Compagnie Hors Surface
Cie Hors Surface is a Toulon-based circus company that has been championing a new, multifaceted, and highly demanding acrobatic style since 2011. Poetic and visual, this company, directed by Damien Droin, develops extraordinary stage designs and asserts a unique language that blends original musical composition with high-flying choreography. Damien creates imaginary universes, mental spaces, and parallel worlds that draw their strength from reality. Our artistic vision: to question space in flux, our relationship to reality. A multifaceted circus, whose originality lies in the creation of imaginary worlds. The company continues its search for an original artistic language where the question of movement interrogates that of space. Damien is passionate about stage design, and it was during his studies at the CNAC (National Center for Circus Arts) that he invented the Acronet: a 60 m² stretched canvas made from a fishing net, serving as a trampoline. This innovative apparatus has since been revisited and evolves in each new show by the company.
Damien Droin (Author and Director)
Damien Droin trained at the National Center for Circus Arts in 2009, where he developed a large suspended trampoline he named Acronet, which he then combined with tightrope walking, creating a space conducive to transforming the body between balance and flight. In 2010, he founded ie Hors Surface. Simultaneously, he has collaborated on several projects, notably with Mario Martone at La Scala in Milan for the opera Pagliacci, and with the writer and director Fabrice Melquiot, with whom he continues to collaborate today. To date, he has produced and directed eight pieces, blurring the lines between circus and dance. Since 2015, Damien has been developing international projects in Brazil, Guinea, and South Korea. He also created Trampoville in 2022, a project in which he choreographed around twenty circus artists and high-level athletes within an extraordinary set design. He also performs on stage in his latest creation, Face aux Murs.
Matthieu Tomi (Composer)
A musician, composer, and arranger, he is a bassist and double bassist in various groups. He has played with Watcha Clan (Electro-World), Nasser Ben Dadoo, and Saïko Nata, and composed and performed the album Duo Impressionniste with harpist Katell Boisneau. He has also contributed to documentaries, films, and commercials, notably for France 3 and Arte. Since 2014, he has been a composer and performer with several circus companies: Cie s'évapore, Mauvais Coton, Archaos, Mines de Rien, Cie Azeïn, Cahin-Caha, Cie Jupon, and Cie Hors Surface. In 2023, he and Nasser Ben Dadoo reached the finals of the International Blues Challenge. In 2024, he began a collaboration with Diogo Santos to compose the music for the show Pondus (Portugal). He also worked as musical director for Cie Hors Surface for the arrival of the Olympic flame at Mont Saint-Michel. Alongside his studio and stage activities, he became a bass teacher at the Yamaha school in 2001.
Caillou MV (Lighting Design)
Caillou Michael Varlet designs and creates video mappings, digital scenography, interactive installations, and immersive projections. His work encompasses video, photography, 3D, graphic design, motion design, lighting, and all forms of intersection between art and technology. Specializing in visual arts and digital scenography, Caillou MV founded the company EnLight: "digital art at the service of humanity and the environment," a digital creation studio developing unique projects at the crossroads of practices and audiences, where technology gives way to a visual poetics. He uses innovative technologies to redesign and re-examine public spaces, the relationship to space, and the role of the artist.
Aline Tyranowicz (Lighting Design)
Trained in 2004 in lighting design for live performance at the University of Aix-en-Provence, she has since continued to play with light, its shadows, and reflections in fields as varied as architecture, theatrical staging, dance performances, street theater, and contemporary circus. In close collaboration with Damien Droin since 2018, she has created the lighting designs for the shows Open Cage, Entredeux-Mondes, and now Face Aux Murs.
Kob (Stage Builder and Manager)
Originally a circus artist in Savoie, Kob specializes in technical design for live arts. For years, Kob has followed Damien in his most ambitious scenographic ideas, creating unique acrobatic structures (Le poids des Nuages, Envol, and Face Aux Murs).
Alice Rende (Movement Research and Dramaturg)
After studying at the National Circus School of Brazil and obtaining a Master's degree in Performing Arts from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Alice Rende pursued the professional training offered by the Higher School of Circus Arts of Toulouse Occitanie, ESACTO'Lido. In 2019, she began her first creation, Passages. Currently, she is conducting doctoral research on vertigo on stage and working on her solo piece, Fora. For this solo, she received the SACD's Processus Cirque Prize in 2022 and was a laureate of Circus Next in 2023.
