Stéphane Ricordel, trapeze artist and theater man, died at 62

DISAPPEARANCE – The co-director of Rond-Point was one of the founders of the circus company Les Arts Sauts which revolutionized the art of trapeze. He died on Thursday July 30 following a neurodegenerative disease.

At the circus, in the discipline he had chosen, the flying trapeze, he was a carrier, the one who catches the acrobat, supports him and sends him back into the air for a new trick. With a broad back and strong build, Stéphane Ricordel contributed to writing a new page in the daring art of the trapeze for around fifteen years, with his troupe Les Arts Sauts before directing Parisian theaters. His companion and partner at the head of the Théâtre du Rond-Point, Laurence de Magalhaes, announced his death on Thursday July 30, following a neurodegenerative disease. He was 62 years old.

In the world of live entertainment, the couple was inseparable. They had started together. In 1993, a handful of artists from the best French circus schools decreed that the trapeze must become an art in its own right. They are young, talented and crazy enough to imagine taking the discipline, then synonymous with sequinned leotards and a certain kitsch, out of the big top. The accomplices designed an iron structure, 20 meters high, which allows them to operate in the open air: “Fly like we swim, like we breathe, like we love. Let yourself be carried by the wings of desire. » The motto anchors their adventure before taking a name: Les Arts sauts. They invest their savings in an inflatable marquee and dozens of deck chairs for front-row spectators of the extraordinary aerial ballet taking place above them.

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French circus touch

“When we left school, trapeze was not a very popular discipline among young artists. We had the idea of ​​a joint show that we would create on the basis of a collective. Working collectively was one of our goals. The other two were to travel and do the trapeze in an artistic way where our dreams would take us”, told Stéphane Ricordel to Figaro in 2007. The bet paid off. Les Arts Saults will tour for fifteen years, all over the world, embodying this French circus touch which is revolutionizing the arts of the ring.

For them, itinerancy is a way of life which allows them to take on board the children who are born and their teacher seconded by the National Education. With more than 1,500 performances under the belt, the Arts Saults will realize their initial dream, despite the tragedies (the extremely serious fall of one of their number) and the hazards of the genre (the loss of a marquee). They will close the magnesia box, this powder which allows acrobats not to let go of their hands, in 2007.

For Stéphane Ricordel, the artistic adventure continues, this time in duo with his partner. In 2009, they were chosen by the City of Paris to take charge in the 14th arrondissement of the Théâtre Monfort (named after the woman who contributed to revitalizing the circus arts with Alexis Gruss). Managing a theater allows them to put into practice their taste for multidisciplinarity and to refine their sense of the public by broadening the artistic spectrum well beyond the stage. The circus is invited there but also theater, music, dance, music. At the same time, they artistically directed the Paris Quartier d’été festival which would become Paris l’été.

In 2023, the duo will take a new step, called upon to succeed Jean-Michel Ribes, at the Théâtre du Rond-Point. He sets out some strong lines:“Offer unifying shows, attract a young audience and be widely open to contemporary writers. » The handover with the former master of the place is done in harmony. Stéphane Ricordel and Laurence de Magalhaes can boast good attendance figures between shows as different as the Munstrum theater and the latest play by Jean-François Sivadier, Everything is calm in the heights.

Next season, the former trapeze artist had planned to program an installation there, imagining, with visual artist Fabien Chalon, a dreamlike and animated production: levitating balls, twirling feathers and falling snow. A way of his own to bring the dream onto the stage as he had invited it under the big top more than thirty years ago.