DUO Modern Circus

Jean-François Baëz and Jérôme Thomas

A few months had passed since the Fête de la Musique 2012, the last FrancoPhil event that I was able to attend. I had to wait a lot longer than usual before the next one. And it happened when the circus came to town as the Embassy of France, Alliance Française de Manille and Rustan’s in partnership with the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) presented DUO, a modern circus show by compagnie Jérôme Thomas at the PETA Theater Center.

The duo is made up of juggler Jérôme Thomas and accordionist Jean-François Baëz who are both from France. The two delighted the audience with a perfect combination of juggling and music. The show gave me more insight with the art of juggling, one that I only associated with tossing various objects in air and not letting them fall to the floor. Jérôme Thomas didn’t just do the usual tossing of objects like balls and clubs, but he also did routines that I didn’t know was actually juggling. His first number had him use the cane which he didn’t really toss but more of passed from one hand to another through various parts of the body. Then, he also balanced a ball in on his head while moving around and even going down on the floor. For me, his most entertaining numbers was the one when he had to skillfully roll the balls on a table that somehow looked like an illusion. He also made use of the most unusual of objects for juggling like plastic bags and feathers. He didn’t toss these objects in the air, but rather let them fall off instead. And before these objects hit the floor, he did crazy stuff like executing pirouettes before snatching these objects. Thomas’ routines won’t be as effective, as funny or as entertaining if Jean-François Baëz wasn’t there to provide the music with his accordion. The music highlighted the difficult moves, delivered the humor and provided more excitement and thrills. It was truly delightful to hear the changes in the music’s rhythm matching the changes in the juggling patterns.

Jérôme Thomas meets a young fan

I have to say though that the routines didn’t go as perfectly as planned. There were numerous occasions when the balls got dropped during the more challenging and trickier parts of the routine. But the audience didn’t mind at all as Jérôme Thomas effectively used humor to get back into the groove and still in time with the music which was remarkable. Overall DUO, was not the usual circus act that one sees at the ring along with the flying trapeze acrobats, tightrope walkers and lion tamers. It was actually more similar to a street performance with the appeal and charm that goes with it. There weren’t any flashy gimmicks, but there was flashy juggling that was accompanied with great music.