Practical Information
- Dates:
- March 15–19, 2027, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and March 17, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- 18 hours of training
- Location: Académie de cirque, Montréal
- Cost: $90 (actual cost: $588)
Training Overview
Designed for intermediate- and advanced-level Chinese pole artists, this workshop explores the apparatus’s technique through an organic, dramaturgical, and personal approach. It addresses Chinese pole technique from the perspectives of mastery, safety, and bodily fluidity, as well as the dramaturgical approach to verticality through the relationship to space, narrative rhythm, and intention. The workshop also invites participants to develop a personal artistic language through creation, composition, and performance. A brief exploration of the double pole may be offered depending on the group’s interest and technical conditions.
The goal of the workshop is to equip artists to develop not only their technique but also a distinctive stage presence and a narrative voice rooted in their physicality.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have refined their pole technique using an organic and sustainable approach, developed personal choreographic material, explored the dramaturgy of verticality, acquired a “circus author” perspective applied to the pole, and understood how to transform an apparatus into a form of stage language.
Biography
David Ayotte is a circus artist specializing in the Chinese pole, a performer, teacher, and creator based in Montréal. A 2015 graduate of the École de cirque de Québec, he has worked as a performer with several companies, including Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Éloize, Machine de Cirque, Cirque Entre Nous, Circus Monti, and Girovago. Alongside his career as a performer, he has developed a practice in directing and artistic mentorship. He is the first graduate of the Circus Author program, a training initiative he also helped develop in collaboration with the École nationale de cirque and the École nationale de théâtre. He has recently taken on projects as a stage director and artistic director for emerging artists, notably at the École de cirque de Québec and the École nationale de cirque. He is currently working on the creation of his first full-length show, Le Machiniste, a circus-theatre project centered on the Chinese pole, the inner monologue, and the behind-the-scenes aspects of performance.
Photo credit: Vincent Ethier