Survivor of the attacks of November 13, the acrobat Alice Barraud recounts her rebirth on stage, between circus, music and dance

M.E.M.M. It is the acronym of the expression that Alice Barraud has heard so many times, she who has been at Wrong Place, Wrong Time. An expression that has become the title of a show presented this Sunday, March 20 at the Le Montfort theater in Paris as part of the festival (Des)Illusions.

This “bad moment” was November 13, 2015. Seated on the terrace of Petit Cambodge, the young woman was hit hard by a Kalashnikov bullet that went through her left arm. The career of this circus artist, a graduate of the Center Régional des Arts du Cirque de Lomme, specializing in hand-to-hand aerobatics and the Korean gantry, came to a sudden halt. For good according to some doctors for whom she will never resume her activity.

Fortunately, in the lot, there was a wonderful surgeon, only one, who let me know that in fact, nobody knew anything about it. I clung to this mini-hope.

FTR

Hope begins with physical reconstruction. Alice undergoes several operations. “We looked together for the best way to repair my arm. Sometimes we had to choose between the solid and the practical. Thus, we kept my broken ulna to allow the gesture of the rotation of the wrist. I had to build up my muscles to protect the broken bone and be able to pull and push with that arm again, but there are things I can’t do like the others anymore.”

Then comes the moral reconstruction, which is just as long and painful. As soon as she leaves the hospital, Alice writes down her daily life, her doubts, her difficulties, her hopes, her relapses in notebooks. “I wanted to tell that without lying, Each time, we try, we fall back and we get up. That’s how I rebuilt myself, telling myself that I could go further. It worked, but not completely “, she admits with a smile.

I’m still disabled! But in any case, in life, there is nothing that touches me more than someone who fights to go further”.

Alice Barraud

Despite this handicap, the young woman found the energy to invent her own body language and new ways of practicing aerobatics. In the show, she hangs from a trapeze, something that initially seemed unimaginable.

Before this drama which almost put an end to her career, Alice worked in companies with other artists. By creating her own show around her story, she also took over the reins of her life. A way to no longer depend on others.

Despite the handicap that remains, Alice Barraud has managed to reconnect with her profession as an acrobat to integrate it into her show. (C. Behr / France Televisions)

In life and on stage, Alice is not alone. Raphael DePressigny, her companion, supported and accompanied her in this human and artistic renaissance. “For this show, it was necessary to ensure all the corners of a post-traumatic reconstruction”, explains the one who is also the drummer of the group Feu! Chatterton. “It goes through a lot of different emotions. Hard emotions like pain, anger, sadness, but also a lot of absurd, funny, beautiful, poetic scenes”.

Alice Barraud and Raphaël De Pressigny in MEMM at the Festival (Des)Illusions 2022. (C. Behr / France Televisions)

Music made it possible to transcend this sometimes “heavy” matter, to digest it. “His music offered me to release things that I couldn’t say with words, especially on the theme of disability”. emphasizes Alice Barraud. “By moving, I was able to express with the body what I needed to say”.

Today, Alice divides her life as an artist between MEMM, and two other showsLes Dodos with the company Little Cirkas well as Piano On The Wire the company The smallest circus in the world.

“MEMM – Wrong Place, Wrong Time”. March 20 at 5 p.m. Montfort Theater (Paris 15th) as part of the Fsummer (Des)Illusions 2022. March 26 and 27 at Varia Theater in Brussels as part of the Up Festival