Krzysztof Soroczyński: Difference between revisions

Krzysztof Soroczyński
File:Krzysztof Soroczynski.jpg Krzysztof Soroczyński, by Albert Rudnicki
Born	April 30, 1955 Drezdenko, Poland
Nationality	Polish and Canadian
Occupations	Circus Trainer Talent Scout Circus Casting Expert Acrobatic Performance Designer
Children	Bartlomiej (Bartek) Soroczyński

Krzysztof Soroczyński was born in Poland on April 30, 1955 and became a naturalized Canadian in 1987. He is considered to be "one of the most important figures in the world of circus", according to Jacek Cieślak.

Involved in the circus arts for almost five decades, Krzysztof Soroczyński has worked with many companies, including Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize, and has collaborated with numerous people. Among them, are directors Franco Dragone and Daniele Finzi Pasca.

In Europe: Traditional circus

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Early childhood

He discovered the circus at the age of 9, when a traditional circus installed its big top tent at the market place in Gorlice (Poland). He explains in his short memoir "I remember…", how this first encounter with the circus started a passion that never left him.

Career beginnings

Krzysztof Soroczyński began his acrobatic career in 1965, first training in Sports acrobatics. He then completed a degree in circus arts at the Polish State Circus Academy in Julinek in 1977. He worked in traditional circuses around the world (notably in Poland, Austria, Italy, France and Russia), specializing in acrobatics and performing in Russian swing, banquine, aerial perch, hand to hand, teeter board, single and triple Russian bar acts, among others.

In 1980, he won a silver medal at the Festival mondial du cirque de demain in Paris as part of the Budzyn Troupe performing a Russian Swing act.

In Canada: Contemporary circus, «Cirque nouveau»

First contrat with Cirque du Soleil

Krzysztof Soroczyński immigrated to Canada in 1983 with his wife, Teresa Soroczyńska and young son Bartlomiej. First arriving in Winnipeg, a destination that Immigration and Citizenship Canada chose for them, they started practicing an aerial perch and hand to hand act. These acts enabled them to soon be invited by Gilles Ste-Croix to audition as a family for Cirque du Soleil. The audition took place in Montreal on November 16, 1988. After a day of auditioning, Krzysztof, his wife and Gilles Ste-Croix met with Louis Roy for negotiations. Discussions went on until late at night and the offices were empty when they needed the signature of a witness. Unexpectedly showing up, Guy Laliberté, co-Founder of Cirque du Soleil signed as a witness and welcomed the family to the contemporary circus arts.

Becoming a coach

Cirque du Soleil decided to move the family to Montreal. They arrived at the beginning of January 1989, where they started rehearsing for the show “Le Cirque Réinventé”. By the end of January, Soroczyński developed back problems, serious enough that the doctors discouraged acrobatic work. Soon Teresa’s contract ended and the couple never got to performing on stage for Cirque du Soleil.

Unable to perform but still under contract with Cirque du Soleil since he was on disability leave, Soroczyński looked for any other circus career he could find. In 1991, Jan-Rok Achard, Director of the National Circus School, designed a 35-week individual coach training course for him.

Being the only expert in Montreal in disciplines like the Russian swing, he soon became Acrobatic Consultant and then Head Trainer for Cirque du Soleil for the shows Saltimbanco in 1992, Mystère in 1993, and Alegria in 1994, all directed by Franco Dragone. Two of those very successful shows closed down after more than 20 years of tour, and Mystère is still playing in Las Vegas.

1991: École de cirque de Verdun

In 1991, Soroczyński was one of the founding members and the senior coachof the Ecole de cirque de Verdun. This recreational school first welcomed the children of the neighbourhood. Today, he still works with some of the artists he initially trained in the circus arts and who have become professional circus performers, such as Jean-Philippe Cuerrier, Nicolas Boivin-Gravel, Samuel Roy, and others.

1993–2013: Cirque Éloize

Krzysztof Soroczyński joined Cirque Éloize on May 26, 1999, a company that had been successfully presenting its shows in theatre venues all over the world.

First he started by developing acrobatic acts for the show Excentricus presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As head trainer and talent scout he went on to develop multidisciplinary troupes and to improve the technical level of the company’s shows. He was also in charge of designing acrobatic performances for the show Cirque Orchestra in 2001 as well as for the three shows directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, forming the Sky Trilogy: Nomade in 2002, Rain in 2004 and Nebbia in 2007.

He then took part in the creation of the show iD in 2009–2010, and created the show’s very unique moving trampowall act. In 2012, he was involved in the creation of Cirkopolis, another Cirque Éloize show that in 2014 was awarded with a Drama Desk Award in NYC in the category “Unique Theatrical Experience”.

