Creation Victor Cathala & Kati Pikkarainen
Performers Victor Cathala, Kati Pikkarainen, Lena Kanakova, Michail Kanakov, Vasia Kanakov, Sergey Mazurin, Matias Salmenaho, Ludovic Baladin
Musican composition and musicians Helmut Nünning, Hugo Piris, Benjamin Masuch, Julien Heurtel
Artistic collaboration Michel Cerda, Maksim Komaro
Sound creation Andy Neresheimer
Costumes Séverine Thiébault
Lighting Patrick Cathala
Set design Alexander Bügel
Stage manager Bernard Bonin
Sound director Fanny Hugo
Light director Thierry Azoulay
Stage-hands Alexandre Tourneux, Allan Wyon

Coproduction Les Nuits de Fourvière; Agora, centre culturel PNC Boulazac Aquitaine; Archaos, Pôle National Cirque; Carré Magique Lannion Trégor - Pôle National Cirque en Bretagne; Châteauvallon, scène nationale; CIRCa – Pôle National Cirque – Auch Gers Occitanie;  Théâtre Firmin Gémier - La Piscine - Pôle National Cirque en Île-de-France; 
Residencies Les Nuits de Fourvière; Baro d’Evel, cirk compagnie; Châteauvallon, scène nationale; CIRCa - Pôle National Cirque - Auch Gers Occitanie; Théâtre Firmin Gémier - La Piscine, Île-de-France
With the support of the SPEDIDAM

“With a modern touch, they offer an ode to the circus of yesteryear, to travel, to setting up the big top, and to the scent of the ring.” Het Nieuwsblad

"Everything is a game. That is one of the great strengths of this creation, which is accompanied by a quartet of musicians who propel the piece into a frenzy”. Le Petit Bulletin de Lyon

"Poetic, funny, inventive, moving. Never too far-fetched or excessive, but honest and truly faithful to this fascinating culture.” Le Progrès

The Franco-Finish duo of Victor Cathala and Kati Pikkarainen founded the Cirque Aïtal in 2004 with the hopes of developing their own discipline based on acrobatic lifts and hand-to-hand balancing. They cultivate a true experimental relationship to the body and to the circus where movements literally transform language. After studying agriculture, Victor discovered equestrian vaulting, which led him to circus schools and the city of Paris. Kati started practicing circus arts at the age of eight years old when she was living near Helsinki. The couple met in Paris. 

In 2003, they graduated with honors and a special mention from the examination board from the Centre National des Arts du Cirque. In 2005, their duo performance Victor & Kati received the silver medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (Cirque Bouglione-Paris). La Piste là was the Cirque Aïtal’s first show, which they created in 2007 in collaboration with composer and musician Mathieu Levavasseur. The work was modified in 2008 to create an augmented version with catcher-juggler-accordion player Mathias Salmenaho and the composer-clown-double bassist Helmut Nünning. After a four-year tour, they produced two news shows: Pour le meilleur et pour le pire [For Better and for Worse] in 2011, and Saison de cirque at the Nuits de Fourvière in Lyon in 2018.

website (in French)