• Photo: Vincent Beaume

  • Photo: Frank Berglund

  • Photo: Frank Bergland

  • Credit: Tristan Baudoin

  • Credit: Tristan Baudoin

  • Biography

    Raphaëlle Boitel is a well-known circus artist with an impressive CV. She started her career at the age of 13 and has toured with international artists like James Thierrée on his productions The Junebug Symphony (La Symphonie du Hanneton) and in La Veillée des Abysses. She has also presented her work at David Lynch’s club, The Silencio, Paris. Most recently, she worked with Company 111 for Aurélien Bory’s new piece Géométrie de Caoutchouc, and choreographed Macbeth for La Scala Milan alongside Gorgio Barberio Corsetti.

    The Forgotten/L’Oublié(e) was her first large scale show as a director, followed by Uproar 5 / 5èmes Hurlants

    You can view footage of Raphaëlle in James Thierrée’s Symphonie du Hanneton here

  • Repertoire

    Consolations ou interdiction de se jeter par dessus bord 2013

    The Forgotten / L’Oublié(e) 2013

    Uproar 5 / 5èmes hurlants 2015

    Et si c’était chez moi 2016

     

     

Raphaëlle Boitel

Crying Out Loud first worked with Raphaëlle when aged 14, she performed with James Thierrée as a contortionist, dancer and aerialist touring in the UK, USA and Mexico.  As a performer we’ve always been drawn to her compelling stage presence and extraordinary fluid body movement. Raphaëlle has a beautiful wild animal quality that flies far beyond the conventional genre of aerial dance and has matured into a burgeoning director with a distinctive visual style and a dramatic spatial sense. Her storytelling and ability to transform space in the air to the ground with large scale illusions and bodies streaming across the stage is magical. Our work to mentor and support Raphaëlle is representative of how we work with our Associate Artists.

We programmed Raphaëlle in an evening of contemporary contortion as part of Circus Front, the forerunner of CircusFest at London’s Roundhouse. In 2012 Raphaëlle was the choreographer for Macbeth at La Scala in Milan and Crying Out Loud introduced her to Daniel Gonçalves and Ana Perez graduates from Circus Space and Eric Mitchell, a contemporary dancer and acrobat all of whom performed in the chorus. Since then Raphaëlle has been working across Europe putting together her own company and creating her first show as a director, The Forgotten/L’Oublié(e). Crying Out Loud has presented The Forgotten/L’Oublié(e) at the Brighton Dome as part of Brighton Festival in May 2015 and at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin in November 2015.

Press

  • ‘With L’Oublié(e) Raphaëlle Boitel imagined a poetic tribute to these women (George Sand, Countess of Castigloine, Camille Claudel) who dared to challenge the established order, to live according to their aspirations. A show that combines theatre, dance, circus, video and music.’

    Ouest France

  • ‘Highlights include James Thierrée, Camille Boitel and the wonderfully lithe contortionist Raphaëlle Boitel – dressed in Lilane Boitel’s exquisite black and red costume – rolling out the red carpet and performing breath taking acrobatics.’

    The Stage