Girovago Presents

By the creators of Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra, BARKA is an extraordinary festive chaos, a celebration of life and a call to hope and responsible freedom. A daring mix of circus, live music and dance, that joyfully intertwined in a show full of delirious energy and richness of sound, vision and sensory experience.

We are all in a boat. Explorers, migrants or survivors, it doesn’t matter, we are gone. The journey has begun, each of us in search of our dream. But we are all floating together in motion, as a big storm is predicted on the horizon. Let’s make sure our boat doesn’t sink!
In an extraordinary festive chaos, BARKA is a celebration of life and a call to hope and responsible freedom. Afro-Colombian percussion, Balkan melodies, dance and circus merrily intertwine in a show filled with a delirious energy and richness of sound, vision and senses.

From A to Z, we are suspended to the lips of the narrator who explains the course of the situation and we always remain in joy thanks to the more than catchy music. – Le Devoir, Montreal

…everything is a cause for celebration in this exciting show, whose watchword is fusion – La Presse, Montreal

Barka is a multidisciplinary show mixing dance, circus art and musical performances that fuse the effervescent sound of gypsy brass bands with Afro-Colombian percussion. – Ici Radio-Canada

GIROVAGO is known for the creation and direction of Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra (GKO) as well as a multitude of other projects in which Carmen and Juan Sebastian have collaborated as co-creators and producers such as the film FAIT VIVIR (Biarritz, 2019), the song and video EL GRITO Colombia Montreal (2020), La Take Out Lab, Studio D 325 and the Family Dance Ball. In 2022, thanks to an invitation from La TOHU in Montreal, GIROVAGO presented its new creation BARKA, a show that brings together 11 artists on stage and mixes music, dance and circus in a festive chaos that calls for hope.

Credits

Length: 75 minutes without intermission
Directors: Patrick Léonard (The 7 Fingers) and Ricard Soler Mallol
Artistic Direction: Juan Sebastian Mejia
Management: Carmen Ruiz
Technical Direction: Juan Sebastian Quiros
Creation and production: Girovago – l’art en mouvement
Production team: Julio Miranda, Eli Levinson, Nassica Boukaria
Musical Direction: Aurélien Tomasi et Anit Ghosh
Arrangements: Aurélien Tomasi
Original music: Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra
Choreographies: Carmen Ruiz, Sonia Bustos
Dance counselor: Andrea Niño
Artists: Juan Sebastian Mejia (voice and percussions) Carmen Ruiz (dance) Brittany Gee-More (roue Cyr and rope), Alexie Maheux (chinese mast), Nathan Biggs-Penton (juggling), Anit Ghosh (violin, guitars, voice), Aurélien Tomasi (clarinet and saxophone), Chantal Urbain (accordion and voice), Ivan Bamford (percussions), Blanche Moisan-Méthé (tuba), Bertrand Margelidon (trumpet and voice)

Created with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and La Tohu, as well as the support in the research stages of the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres de Québec, Le Conseil des Arts de Montréal, Le Théâtre Aux Écuries, Le Théâtre Le Paradox and MAI, Montréal Arts Interculturels and the 7 Doigts de la Main.

We would also like to thank our families and friends. We want to honour and acknowledge our ancestors who have carried us to this point, our present relations who teach us so much, and our children to whom we owe a living future of freedom and joy.