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Page 1 of 2 An interview with Tanja and Frida
My father was a circus photographer. He always took me to the circus and since very early I felt the fascination of the travelling people, the atmosphere, sound, smells, lightening…We also watched many times Charlie Chaplin movies which influenced me, too. At the beginning of the 1990´s there was the young variety scene coming up, very vivid in Berlin, and we joined many great “off” spectacles. They were innovative, fresh, wild, and inspiring. Out of this anarchic scene the German variety scene developed. I signed up to circus school, never believing that it would be possible for me to realise being an artist. Finally Tanja and I met and we found our way, anyway. Circus Guide. What kind of training did you have before you moved into the area of circus art? I was into dancing, Tanja did gymnastics and played volleyball.
Circus Guide. Have your families always been supportive of your decision to be artists? Yes, they always supported us. Circus Guide. How and when did you two meet? We met at the circus school in West Berlin and started immediately to work together. That was around 1988. Circus Guide. Have you had any dance training? Yes, we did train modern, contemporary, tap dancing and classic. Now we do a lot of contact impro and mix it with acrobatics. Circus Guide. Did you choreograph your acts yourselves? If not, who did? We choreographed our acts on our own. In our time in chalons we had a choreographer who worked with us on acting, action/reaction training and taught us the danse voltige. His name is Olivier Farge, from Montpellier (thanks for that!)
Circus Guide. The music for your acts is highly original and unique. How did you find the composer? Can you give me his or her telephone number? (Joke!) How did you work with the composer to come up with the finished act? We met in a project at the ‘Kindercircus’ in Berlin where he did the composition and sound technique. When we created our first piece, the trapeze act ‘Neptuna’, we gave them (Soundservice, Sören Krahl and Dirk Schröder) the job to create an original sound with an underwater theme. We worked very closely, developing the choreography step by step and made a video of each sequence. This we took to the studio, selected the sounds recorded our voices and went back to the gym with a new piece of music. And so on. In the end we married and made babies. Since then we are producing acts for different artists. It is still an inspiring cooperation. (www.komplex17.de, Berlin, if you ever need a delicate composition) |
Tanja and Frida, two talented and creative circus artists from Germany, have over the past decade left an indelible stamp on the circus world. Known for their unique style and music, the pair have three totally different and original circus acts; ‘Neptuna’ on doubles trapeze, ‘Metamorphosis’ on aerial silks, and their ‘Danse Voltige’.
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