7 FINGERS - biography

Les 7 doigts de la main translates literally as "the 7 fingers of the hand". It is a twist on a French idiom ("the five fingers of the hand") used to describe distinct, individual parts united tightly, moving in coordination towards one common goal. Here it refers to the 7 directors/ founding members of the company who, by combining their very distinct personalities, talents and experiences, work towards their common artistic goals, functioning with all the dexterity and beautifully awkward coordination of an unconventional and unlikely 7-fingered hand.
The 7 Fingers was founded in Montreal in 2002 by seven seasoned circus performers. Friends who had worked together in such prestigious companies as the Cirque du Soleil, the Cirque Eloize, Wintergarten Variety, Teatro Zinzanni, the Pickle Family Circus and Cirque Knie, or trained together at Montreal’s National Circus School, they decided it was time to offer something new to the circus arts scene, to create a circus of an entirely different flavor.

THE 7 FINGERS, CO-FOUNDATORS AND ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

Shana Carrol
Isabelle Chassé
Patrick Léonard
Faon Shane
Gypsy Snider
Sébastien Soldevila
Samuel Tétreault

La Vie.

Death is a cabaret, my friend

La Vie is about insanity, sorrow, bad behavior, pain, airplane accidents and romantic love gone terribly wrong. but it's funny, joyful, and very sexy. La Vie takes place in a purgatory of the imagination, where the sinners try to tumble, juggle, climb, fly, sing or joke their way out of hell. A diabolical master of ceremonies presides over this twisted Judgement Day, and not even the audience is safe as he weighs their souls in his unforgiving hands. It is 90 minutes of the unexpected, the hysterical and the surprisingly moving.

Artistic Direction:

The 7 Fingers

On Stage:

Sébastien Soldevila
Krin Haglund (remplace Shana Carroll)
Samuel Tétreault
Patrick Léonard
Isabelle Chassé
Evelyne Allard
Emilie Bonnavaud
DJ Pocket

Creative Team:

Production Director : Nol Van Genuchten
Technical Director : Yves Touchette
Lighting designer : Nol Van Genuchten
Original texts : Jon Carroll, Shana Carroll, Sébastien Soldevila
Texts adaptation for Quebec : Michel Vézina et Sébastien Soldevila
Rigging : Peter Wellington
Costume designer : Manon Desmarais
Seb's costume fabrication : Vincent Pastena
Set design and props :André Labbé
Set construction : Yves Nichol, André Labbé
Construction of the stage : Peter Wellington
Teacher choreographer quatuor tango : Benoit Leduc
Choreographer consultant for handstand act : Victor Quijada
Arrangements and original music : Raphael Cruz, DJ Pocket et Sebastien Soldevila
Violin on table dance music : Virginie Brunelle
Illuminated Hand Balancing cane : Jocelyn Legault, Benoît Courtemanche, Yvan Trudel, Gil Denis