João Paulo Santos
Portuguese circus artist, specialist of the Chinese pole, he was first trained at Chapitô, the circus school of Lisbon, where he comes from (1996-1999), then he continued his studies in France, at the school of circus arts of Rosny (1999-2001) then at the National Centre of Circus Arts of Châlons in Champagne (2001-2003) He is a member of the artists’ collective Le Cheptel Aleïkoum, which brings together the artists of the 15th class of the CNAC. He has worked with Roland Shön, Philippe Genty and Félix Ruckert.
In 2004, he founded his own company with musician Guillaume Dutrieux and together they created the first solo (Peut-être) for which João Paulo Santos was awarded the Jeune Talent Cirque prize. In 2006, he created the solo Contigo with the choreographer Rui Horta, at the Festival IN d’Avignon as part of the SACD’s Sujets à Vif.
He revolutionized the practice of Chinese pole and was quickly considered a virtuoso and a pioneer recognized for his unique way of working with this apparatus, with a new acrobatic language mixing dance, video and proposing a specific staging of Chinese pole.
He is an associated artist with Espaço do Tempo, directed by Rui Horta in Montemor-O-Novo in Portugal.