The show explores a strong social message about the environment.
Roll up, roll up. Circus Baobab is bringing Yé! to The Arts Centre at NYU Abu Dhabi. Running from 9 to 10 May, this marks the debut of the African group in the UAE. If you’d like to watch a new kind of circus, here’s what you need to know.
Circus Baobab prides itself on combining modern entertainment with traditional dance. Founded in 1998, the group hails from Guinea, and their performances combine traditional African circus with contemporary circus. The aim is to create shows with a strong moral message that support the local community.
In 2021, Damien Droin and Yann Ecauvre worked with Circus Baobab’s Bakala Camara. They then explored the themes of the environment and water as a resource. Yé! aims to get its audience thinking about environmental issues and the climate emergency. The title translates to water, and asks how we can all build a better world for tomorrow.
The sequences in Yé! draw from history and heritage, and have been reimagined in a contemporary setting. The result is a combination of acrobatics, contortionists, lifts, masked dancers and drums. The human body is used to represent themes of resistance and resilience. During the show, immobility becomes synonymous with death. The acrobats and dancers hold and support each other. Watch them form pyramids, get lifted in the sky, fly across the stage, and reach heights of more than twenty feet.
If you can’t get enough of musicals, performances and productions, MAMMA MIA! will be running at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena from 11 to 22 June, and will be followed by Beetlejuice The Musical from 20 to 30 November 2025.
Tickets for Yé! in Abu Dhabi are available now via Platinumlist and start from AED 52 per person.
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GO: Visit https://platinumlist.net for tickets and more information.