OUR STORY

Vau de Vire Society has ravaged and titillated live entertainment for more than 20 years, causing jaws to drop in awe and admiration around the world. The group has been cross-pollinating genres by collaborating with an eclectic variety of world-renowned musicians and DJs in creating original stage shows and festival productions spanning social barriers.

Attending a Vau de Vire Society event is akin to stepping into an interactive circus where all layers of pretension are discarded at the door. The common two-dimensional wall between audience and performer is shattered by VdV artists emerging within the crowd, performing thematic roaming vignettes. The audience and performer become a single force, creating an art-filled environment providing all in attendance a safe haven to indulge fantasies of running away with the circus…if even for the night. No matter the genre they infiltrate with their unique brand of circus theatrics, the Vau de Vire Society creates a live choreographed explosion of all that is beautifully talented.

Vau de Vire Society performers and crew

COLLABORATIONS

Cirque du Soleil
Tiesto
James Brown
50 Cent
Wyclef Jean
Velvet Revolver
The Cure
The Crystal Method
San Francisco Symphony
Paul Oakenfold
Moby
Paul Van Dyke
The Dresden Dolls
Peaches
The Alkaline Trio
Fishbone
The Madd Vibe Orchestra

Founders

Born in 1997 to proud parents Mike and Shannon Gaines, Vau de Vire has its origins in the vaudeville and circus performance traditions of Normandy, France, modernized with healthy doses of wild whimsy, playful irreverence, saucy sizzle, and contemporary tools and technology.

Mike and Shannon (he directs and produces the events, and she choreographs their shows) created the Vau de Vire Society within the fertile bowels of the Rose Window Experimental Theater and Art House — a performance and party space they operated from 1997 to 2001 out of a 100-year-old church they purchased in Fort Collins, Colorado. Mike’s background was in film, Shannon was a dancer, and the world they created for themselves was decidedly counterculture.

The Gaines adventure moved to San Francisco over 20 years ago, quickly set down firm, unique roots, and propelled Vau de Vire Society into the Pantheon of the vibrant and internationally renowned Bay Area circus scene as key leaders in its development and expression. What originated 24 years ago as a grass-roots, subculture circus movement has now blossomed into a world-renowned performance and event-services company traveling and entertaining the world with a perpetually new breed of avant circus antics and world-class production prowess.

Mike & Shannon Gaines - Co-founders of Vau de Vire Society and Vau de Vire Entertainment

OUR STORY

Vau de Vire Society has ravaged and titillated live entertainment for more than 20 years, causing jaws to drop in awe and admiration around the world. The group has been cross-pollinating genres by collaborating with an eclectic variety of world-renowned musicians and DJs in creating original stage shows and festival productions spanning social barriers.

Attending a Vau de Vire Society event is akin to stepping into an interactive circus where all layers of pretension are discarded at the door. The common two-dimensional wall between audience and performer is shattered by VdV artists emerging within the crowd, performing thematic roaming vignettes. The audience and performer become a single force, creating an art-filled environment providing all in attendance a safe haven to indulge fantasies of running away with the circus…if even for the night. No matter the genre they infiltrate with their unique brand of circus theatrics, the Vau de Vire Society creates a live choreographed explosion of all that is beautifully talented.

Vau de Vire Society performers and crew

COLLABORATIONS

Cirque du Soleil
Tiesto
James Brown
50 Cent
Wyclef Jean
Velvet Revolver
The Cure
The Crystal Method
San Francisco Symphony
Paul Oakenfold
Moby
Paul Van Dyke
The Dresden Dolls
Peaches
The Alkaline Trio
Fishbone
The Madd Vibe Orchestra

Founders

Mike & Shannon Gaines - Co-founders of Vau de Vire Society and Vau de Vire Entertainment

Born in 1997 to proud parents Mike and Shannon Gaines, Vau de Vire has its origins in the vaudeville and circus performance traditions of Normandy, France, modernized with healthy doses of wild whimsy, playful irreverence, saucy sizzle, and contemporary tools and technology.

Mike and Shannon (he directs and produces the events, and she choreographs their shows) created the Vau de Vire Society within the fertile bowels of the Rose Window Experimental Theater and Art House — a performance and party space they operated from 1997 to 2001 out of a 100-year-old church they purchased in Fort Collins, Colorado. Mike’s background was in film, Shannon was a dancer, and the world they created for themselves was decidedly counterculture.

The Gaines adventure moved to San Francisco over 20 years ago, quickly set down firm, unique roots, and propelled Vau de Vire Society into the Pantheon of the vibrant and internationally renowned Bay Area circus scene as key leaders in its development and expression. What originated 24 years ago as a grass-roots, subculture circus movement has now blossomed into a world-renowned performance and event-services company traveling and entertaining the world with a perpetually new breed of avant circus antics and world-class production prowess.