Léo Grosperrin (Lighting Design Assistant)
After completing a two-year university diploma in Performing Arts in Aix-en-Provence, he specialized in Stage Management and spent two seasons as a trainee technician at the Théâtre A. Vitez within the Faculty of Arts. Since 2009, he has worked as an electrician across several theaters in Aix and Marseille, as well as at the Aix-en-Provence International Festival of Lyric Art, where he participated in ten consecutive editions. Since then, he has created numerous lighting designs with companies such as L’Arpenteur, La Souricière, La Zampa, Elephante, the Collectif Eudaimonia, and with Vincent Macaigne.
Louise Aussibal (Performer)
Born in the Vercors region of the French Alps, Louise was immersed in the world of circus and mountain sports from a very young age. She spent her first four years of middle school in the circus program in Die, followed by three years of high school at the National Circus School in Châtellerault. At 17, she flew to Canada to pursue professional training at the Quebec Circus School. An aerial acrobat, she trained there in Russian Frame, trampoline, Hungarian cradle, banquine, trampoline/wall, and more. After graduating, Louise spent another three years performing in the Canadian and American circus scene (Las Vegas, Cirque Éloize, Japan, Flip Fabrique, etc.). The creation of the show Esquive by Gaetan l'Evêque brought her back to France, where she discovered the world of flying trapeze (Cirk Vost, Les lendemains, etc.). Louise then settled in the South East of France and met Damien Droin, who offered her the opportunity to discover his work.
Tristan Etienne (Performer)
Having grown up in the world of the circus, practically born on a flying trapeze, Tristan always knew that acrobatics was what he wanted to do with his life. He trained through competitive gymnastics and trampoline, and trained independently at ENACR (National Circus Arts School of Rosny-sous-Bois). For his first professional experience, he joined the company Les Lendemains in the flying trapeze show Les Pépones. Since then, he has performed extensively with various companies on both flying trapeze and trampoline (Bouglione, CirkVost, Disneyland Paris, etc.) and participated in the creation of the high-flying show La Tangente du Bras Tendu, which won an award at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in 2023.
Maël Thierry (Performer)
Born in France in 1998, he grew up in an amateur circus school, Acrofolies, where he began practicing circus arts at a young age. After completing his scientific baccalaureate, he was accepted into the preparatory year at the National Circus School of Rosny-sous-Bois (ENACR), and then went on to train at the National Center for Circus Arts (CNAC), specializing in Chinese pole. Following his studies, Maël began his career as a writer-performer with the show Quiproquo by the company Charge Maximale de Rupture, created in collaboration with Héctor Diaz and released in November 2021, as well as the collective creation by the same company, Espace TORO. He subsequently joined various companies as a substitute, including for Gaëtan Levêque's show Esquive, the pole-walking company Cirque Entre Nous, and as a technician for Aloïse Sauvage's concert. Recently, he has joined the company Hors Surface for several projects.
Aris Colangelo (Performer)
Aris Colangelo was born near Turin to a dancer mother and an opera set designer father. Always passionate about sports and art, he explored numerous disciplines, from drawing to artistic gymnastics. At 16, he decided to dedicate himself entirely to the circus, enrolling in the professional training program at the FLIC circus school. At 18, he joined ENACR, and at 20, CNAC. He specializes in acrobatic dance, Chinese pole, stunts, burlesque, and theater. After his studies, he began his artistic career with Raphaelle Boîtel in the show Le Cycle de l'absurde (The Cycle of the Absurd), then joined PPCM with Gaetan Leveque's show Esquive (Game of Dodge). He also participated in several works by Damien Droin, including Le pois des nuages (The Pea of Clouds), Envol (Flight), and Face Aux Murs (Facing the Walls).
Carl Rom Colthoff (Performer)
Carl was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and now lives in Montreal. A longtime member of the Canadian National Trampoline Team, he has spent the last 15 years performing in trampoline, trampomur, and high diving. He worked for Cirque du Soleil for five years, as well as other renowned companies. Face Aux Murs marks his first collaboration with Hors Surface, and he hopes to dedicate more time to France.
