Being a woman means resisting! A powerful solo performance that lays bare the contradictions of a body in struggle. Kahkos is an acrobatic solo performance on the Chinese pole, carried by a physicality that straddles the line between dance and theater. Performed by Joana Nicioli, a woman confronts her memories, desires, and contradictions. She climbs, falls, gets up again… drawing in space the shifting contours of what it means to “be a woman” today. Through a minimalist set design and raw physicality, the artist composes a narrative in which each movement reveals a deep inner struggle. It is the journey of a woman whom the audience accompanies from birth.
In the beginning, she is a vulnerable being, covered by her placenta, a protective nest that both shelters and imprisons her… Throughout this fragmented narrative, she experiences contradictory states: the desire to be strong, brilliant, and powerful clashes with a wavering self-image, a dull pain, and buried anger. On stage, the most mundane everyday life rubs shoulders with a rich imagination, in which she dreams of being a famous, admired, and loved woman. Between interiority and exteriority, between reality and fantasy, she reveals in fragments the contours of a life in search of meaning. A trajectory towards emancipation, where each fragment, each fall, each illusion becomes a step towards deliverance and joy.
Concept and performance /
Joana Nicioli
Set and costume design /
Valentine Lê
Set construction /
Yrjan Charpentier and Valentine Lê
Lighting design /
Alice Nédélec
Sound design /
Fréderic Marolleau
Transverse flute recording /
Ana Paula Cruz
Percussion recording /
Lucas Videla
Complicit glances /
Alluana Ribeiro, Danilo Pacheco, and Paul Schirck.
Mediation assistance /
Lina Duprat
Executive producer /
Le Palc PNC Châlons-en-Champagne
Production manager /
Louise Enjarbert
The first public performance of this show is scheduled for November 22, 2025, at 8 p.m. at the Plus Petit Cirque du Monde (PPCM).
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Founded in 1992, Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde (PPCM) aims to use circus arts to contribute to the vitality of its region. Multifaceted, it is at once a school of circus arts and urban cultures, an artistic residence, a show production company, and a meeting place. Today, PPCM is internationally recognized as a cultural organization with a strong social mission: to mobilize art and culture for the civic, economic, and urban development of the regions in which it operates.
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RUYNA, founded in 2024 and led by Joana Nicioli, is primarily focused on exploring societal issues, existential questions about the human condition, its states, its imaginations, and its perceptions of the world. RUYNA was born out of reflections on social inequalities, diversity on stage and in the audience, and inequalities in access to live performances. Its name comes from the observation of an increasingly apocalyptic world, where nature struggles to survive and humans struggle to get along. “For me, ruins represent the constant relationship between past, present, and future. An evocation of our finitude, the imprint left by our species, a trace of a more or less distant past, the ruin—an ambivalent notion—can evoke degradation and desolation, while symbolizing the basis for a rebirth, a new way of living and building.”
Multidisciplinarity will be a hallmark of the company, considering that encounters between people from different backgrounds and worlds enrich our existence. I would like to explore several artistic expressions in greater depth: speech, Chinese pole, dance, while exploring a diversity of aesthetics, qualities of movement, and stage states. The company is currently being structured in Strasbourg.
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