As part of the creation teams, Soroczyński used his expertise to develop brand new and unique acrobatic concepts, for example, in the show Rain, he created the “monkey jump” where an artist is surprisingly ejected from a teeter board into the stage wings.

In 2008, the hand-to-hand duet, formed by Jacek Wyskup and Bartek Pankau, discovered in Poland by Soroczyński and then trained at Cirque Éloize, won the Polish TV-show “Mam Talent!”, and became “The Best Talent 2008”. The duet that was part of the show Rain for 5 years managed to touch the audience worldwide and enabled the recognition of the circus arts in their country.

Daniel Cyr and the Cyr Wheel

Krzysztof Soroczyński met Daniel Cyr, acrobat, Cirque Eloize co-founder and inventor of the Cyr wheel in Montreal in 1989. While Cyr was still a student at the National Circus School, he worked at the front desk of Cirque du Soleil’s rehearsal venue and welcomed the Soroczynski family when they arrived for their first day of training.

At Cirque Éloize Soroczynski witnessed first-hand how the new circus discipline “Cyr wheel” was born and developed. He saw Daniel Cyr’s first steps on the wheel, working hard and training long hours. He also witnessed him working on the technicalities of the wheel, finding a way to construct it in sections so it could be transported easily and developing a vocabulary and variety of first acrobatic movements for the apparatus.

He then observed Cyr teaching his technique to other performers. In 2006, Soroczynski coached Daniel Cyr and Irina Burliy for the first Cyr wheel duo that was supposed to compete at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in 2007 but was finally never presented to an audience.

Other accomplishments

In 2006, accompanied by his son Bartek, Krzysztof Soroczynski acted as a Trainer for “ArtCirq – Arctic Circus” in Igloolik (Nunavut), Canada. ArtCirq is a socially-driven project to fight against depression and high suicide rate amongst the Inuit youth. The goal was to allow them to express their creativity, while at the same time confronting them with new challenges.

In October 2013, the Canadian Russian Cradle Act “Chilly and Fly”, formed by Emilie Fournier and Alexandre Lane, trained by Soroczynski, won the French TF1 TV show The Best, le meilleur artiste 2013 in Paris. This show is said to be “the largest competition of artists ever organized”, offering the 100,000 Euro Grand Prize winner.

In recognition of his expertise in circus arts, he is regularly invited to be on the jury of some of the most prestigious young talent festivals around the world, including SOLyCIRCO Festival in Sylt, Germany in 2011, 2012& 2013 and for the Festival international de cirque Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, Canada in 2012 & 2013.

His son, Bartlomiej (Bartek) Soroczynski

Krzysztof has also closely mentored his own son, Bartlomiej. First training him as a child in the circus arts, he made sure his son stayed open to the other art forms, like dancing, playing music, acting, etc. After his graduation from secondary school, Bartlomiej decided to go to the National Circus School in Montreal, where he spent four years instead of three, because he wanted to specialize in two different disciplines: clown and unicycle.

After completing circus school, he performed the leading role in the show “Nomade – At night, the sky is endless”, with Cirque Éloize for nearly 5 years. Bartlomiej has achieved international acclaim and is an accomplished and award-winning multidisciplinary artist in circus and theatrical actor.

A circus professional

Krzysztof Soroczynski has worked with more than 400 artists from different backgrounds and nationalities, since he started his Canadian career. This unique experience enabled him to develop a multiplicity of approaches on how to enable artists achieve their best performances. This expertise has led him to forge strong multidisciplinary teams.

In his career summary, Soroczynski writes: “After all these years, I feel like I didn't choose to do circus, circus chose me. I strongly believe that circus arts are undoubtedly one of the most widely shared cultural treasures on this planet. My goal is to be successful doing something I love that helps encourage research and development of new forms of circus expression. To achieve that goal, I will never stop learning, growing, changing or giving of myself.”

As a passionate circus lover, Soroczynski also owns a collection of circus related items, including the most complete and rare collection of circus postage stamps.

A few artists he has worked with

Among the many performers Soroczynski has coached are the following:

• Josianne Levasseur, he considers one of “the best multi-talented female circus performers he has worked with”;
• Stéphane Drouard, he considers one of “the best multi-talented male circus performers he has worked with”;
• Jean-Philippe, Cuerrier, Nicolas Boivin-Gravel, Samuel Roy, who all started training at the École de cirque de Verdun and grew as strong multidisciplinary artists and graduated from the National Circus School;
• Gypsy Snider, co-Founder of the 7 doigts de la main company;
• Antoine Carabinier, Founder of Cirque Alfonse
• Yamoussa Bangoura, Founder of Productions Kalabante
• Mathieu Laplante, Michael Rice, Jonas Woolverton, Krin Haglund, Pawel Biegaj and Witek Biegaj, Eli Skoczylas, Zdzislaw Palka, etc.