XA! Teatre
XA! Teatre was created by Xavi Castelló and Alba Blanco. They met en 2010 while they were both working on a production directed by Mima Jankovic called “Words of Love” by the Synergic Art Hub and decided to work together. The first fruit of this collaboration was “Zapatos en el Aire”, a show based on an original story by Antoni Castelló, a love story about a cobbler with a fear of heights and a trapeze artist who hates walking on the ground.
Zapatos en el Aire was an immediate success and to this day it continues to move audiences of all ages, from the youngest to the oldest. At every performance you can the faces of children, parents and grandparents light up with emotion. It’s not unusual to see family’s queuing at the end of a show hoping to congratulate the artists personally.
After the great reception of this romantic piece, the pair decided to apply themselves to humour through ‘The Audition”, an award winning show which confirmed the international stature of XA! Teatre, receiving much acclaim and rave reviews from both the public and professionals alike.
The fruit of all this good work has been an offer to coproduce a new show (“Aigua”) with 23ARTS, the highly reputable international distributor of circus/theatre productions, along with the Valencian Cultural Institute (Institut Valencià de Cultura), the Balearic Studies Institute (Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics) and the FitCarrer festival in Vila-real. This show includes none other than Biel Jordà, founder of the Centro de Investigación Escénica de Mallorca, as director. “Aigua” is a special challenge: an eminently poetic production that with deals with an issue of social importance.
Alba Blanco
Alcàsser
Dancer, aerial acrobat and actress. With more than 20 years artistic experience under her belt she still retains an almost limitless energy and is truly addicted to her work. Moving from stage to stage since she was 17 in theatres, streets and town-squares, it’s been in the latter of these where she has most enjoyed showing her abilities and her work. Once she starts a project, she won’t stop until it is fulfilled. Agile, dynamic and with boundless expressivity, she will quickly become the primary motor of any project she is associated with. Throughout her career she has worked with companies across the globe such as Cel Ras, Xarxa Teatre, Circo Gran Fele, Nats Nus Dansa, Deambulants, Ulls Verticals, Illotopie, Jobethum andHush-Hush-Hush ….. to which can now be added recent television work.
Xavi Castelló
Vila-real
Clown, stilts and trapeze artist and juggler with 21 years of professional experience. A Lover of street arts, his entire career has seen him moving from town-square to town-square. He has a restless mind that never stops creating ideas, whether they are about the shows themselves or the production’s structures and systems. He is almost as passionate about the production process as he is about the show itself and it is in this area where he can experiment with set design, rigging or anything that a director – or indeed Xavi himself – can imagine. Throughout his extensive career, he has founded various street theatre companies together with the Castellón Jugglers Association (Asociación de Malabaristas de Castellón). He has also worked with well-known companies such as Xarxa Teatre, Produccions Scura, Visitants, Karlik Danza and Teatro de la Saca. Additionally, he has collaborated with Valencia Imagina Television on their stand-up comedy shows.
