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Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State

Event Slides Per Node 1415

  • A female acrobat wraps her hands around a male acrobat's neck as he maintains a straight, rigid, feet-up form while suspended from aerial straps.
  • Four acrobats juggle pins atop a set resembling a building with windows while two performers sit in the openings and watch.
  • An acrobat hanging by his wrists from two suspended ropes swings low over four performers laying on the stage.
  • Circus performers hold flashlights on a performer who plays with a yo-yo.
  • Two performers hold their hands up ready to catch a third acrobat who falls into their arms from a suspended rope.
  • An acrobat outstretches her legs in opposite directions and bends her head and neck back while holding on to a hula hoop that's suspended from ropes.

Flip FabriQue
Catch Me!

7:30 pm Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Montreal, the fertile crescent of contemporary circus, has done it again. Flip FabriQue, the newest gravity-defying sensation from Quebec, will make its Center for the Performing Arts premiere in Catch Me!, a celebration of fun and friendship.

“The young members of Flip FabriQue claim to be French Canadian,” writes a New York Times critic, “but after watching them perform, you may suspect that they hail from a different planet. … This troupe offers acts that don’t seem humanly possible, like walking up a building face. … In a signature act, ‘Trampowall,’ members of the group place a trampoline in front of it, bounce forcefully on their backs to a great height and then, with the help of momentum and what must be terrific shoes, walk the remaining few steps up its surface to cavort on a rooflike shelf.”

Catch Me! finds friends coming together after a decade to spend a weekend at a country cottage. “For Flip FabriQue, the stage is a playground where high-level acrobatics and parkour are the natural vocabulary,” writes a reviewer for Scotland’s ThreeWeeksEdinburgh.com. “In a nonchalant way, with their casual clothes and childlike energy, these six performers show off incredible trick after incredible trick … . But it’s not just acrobatics; it’s their inventiveness and charisma. The show … opens the door to some sweet nostalgia, playfulness, and jokes that weave the acts together … .”

Flip FabriQue’s performers, a woman and five men, met while students at the Quebec Circus School. Catch Me! grew out of their reunion years later. Each of the artists is a veteran of Cirque du Soleil productions. Three also have been members of Center for the Performing Arts favorite Cirque Éloize.

“This is absolute world class circus craft. There is so much joie de vivre on stage you’ll walk out buzzing. An utterly phenomenal show,” raves a critic for EdinburghGuide.com.

Adult $28
University Park Student $15
18 and Younger $18
Artist Websites: 

Secondary Events on Each Event

Artistic Viewpoints

6:30 pm Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Eisenhower Auditorium

Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring Flip FabriQue tour assistant Camila Comin, is offered one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity, so seating is available on a first-arrival basis.