Faon was born and raised in the circus, and made her performing debut at age 7 in the ring of Cirque du Soleil — where she was to perform in five subsequent productions over a period of 15 years. Throughout an already long career, she has excelled in a wide range of circus disciplines, including vertical rope, Korean aerial cradle, hand-to-hand acrobatics, trampoline, artistic bicycle, and chair balancing. Faon’s steadily maturing artistic creativity eventually led her to build for herself a solo piece on an original apparatus of her own creation, aerial chains. She received a grant from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec to further develop her new concept, and presented her brand new act at Berlin’s legendary Wintergarten variety theater — before becoming one of Les 7 Doigts de la Main.

San Francisco’s own Gypsy began her circus career at age 4, in the ring of the Pickle Family Circus — which her mother, Peggy Snider, created with Larry Pisoni. Under the guidance of Larry, a clown, and Peggy, a juggler, Gypsy quickly mastered both disciplines and many others. She furthered her training in Switzerland, at the famous Scuola Teatro Dimitri, where she perfected her skills in physical comedy, voice, dance, music, and improvisation. Her training proved quite fruitful: Gypsy was subsequently hired by the resident troupe, La Compania Dimitri, of which she was a member for three consecutive seasons. From there she went on to perform with the famous German restaurant-variety show, Pomp Duck & Circumstance, and in Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco in Australia and Asia. When she returned to her hometown to appear in Teatro ZinZanni, Gypsy, for the first time of her life, had to break a contract: nine months later her beautiful daughter, Laska, was born. More recently, Gypsy has focused her energies on directing and teaching. She is a recurring teacher at Circus Center’s Clown Conservatory, and also for Circus Center she has directed the San Francisco Youth Circus productions of Walk, Don’t Walk and Recess, and the critically acclaimed new Pickle Circus production of Circumstance.

 

Her early fascination for circus arts led Isabelle to enroll at Montreal’s Ecole Nationale de Cirque when she was only 11 years old. She was quickly placed in an intensive contortion class and, just two years later, she was hired by Cirque du Soleil and featured in their productions of Nouvelle Expérience and Saltimbanco with a now legendary quartet of young contortionists. Isabelle performed her act in Asia, Europe, and North America — gathering along the way an impressive collection of circus, movies, television and performing arts awards. At age 20, Isabelle decided to go solo as a contortionist, and afterward created an aerial “tissu” act, which she performed in Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam, before joining Les 7 Doigts de la Main.

Despite four consecutive titles as Canada Figure Roller Skating Champion, and an impressive stab at performance gymnastics, Patrick rejected his life of glamour and glory, went back to school, and dedicated himself to sciences. A Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry somehow led him to work for a medico-legal company, but he couldn’t suppress his ever-lingering passion for the performing arts. He soon abandoned an insane scientific career for the not-less-insane world of the circus. After three years of intensive training at Montreal’s Ecole Nationale de Cirque, Patrick got his first professional contract: a featured spot as a comic character and diabolo juggler in Dîner Farfelu, a very successful cabaret directed by Guy Caron for the Casino de Montréal. This exposure opened him the doors of Germany’s very fashionable and numerous “varieté” theaters, where he performed non-stop for the following three years. Patrick returned to the US in 2000, was featured at San Francisco’s Teatro ZinZanni, and then went on to work on his most brilliant creation, his daughter Laska. Last winter he was featured in Rolf Knie, Jr.’s production of Salto Vitale, once again directed by Guy Caron, in Switzerland.

Determined to become a hand-balancer, Samuel joined Montreal’s Ecole Nationale de Cirque at age 14. During his seven years at the School his interest expanded beyond his main discipline, and he spent almost equal time honing his skills as a dancer and as an actor. Forever the perfectionist, he then crossed the Ocean to train with the legendary French hand-balancing master, Claude Victoria. Samuel’s solo hand-balancing act quickly got international recognition, and garnered a host of awards in circus festivals in Europe and Asia. From there, he toured as a featured hand-balancer for many years with Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize, and worked in some of Germany’s most famous ‘variété’ theaters. Upon his return home in 2002, he has devoted his time to new projects, exploring the theatrical potential of acrobatic performance — and joining Les 7 Doigts de la Main.