With his "Cabaret of exile", Bartabas rides in Yiddish lands<

The mist still floats, light, between the wooden buildings and the caravans of the Zingaro Theater, in the calm of an autumn morning. For a bit, it's like being far away, in a sleepy Eastern European village, or in a shtetl ("Jewish village community", in Yiddish) of Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the very end of the vast land adjoining the fort of Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), we discreetly reach the carousel where Bartabas, muffled up to his eyes, continues his silent interview with Tsar, an ebony black horse of impressive stature. – one meter ninety-five at the withers – with a gentle gaze.

The animal and its rider form one body naturally, walking quietly at a walk, then pushing forward at a light trot, without forcing. “In the morning, we warm up the horses gently, we loosen them up, but quiet, explains the boss of Zingaro as he comes back down to earth. We work every day, like dancers or musicians. The day has only just begun. On October 19, the Zingaro Equestrian Theater will present its new show, Cabaret de l'exil, inspired by Yiddish culture and klezmer music. Bartabas goes to the stables, which lead directly to the theater track, to find his assistant, the equestrian Emmanuelle Santini, preparing Zurbaran, a very lively little Lusitanian and another star of the equine troupe.

Back to basics

“This Cabaret, we have been repeating it for more than four months, blows away the forty-year-old by putting protective gaiters on Zurbaran's slender legs. It takes much longer to complete a creation with horses than for a classic show, because you have to get them psychologically used to the public, very gradually. Here, the shows are created from horses and humans, and not the other way around. This new show is also a return to the roots of equestrian cabaret, for the Zingaro Theater. For Bartabas, it was essential after the confinements and the shutdown of culture due to the Covid-19 pandemic: "It was essential to return to a more convivial form, to the theater as a human encounter, as sharing" , insists the founder of the equestrian theater.

Yiddishland and its culture have imposed themselves, for the first of these “cabarets of exile”, which will be followed by others in the coming seasons. Zingaro's gypsy DNA has never been far from this universe, and Bartabas' love for nomadic cultures has led him to Yiddish, "the official language of nowhere, the language of exile by excellency”. The encounter with the world of author Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), populated by men and flying horses, as well as with the actor Rafaël Goldwaser, steeped in Ashkenazi culture, and the klezmer music ensemble of his daughter Marine Goldwaser, the Little Mish-Mash, did the rest. This first Exile Cabaret will therefore be a spectacle of dibbouks (“evil spirits” in Yiddish) and wild cavalcades, a fantastic and phantasmagorical reverie on a submerged world, around creatures half-man, half-beast.

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