Antoine Rigot Biography - Resume

Antoine met Agathe at the Ecole Nationale du Cirque Annie Fratellini in 1979. He did cascade burlesque and she was a tightrope artist. He took up her art in order to join her on the tightrope. Together they created a duo on the tightrope for which they were awarded a silver medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in 1983, and worked at the Cirque Roncalli for two seasons. From 1985 to 1988, they took part in the creation of Cirque du Soleil. In 1987, Antoine interpreted Quasimodo with the Théâtre de l’Unité, then Agathe and Antoine were joined by Ars Nova and Compagnie Foraine and created L’Histoire du soldat in 1989.

In 1990, they took part in the creation of La Volière Dromesko with strange birds; they toured Europe with this show during 4 years.

In 1993, they were awarded the Grand Prix National du Cirque and they narrowed down their research: using their mastery of the art of the tightrope and put it at the service of theatre. They created Amore Captus, a meeting of a man and a woman where the tightrope – that prop with a 12 mm diameter crossing the stage – symbolises the complexity and fragility of their love relationship… They continue collaborating with theatres by assisting Mathias Langoff in The Government Inspector by Gogol, In the Jungle of Cities by Brecht, and with Footsbarn Theater performing in Ne touchez pas à Molière and Cabaret inattendu…

Agathe and Antoine asked other artists to collaborate with them on workshops, research workshops, meetings with tightrope artists in their tours in France and abroad. These activities have been offered at Cascade, Maison des Arts du Clown et du Cirque in Bourg St Andéol, whose creation was co-initiated by the company Les Colporteurs. Agathe is a respected teacher at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque à (Châlons-en-Champagne) as well as at the Académie Fratellini (St Denis).