Archibald Caramantran

Archibald Caramantran is an international street theatre company specialised in medium- to large scale performances, at fixed locations or on parades.

Combining different art forms, including visual arts, dance, theatre, circus and music, the company utilises   giant muppets and aerial dance to create dreamlike and popular shows.  

Driven by the desire to surprise every day and reveal its poetry, Archibald Caramantran plays in open areas to meet the public and offer them a theatre of images which are at time sensible and absurd, marvellous and of distinct proportions. 

In its creations, the company utilises giant muppets and aerial dance to build a special relationship with the public and act the city out. The aerial space becomes a natural playground for making and sculpting, using various methods: fabrics, mesh, dance in the air or building facades.

Since its creation in 2005, the company has earned international recognition. Its giant muppets have wandered onto the streets of cities and villages, from carnivals to festivals, in the marquees of the opera houses in France and overseas, Europe, Australia, Canada, Cuba, China, Asia, Russia, Africa.

The Archibald Caramantran Company is supported by City of Carpentras, COVE, District of Vaucluse, Region PACA and DRAC PACA

Marie-Martine Robles   Choreographer

Since 2017, Marie-Martine Robles has collaborated with Olivier Hagenloch to explore aerial space possibilities for Archibald Caramantran.

Coming from a classical and contemporary dance background, Marie-Martine enjoys crossing artistic disciplines and mixing dance movements of diverse forms with street theatre, circus, the stage and the ambulatory.

After receiving training in classical dance at the National Conservatory of Lyon, Marie-Martine moved on to contemporary and jazz dance with the dance company Jeune Ballet d'Aquitaine.

Since then, she has danced for many choreographers, such as Pedro Pauwels, Harry Albert, Jean Alavi, Claude Magne…

In 2007, she joined Zigrolling, a company which combines choreographic sculptures and dancers' bodies. Together with the company, she worked for Cirque du Soleil and the Finzi Pasca Company and performed in several international festivals: "Cienca Na Rua" (Portugal), "Lightning in a Bottle" (U.S.A.), "Exposition sur l'eau et le développement durable" (Water and Sustainable Development Exhibition) (Spain).

Moreover, for the companies Rêve de singe and Dynamo, she articulates her expertise around aerial space (fabrics and acrobatic dance on facades and tilting). In parallel, she puts up a solo show of aerial dance Un-Dix-Visible with a piece of white fabric attached to a red wire, as well as a number of nets in which the body and the material merge into one.