A Roma Circus Makes a Home, and Builds Bridges, in Paris

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/world/europe/roma-circus-paris.html

Version 0 of 1.

The Romanès family spends most of the year in the upscale 16th Arrondissement of Paris — in a small park where their circus caravans have a permanent spot and where they perform their show. The rest of the time, they take the show on the road, traveling all around France.

Their neighbors in Paris weren’t always welcoming. The Romanèses, who originally came from Romania, are part of a Roma community (Alexandre Romanès, the patriarch of the family, prefers the term tzigane) that is often the object of stigmatization in French society.

Two years ago, hundreds of costumes, instruments and pictures were stolen from the circus during the night. To make sure the caravans wouldn’t stand out in the landscape, the family painted them green, to blend in with their surroundings. Now, everything is a bit more quiet.

“People have been leaving us alone since the elections” in May, when the anti-immigrant, far-right National Front was defeated, said Délia, Mr. Romanès’s wife.

This summer, the Ministry of Culture named Mrs. Romanès a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, a high-standing recognition given to influential artists. She is the first Roma woman to receive the title in France.

The Romanèses, who have performed as a family for 23 years, have an unorthodox method of directing and organizing their shows. Every performance is prepared from scratch, without a defined story line.

Each cast member works on his or her own, and then brings the stunts to the show, which evolves spontaneously over one hour every night.

Rehearsing is not necessary. Most of the time, the performers already know their stunts by heart. They were born into the life.

“The show is full of unplanned acrobatics,” said Mr. Romanès, who leads the performances. “We just try to make them as close as possible to our aesthetics.”

Alin Romanès, 19, is the Romanèses’ nephew. He never feels like training too hard, even though his performance is dangerous; he slides down a pole head first.

Another nephew, Claudio Romanès, 20, walks on a tightrope. It’s been five years since he last performed, because he was busy with his other job, fixing elevators.

“Everything came back to me very naturally,” he said, returning to training one week before a show in October.

Mrs. Romanès said the atmosphere before every show was “filled with love.” While the circus artists put on their costumes and discuss their acts behind a colorful, sheer curtain, she likes to welcome visitors and chat with them.

She is also the administrator of the crew; she manages them, handles media relations and washes the curtains when needed. But most important, she sings.

Mr. Romanès opens the show and warms up the audience.

In his monologue, he is ironic and self-deprecating about the discrimination the Roma face. It is a way to make others aware of the stereotypes and poke holes in them, while lancing any tension with the crowd.

At one recent performance, he said he hoped to work with his daughter Alexandra during the show on a small sketch with cats.

“People in the neighborhood say that we steal their cats to eat them,” he said. “I answered them with a letter saying that we ate all of them and enjoyed the meal. Now we are coming for the dogs!”

The crew is made of about 30 artists — half from Mrs. Romanès’s side of the family, the other half from her husband’s.

Musicians, who are Mrs. Romanès’s cousins, are an essential part of the performance. They play traditional Romanian music, also influenced by jazz, flamenco and Indian music.

Onstage, this mix turns out to be a varied patchwork of dance in traditional costumes and classic circus acrobatics.

For an hour, the crew alternates between acts with hoops, balls and ropes, juggling and performing acrobatics; powerful and joyful live music and singing are played in the background.

Alexandra Romanès and her sister, Rose, are the stars. Rose, who is full of joy and energy, dances in traditional costume, hangs from a rope and plays with fire in the dark.

Alexandra, with long brown hair, has trained cats to climb a rope with her.

When the weather allows, the Romanès family organizes a big barbecue before the show with the public. “It fits our tradition of hospitality,” Mrs. Romanès said.

Welcoming others is, in fact, one of the family circus’s main objectives, she said. “It’s our way to build bridges between our culture and other cultures.”