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==The "Paris Festival"==

''By Dominique Jando''


[[Image:Louis Merlin Dominique Mauclair.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Louis Merlin (l.), Dominique Mauclair (ctr.), with Henri Rancy (r.) (1965)]]The Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain ("The World Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow") was conceived and brought to life in 1977 by [[Dominique Mauclair]] (1929-2017) for ''La Piste'', a French non-profit organization that had, until then, produced annually an important fund-raising circus gala in Paris. 

===La Piste===

La Piste had been established in 1927 to assist retired and injured circus artists in financial difficulty. It was presided from 1947 to 1976 by Louis Merlin (1901-1976), a well-known pioneer of French commercial radio, a circus aficionado, and a remarkable public relations wizard. Starting in 1958, La Piste's main fund raising event was the ''Gala de la Piste'', a black-tie gala featuring some of the world's greatest circus acts, which was produced by Dominique Mauclair and staged at Paris's [[Cirque d'Hiver]]-Bouglione (with a few excursions to Cirque [[Napoléon Rancy]], [[Cirque Medrano (Paris)|Cirque Medrano]], and [[Cirque Jean Richard]]). 

By 1976, La Piste had helped solve most of the problems that had plagued French circus performers when they wanted to retire or needed medical coverage. Louis Merlin wanted the organization to shift its focus toward another worthy circus cause that needed attention&mdash;and Mauclair suggested an international circus festival for young, upcoming circus performers. The idea behind the project was that the first western circus schools had been created two years earlier, and young performers who didn't come from circus families were going to need a place where to showcase their talents in front of journalists, agents, and directors.

Louis Merlin never saw the project come to fruition: he died unexpectedly at the end of 1976. The festival was held for the first time, as an adjunct to the 19th Gala de la Piste, on Wednesday, January 5, 1977 at the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione in Paris. In a tribute to Louis Merlin, it was called ''Concours International des Bourses Louis Merlin''. The first winners were a young Colombian hand-balancing trio, The [[Wee Gets]]. Later, the founders often joked that, at this first festival, there were more people at the finale in the ring than in the house...

===Le Cirque de Demain===

The second festival was held in November of the same year, 1977, and took the name of ''Le Cirque de Demain'' ("The Circus of Tomorrow"). It was still linked to the Gala de la Piste. The 3rd festival, in June 1979, moved to the big top of Alexis Gruss's [[Cirque à l'ancienne]]&mdash;home of one of Paris's two circus schools. By then, the Festival had found its style, notably with the distribution of gold, silver, and bronze medals. The first Gold Medal winners, that year, were the young [[Alexis Brothers]]. 1981 saw the last edition of the Gala de la Piste. In 1982, the Festival took a life of its own, with a new and final name, the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain. 

[[File:Jansson,_Vintilova,_Panova_(2014).jpg|thumb|left|400px|Former Gold Medal winners Uuve Jansson, Darya Vintilova, and Elena Panova at the 35th Festival in 2014]]In 1988, the Festival returned to the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione. It would be its annual home until 2006, the year Dominique Mauclair, who had produced the festival since its inception and had been all these years an outstanding discoverer of new talents, decided to retire. The festival had became autonomous in 1982, under the umbrella of a new non-profit organization (Association Française pour le Cirque de Demain) of which Mauclair would be the President until 2003. The organization's new President, Alain M. Pacherie, a well-known French circus producer, succeeded him, and in 2007, the 28th Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain moved to Pacherie's gigantic [[Cirque Phénix]].

Over the years, the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain had revealed to the world some of the most extraordinary circus artists of the contemporary circus, from [[Miss Enhtsetseg]], the Mongolian contortionist, to [[David Shiner]], the American clown; from the first acts created by Montréal's [[Ecole Nationale de Cirque|National Circus School]] for the nascent [[Cirque du Soleil]], to the Russian aerialist [[Elena Panova]], who revolutionized swinging trapeze; from the ground-breaking creations of Russian director [[Valentin Gneushev]] to [[Daniel Cyr]] and his new invention, the ''Roue Cyr''; from the first North Korean flyers seen in the West to the latest Chinese acrobatic productions. New concepts, new styles, new visions, have emerged from the Festival, and the contemporary circus has been patiently defined year after year in each edition of the ''Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain''.

Every year, circus agents and directors from all over the world meet in Paris to discover the circus talents of the next generation. The Festival's list of medalists (see the Festival's visual history on its [http://www.cirquededemain.paris/en/medias/galleries website]) reads like a Who's Who of today's major circus stars. It has become, over the years, the world's greatest market for new circus acts, and the crucible where the circus of tomorrow constantly reinvents itself.

==Image Gallery==

<gallery>
File:La_Piste_-_Cocteau.jpg|Program Cover by Jean Coscteau for the Gala de La Piste (1960)
Image:Louis Merlin and Partner.jpg|Louis Merlin and an occasional partner at a Gala de La Piste.
Image:Louis Merlin Dominique Mauclair.jpg|Louis Merlin (l.), Dominique Mauclair (ctr.) and Henri Rancy (r.) (1965)
File:Charlie_Cairoli_1966.jpg|Dominique Mauclair and Charlie Cairoli (1966)
File:Festival_Cirque_de_Demain_1987.jpg|Program Cover for the 10th Festival (1987)
File:Festival_Cirque_de_Demain_-_Ringmasters.jpg|Ringmasters' reunion at the 19th Festival. Dominique Mauclair stands in the center, in  blue ringmaster costume (1996)
File:Festival_du_Cirque_de_Demain_1977.jpg|Program Cover for the 20th Festival (1997)
File:Cirque_de_Demain_2004.jpeg|Program Cover for the 25th Festival (2004)
File:Jansson,_Vintilova,_Panova_(2014).jpg|Swinging Trapeze Gold Medal winners Uuve Jansson (2011), Darya Vintilova (2006), and Elena Panova (1987) at the 35th Festival (2014)
</gallery>

==Suggested Reading==

Pascal Jacob, ''Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain &mdash; Trente Ans'' (Paris, Magellan & Cie, 2009) ISBN 978-2-35074-156-7

==External Link==

http://www.cirquededemain.com


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