other possibilities, other ways of belonging, resisting, and continuing. CARNÉ(T) is, above all, an urgent gesture: that of transforming fragility into strength, wear into artistic material, and the passing of time into hope for continuity.
Artistic Team
Performance, Aerial Rope Acrobat, Actress and Painter:
Elsa Caillat
Writing and Direction:
Elsa Caillat
Sound Design and Editing:
Elsa Caillat and João Pereira dos Santos
Lighting Design and General Stage Management:
João Pereira dos Santos or Chloé Avoiron
Administrative Management:
PEPSpectacle
Production/Distribution:
Emilie Touron