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René Bazinet

René Bazinet
Studio Workshop.jpg
Bazinet at a studio workshop in Montreal, Canada, 2002
Born René Fiener
1955 (age 61–62)
Bochum, Germany
Nationality German
Occupation Clown, mime, actor

René Bazinet (born 1955) is a German-Canadian clown, mime, and stage and film actor. He is known for his work with Cirque du Soleil, first as a performing artist touring extensively with Saltimbanco, and later as the clown act creator and acting consultant for the show as well as for Cirque du Soleil's 2011 production Zarkana. He has also starred in shows at the Berlin Wintergarten and the Circus Roncalli.

Bazinet was born René Fiener (his mother's surname) in Bochum, Germany. His father was Willy Dege, a cabaret and variety artist. When he was 14, his mother married a Canadian military police officer, Sgt. Major Bazinet, who adopted him, and the family emigrated to Canada. After completing high school in Montreal, Bazinet studied theatre at John Abbott College in Quebec. One of his teachers there, who had studied with Jacques Lecoq, recognized Bazinet's talent for mime and devised a one-man show for him.

On his teacher's recommendation he was accepted at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and in 1978 left for Paris. There he was particularly influenced by the master clown Philippe Gaulier. It was through Gaulier that Bazinet made his first appearance in Germany, playing Harlequin in a 1980 Gaulier show at the . Jorge Zulueta and Jacobo Romano, the founders of Grupo Accion Instrumental, saw his Frankfurt performances and offered him a job writing and performing in their theatre productions for Paris, Graz, and the Venice Biennale. When he left the Grupo Accion ensemble in 1982, he reconnected with Philippe Gaulier, who had opened his own school with the actress . Bazinet did further studies in theatrical movement with Pagneux and worked as a street performer in Paris, often in the plaza of the Pompidou Center.


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