Biography

Friends since their youth, Jean Paul and Didier came from very different backgrounds. Nothing on these paths prepared them for the circus tent and even less, the stage. Jean Paul had a degree in agriculture and livestock, specialising in bovine and porcine work on the family farm. Didier worked in industrial design and drafting for Moulinex.
They participated as young, curious amateurs in the workshops given by local Circus of Doctor Paradise. Each was attracted to a different branch, one, to unicycles and handstands, the other, with his math education, to juggling.

In the spring of 1985, they chanced upon ​a leaflet announcing the opening of what was to become the prestigious CNAC (National Center of Circus Arts) in Châlons-en-Champagne and decided to give it a try. The first class (class of 1989) presented their skills in mid-winter of 1989. A circus company, and an important one, was interested by the talent of the newly graduated young artists: Archaos.

One tour later, Jean Paul and Didier founded (with four other fellow students), Cirque O, a fabulous and now renowned troup in the world of contemporary circus.

Then, in 1994, their paths diverge, Didier leaves on tours with the Institut de jonglage ("Juggling Institute") and with Philippe Decouflé, while Jean Paul co-founds Que-Cir-Que, and he becomes one of the troupe’s three figureheads.

Jean-Paul and Didier reunite finally in 2001 to create the duo "La Serre" (“The Greenhouse”). A thirty minute show in which poetry meets agriculture, and incredible feats are performed with hilarious lightness, far from the usual drumroll and sequins of the circus tent.
Tempted to continue on together, to make the fun last, in 2003 they cook up a long version of “The Greenhouse”, called "Le Jardin" (“The Garden”) in which they submit reluctantly to the theatrical laws of the frontal stage.

In december of 2007, after a residency at the Vidy theater in Lausanne, they create once more for the stage, this time a show called "Bricolage Erotique" ("Erotic Carpentry"), their third duo show which explores, with irony and poetry, the loud, entirely un-subtle eroticism that surrounds us all.

It is with the goal of delving even further into the different ways an artist can relate to his audience, that they perfect "Entre Serre & Jardin" (“Between Garden and Greenhouse”), an outdoor version adapted to large audiences, that regroups elements of their first two shows.

As they pass from the freedom of the outdoors to the confines of the indoors, Jean-Paul responds to an invitation: L’Yonne en Scene’s bus-theater project. In this context he creates his first solo show which he calls very naturally "Ni Omnibus" ("Neither Manorbus"). For this agile acrobat, the challenge is inversely proportional to the spatial dimensions of the tiny stage inside the bus: 2 x 2 x 2 meters! ​
In 2011, it’s Didier’s turn to say yes to the bus. In the tiny space no bigger than a trailer, he creates and performs his own solo show, "Chez moi Circus" ("At Home Circus"). A perfect opportunity for this sedentary nomad.
Soon, their strong complicity leads them to regroup the two solo shows. They decide to continue touring with the dimensions imposed by the theater-bus, but this time, to play the two short shows back to back, in one longer show that they name "8m3" ("Eight meters cubed"). This adaptable set-up enables them to continue touring together in cities and towns, meeting with increasingly diverse audiences.

Eight years passed since their last creation. We believed them to be comfortably installed in their repertoire, but their need to create is still intact! “Parbleu!” (and "Parblex!", its outdoor version), eulogizes a new form of slow circus and spectacular minimalism...