Presented by STRUT Dance with Perth Festival and Boris Charmatz | Terrain

An exciting choreographic emergence that builds day after day. A collective energy that radiates and carries away both participants and spectators. French choreographer Boris Charmatz invites 150 amateurs to a six-day workshop exploring circular movements of traditional and contemporary dance.

Together with a dozen professional dancers from Europe and Australia, Boris Charmatz transmits a collection of circle dances set within the expanse of Forrest Place. CERCLES explores the circle as a cocoon, as a raging crowd or a wall of bodies – agile, determined.

Propelled by a soundtrack by Meute, a Hamburg-based techno brass band who reinterpret electronic music classics in their own unique way, this communal movement experience extends our perception of what dance can be.

For its first edition the project was realised at Festival d’Avignon 2024 and was then presented in Wuppertal the same year and at Grand Palais in Paris in July 2025. Now it comes to Perth, in an Australian Exclusive as part of the free Perth Moves program.

View the digital program here

Credits
Concept: Boris Charmatz
Choreographic assistant:  Magali Caillet Gajan
With Alice Cummins, Annmarie Clifton-James, Guilhem Chatir, Laura Bachman, Laura Boynes, Linton Elethios, Luther Wilson, Matthew Morris, Régis Badel, Tara Gower, Tatiana Julien and Zendra Giraudo and a group of 150 amateurs.
Choreographic materials: Boris Charmatz, Étude révolutionnaire by Isodora Duncan and dances suggested by the professional dancers
Deputy Director: Hélène Joly
Production, development of projects: Lucas Chardon, Martina Hochmuth, Briac Geffrault, Lola Serre
Produced by: STRUT Dance, Perth Festival and Terrain
The presentation of CERCLES is proudly supported by WAAPA
Coproduction: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Pina Bausch Zentrum, Kunststiftung NRW, Festival d’Avignon
Created on June 29, 2024 Festival d’Avignon, in the framework of the invitation of Boris Charmatz as « artiste complice » of the Festival
Terrain is supported by  Ministère de la Culture – DRAC Hauts-de-France and Région Hauts-de-France

Photos top – bottom: Quentin Chevrier, César Vayssié (Grand Palais), Christophe Raynaud de Lage (Festival d’Avignon)