Circus Troupe Bringing West African Traditions to Ferguson Center
Plus, new tools to study building blocks of universe at JLab; outdoor exploration for NNPS students
A circus troupe steeped in West African tradition, Cirque Kalabanté, is coming to the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News, Virginia, this October. The company was founded in 2007 by Yamoussa Bangoura, a Guinean artist who began his career with Circus Baobab, a troupe credited with pioneering the country’s circus arts. He describes Guinea as a coastal West African nation with several native languages, including Malinké and Soussou.
According to talent agency IMG Artists, “Afrique en Cirque” draws on daily life in Guinea, presenting themes of youth, artistry, strength, and joy through gravity-defying acrobatics and human pyramids, set to live Afro-Jazz, percussion, and kora music. The show reflects Bangoura’s philosophy of fusing circus disciplines with traditional Guinean music and dance, rather than treating them as separate art forms.
Bangoura grew up in Conakry in the 1990s, where he became interested in circus arts as a young man, studying performers he saw on European TV and practicing on the beach and dirt near his home. He also studied the Nyamakala tradition of circus, practiced by the Fula people of West Africa. He personally trained in kora, djembe, and traditional dance alongside juggling, strap work, and acrobatics, skills that shape the company’s signature show, “Afrique en Cirque.”
After touring Africa and Europe with Circus Baobab, he was recruited to Canada in the early 2000s by Cirque Eloize, a Montreal-based company, and went on to perform with Cirque du Soleil and Cavalia before founding Kalabanté in 2007, recruiting extended family members, including his twin sisters, brothers, and cousins, to join the company. Now based in Montreal, the company teaches circus arts alongside West African music and dance, and Bangoura received the Circus Arts Recognition Award from the Conseil des arts de Montréal in 2023 for this work.
Tickets are available for the Cirque Kalabanté will perform at the Ferguson Center for the Arts on October 9, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. (No compensation was received for this post)
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