At 48, Flavio Mendoza is about to take a turn in his artistic and personal life. In May he will move with his son, Dionisio, to Quebec – initially for four months -, because He just signed a three-season deal to present Stravaganza for 10 years and his other shows in Canada.
Flavio, who brought his show to Pinamar for the first time, announced the news of his international debut on January 21 when introduced the Perrier family on stagethe Canadian couple made up of Dominic and Eve, and their daughters Ariane and Laurence, owners of the Havana Camping Resort in Maricourt. Dominic will act as producer of the show.
-When you debuted with Stravaganza: Water in Art, in December 2011, did you imagine going out with your shows in the world?
-NO. In the beginning it was to make the big show that I wanted to do. Subsequently, when we have received many recognitions and awards, why it is the national theater’s most successful show in decades-, yes I said: “It would be great if it was known on the outside.” Going to Canada will also strengthen and nourish me as an artist. Getting out of my comfort zone and trying to conquer other cultures is a great possibility.
-Especially because when you started you were surprised by the international level of a show that included pools of water, acrobatics, a “luxury” circus…
-Yes, it is the show that mixes all the arts and that defines it. Extravagance it’s dance, acrobatics, humor, skill, music and that makes it different.
“The element of water was the most innovative thing in a traveling show, because there are some that have water, like in Vegas, but they’re not mobile stages like this one. We can set up and take down this stage by 10 meters, with a swimming pool 5 meters wide by 10 long. It has an edge because it is unique“, he boasts.
-And after eleven seasons in Carlos Paz you toured the whole country and this summer you went to Pinamar.
-Yes, I didn’t want to do the typical season, that’s why we started this tour, with Héctor Gordillo and Maxi Oliva, who are my producers, and in our country it’s all done from the lungs because it’s difficult to transfer this show quality. So we’re very happy with everything that’s happening with Stravaganza and its projection. I’m so excited about that Thinking about the trip, sometimes I can’t sleep.
-What are your expectations?
-All! AND a large resort that hosts more than 9,000 people on weekends. I haven’t met him yet, but it was Hector (Gordillo). And it can be a launching point, not only for creating new shows or playing others for the resort, but in other venues as well. that we are it is a large window so that many people see you.
-How will you get on with English and French?
-I’m lucky to work with very young people, who know English, at least most of them. I am the brute, it costs me a lot, but art has no language; If you want to represent something, you express it with your body, with your gestures, with your dance. I have worked with people from other countries who communicate in Indianbut this is a new moment in my life and I will have to learn.
-What is the work plan of the contract you signed?
-It’s been three years, from May 1 to October in the summer season there, but I will travel a couple of times before that, when almost the whole company flies to Canada.
-How many artists will go from Argentina?
-On stage we are 30 more or less. Then there are many technicians who will join others from there. He thinks it’s a very big logistics: the stage, the swimming pool… everything comes from Argentina.
-How do you imagine your life in Canada will be?
-When you do a season, sometimes you leave for three months, but you’re in Argentina. Going to another country, so far away and so culturally different, is cool. But I go with my son, I look at the schools and everything will be a great experience for him too.
“It will be a bit like what I had, that I am the fifth generation of the circus family. We were nomads -remember- e I learned to speak Portuguese well because, when I was 4, my parents went to work in Brazil and we stayed for five years”.
With art in the DNA
“I am an artist by birth. My first memory is opening my eyes and seeing my mother balancing 4 meters high., also my father and my sisters. I’ve always lived under a circus and watching the performers and their constant struggle neither wind nor rain stopped themmuddy as hell, they came took off their muddy boots and hit the stage, bah, at that time there was no stage, it was a sawdust floor“, he conjures.
And be honest: “Me I was the black sheep of my familybecause I could not find the place. My big artistic change was when Michael Jackson appeared in my lifeI changed my mind, because I said: “Ah, you can dance!”. We circus folks didn’t have that dancing thingit was like a complement to the ability to have good lines, but i wanted to dance and At that time, dancing wasn’t for girls, a man didn’t dance like that“.
“But since I’ve always been very stubborn, I started dancing, my grandmother saw me dancing in my living room and said to me: “How nice that you turn around!”. there he was born the real artist Flavio Mendoza”.
-Dionisio is the sixth generation of circus artists, therefore.
-Yes! But I don’t know what will come out! Whether acrobat or architectbut the good thing is to raise him with a lot of love so that he can make his dreams come true.
-Your child turns five on April 12, is it difficult to find a school in Quebec?
-The Perrier family is helping me… With them I already feel at home, it’s not just that I go to work because, even if I go with my people and Maxi (Oliva) is also my son’s godfather, I feel that we will be accompanied and protected by them.
And he adds: “I know it will be a change for Dionisio, but he goes to a bilingual school, so you’re taking your baby steps with languages. He’s also looking for a different future… I could be comfortable in Argentina, but I believe that people who seek dreams are those who leave something behind.. I can’t exist and nothing else, it’s not my nature.”
Caught in the other networks
Beyond the good news, the choreographer, dancer, director and producer He lived days shocked by an image of his son on the networkstaken from a video and decontextualized by the American conservative politician and activist Charlie Kirkand by the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (son of former president of Brazil).
The result: They closed their Instagram account and will file legal action.
-How do you feel about it?
-I think social networks misrepresent everything today. A person cannot sit behind a keyboard to write something or upload a photo of a child without informing, without investigating and without knowing. I am a totally transparent person and have fought all my life to get what I have. The other day Moria Casán called me saying ‘You don’t have to clarify anythingYou don’t have to make it clear that you’re a gay dad.’ And he is right!
“We no longer have to label ourselves and we don’t have to apologize. I am a respectable, honest and hardworking man and I have a wonderful son. And this is beyond me, that’s why my legal side is the labor lawyer, Fernando Burlando, because are the human rights of a child, everything must have a limit and for me the limit is my son“, sentence.
“Flavio is an example for the artistic world”
the Perer family -Dominic, Eve and their daughters, Laurence and Ariane- came to Argentina for the first time last December. They have seen the Circus of the Soul in Avellaneda e they are back now to attend Flavio’s show in Pinamar.
Owners of the resort where it will be presented Extravagance and reality show star Havana Qc (which will soon premiere its second season), they bought a giant tent that belonged to Cirque du Soleil -the circus born in Quebec in 1984- and which will be republished with the work of Mendoza.
-How did you get interested in Flavio’s exhibitions?
-Dominic: When we bought the tent, we were looking for what to do. And by chance we met Héctor (Gordillo), his producer… and here we are in Buenos Aires, in my case, for the second time in a short time.
-What happened to them when they saw Flavio in action?
– Ariane: It is a very very original show. All the different elements, like water, fire, stunts…all of that mixed together we were very impressed.
-Dominic: It is brilliant! The show impressed us and is a good example to the art world of how someone with such a career continues to create and transform at that level.
-Vigil: It’s inspiring!
– Lorenzo: You can clearly see it in the show Flavio’s passion in everything he does.
Source: Clarin
