In this residency, artist Elis Valente works on the performance TENSION, a solo performance in which creative rigging is central and the materiality and physicality of elastic bands becomes a focus for research. The project was a circusnext finalist in 2024.

A work in progress presentation of TENSION takes place in DYNAMO on 2nd November at 16.30.

About the performance

Tension is a contemporary circus piece that explores the concept of limits. The piece is created from a political perspective to express the need to recognize limits, whether inherited from personal experiences or culturally acquired, and how they affect our lives. There are limits that evoke negative sensations and emotions, and if we are capable of acknowledging them, we can transform them or choose how and where we want to position ourselves.

It is the intimate space where the personal and the social coexist. TENSION explores a new way of performing circus: using 40-meter long elastic bands, a different and challenging material, placed on a diagonal-horizontal axis, an unusual arrangement in aerial acrobatics.

About the artist

Born in Argentina, Elis Valente trained as a circus artist with a primary focus on aerial acrobatics. She earned a degree as a professor of body expression-dance and complemented her training with various other movement arts. Her professional dedication revolves around aerial disciplines and scenography, which contribute to shaping her artistic language.

She participated as a performer in the dance group DanzAbismal, a collective of dancers dedicated to researching, experimenting, and producing performative interventions in unconventional spaces.

She co-founded Compañía Anexo23 with Meme Canziani. Together, as directors and performers, they created the piece PVC (C2H3Cl)n, which was showcased in many venues across Buenos Aires.

Currently, she leads her own company and is focused on the creation of Tension.

This residency was supported by circusnext, Odense Municipality and the Danish Arts Foundation.
Circusnext is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, with support from Institut Français (French Institute), ville de Paris (city of Paris).