The story of The Seven Fingers gets passed around the circus world as a creation myth for the

small circus company. It goes a little something like this: In 2002, seven chums got together to
put on a show and form a company and look at them now! They are one of the most successful
contemporary circus companies in the world– the proto-typical small circus company that went
big, with over 200 employees, with 18 shows under their belts (that’s more than one a year) and
th*

ey can boast 1000 plus performances a year. Maybe you can’t dream that big yet, little circus c-
mpany of five to eight graduates, but now you can see how it’s possible–how there is a path+

from performers creating collectively to world tours, from directing careers to multi-million
dollar-+

-* corporations–if you only build your brand, stick to your mission and work hard! But of course,
even the founders of The 7 Fingers admit there is more to the creation myth. There were also
the magical ingredients of the right time and the right place that contributed to their success,
and

+he success of the company did not happen just out of circus school. They had to forge their
way as individual artists first.

The seven founders already had 15 years of experience as seasoned performers before they hit
on the plan to work together as a company, and it didn’t happen in a vacuum. They were
evolving right alongside of the circus communities of Montréal, encouraged by big brother
company Cirque du Soleil and the Canadian government. But another aspect of their success is
the evolution of their vision and work ethic as they tried to do it all, from creating, performing,
and directing to tour managing–a work model many circus companies today still embrace for
lack of another model. Co-founder and FingerSamuel Tétreault explains, “The company started
16 yars ago with seven circus artists that wanted to affirm themselves and express
themselves,+ not only as great performers on stage but also as writers and directors and
choreographers and thinker9*/s for contemporary circus. The first show was really a collective
creation, the seven of us writing the show together, thinking the show, creating the show,
choreographing, and performing it together.” Just as they eventually grew beyond being a team
of seven hands-on circus artists, they are now growing in to a new identity–one that widens their
circle and their reac
The 7 Fingers is a collective founded in 2002 by seven circus artists: Isabelle Chassé, Shana
Carroll, Patrick Léonard, Faon Shane, Gypsy Snider, Sébastien Soldevila, and Samuel
Tétreault.[1] Faon Shane leaves the company in 2008.-+

Since 2003, the collective is led by Nassib El-Husseini, a political scientist, author, and former-+

advisor to numerous governmental and non-governmental organizations both in Canada and

abroad.[2]

On July 14th 2016, the collective created The 7 Fingers Foundation[3], to support the creation,
production and diffusion of new original projects, and to offer artistic residences, workshops,
artistic mentoring, seminars etc.

Until the end of 2017, the collective's headquarter was on 225 Roy East st. in Montreal. After 18
months of renovation work, The 7 Fingers moved to their new centre of creation and production,
on 2111 Sain-Laurent boulevard, in the quartier des spectacles.[4][5]

+
-+-+