Till innehåll
Foto: Sara P Borgström
Foto: Sara P Borgström
CirkusExpo 2024

Programme

Registration 2025

Here you can read all you need to know about the registration for CirkusExpo 2025.

Programme 2025

Here you can find information about all the seminars, pitch sessions, live performances and mingling with participating presenters and circus companies.

Practical information 2025

Here you will get knowledge on travel, accommodation and other practical information regarding CirkusExpo 2025.

Partners 2025

Here you can read more about CirkusExpo's partners.

CirkusExpo February 13–16

CirkusExpo – seminars, pitch sessions and mingling with companies, presenters and other people active in circus in Sweden, the Nordic countries and the world!

Expo ♥ Mania  
CirkusExpo and the festival CirkusMania collaborate to offer a wide program during these days with the opportunity to experience a large number of live performances, mingle and parties!  

CirkusExpo – detailed programme

CirkusExpo2025_program_fargkodning.png

CirkusExpo at Riksteatern – detailed programme

Friday, February 14  

Kl. 11.30–12.45: Registration/lunch  

Kl. 13.00–13.30: Welcome to CirkusExpo 2025  

Seminar 1: Touring Models in Contemporary Circus: Exploring Collaborative Strategies  
Kl. 13.30–14.15 (45 minutes) 
A focused seminar on innovative collaborative touring models in the contemporary circus. This discussion will highlight how different initiatives—ranging from regional to international—are successfully organizing tours through strategic partnerships and collaboration.  

Panel 
Henning Wideberg – Cirkus i Väst Project Leader
Pernilla Appelqvist – Cirkusnätverket Project Leader  
Julien Auger – Circus I Love You, Artistic Director  
Salla Kurronen – International Co-Production Network W/, Project Leader
Gitta Malling – Danish Arts Foundation, Chair of the Committee for Performing Arts Project Funding
 

Kl. 14.15–15.00: Coffee break  

Seminar 2: Crafting Dramaturgy Through Scenography 
Kl. 15.00-16:00 (1 hour)
This seminar invites you into a captivating dialogue with Camille Boitel, a visionary artist who transforms everyday life into extraordinary performances. Together, we’ll explore how scenography in contemporary circus evolves into a driving force of dramaturgy—how space, objects, and apparatus shape not only the narrative but also the audience’s experience of the art form.

About Camille Boitel
As a child, Camille Boitel stumbled into the world of performance after accidentally dyeing his hair fiery red. What began as a way to overcome crippling shyness blossomed into a lifelong pursuit of transforming the fragility into a performance.

Camille uses everyday objects as props. His first piece involved standing on the neck of a wine bottle while spinning on his axis. Later, constrained by limited resources, he began using spectators as props, apparatus, and scenic space.

Passionate about puppetry but lacking puppets—and fascinated by the invisible presence of puppeteers—he brought life to anything that could move. Chairs, armchairs, suitcases, and everyday objects became his partners, forming poetic duets. Since the age of 12, he has been developing a very personnal style of “real mime,” merging movement and storytelling.

No longer using traditional circus-specific objects, Camille creates a "circus out of life"—one that reflects the essence of people’s everyday existence. Collaborating with the Thierrée-Chaplin family, he co-created La symphonie du Hanneton, which toured internationally. His works, including L’Homme de Hus (2002) and LIimmédiat (2007), reimagine the role of found and decaying objects as central narrative elements.

Continuously pushing boundaries, Boitel explores the relationship between space, objects, and the audience. His recent experiments include juggling 3,000 balls with a single catch, unannounced public performances, and site-specific works that turn streets into stages—creating levitation out of everyday life.

Preview 1:
Company: Blauwal Company
Kl. 16.00–16.15 (15 minutes) 

Blauwal Company is a deep dive in physical exploration, site specific creation and teeterboard innovation. Through our practice we are continuously exploring an unknown biome of rhythm and comedy based on a foundation of trust, individuality and relentless effort. 

Blauwal consists of four teeterboard practitioners, with diverse voices, who graduated Stockholm University of the Arts 2024.

In between fast paced energy and slow breaths, Blauwal is floating into the open and bringing you along for the experience.

Kl. 16.15–17.15: Mingle  

Preview 2: Händel på händer 
Company: Art from Circusheart & Balans-resonans  
Kl. 17.15–18.15 (1 hour) 
This is a  work-in-progress presentation of the performance  

Händel på händer is a circus musical opera adventure for the whole family. To the music of George Frideric Handel, circus artists, musicians and opera singers take the audience on a dramatic journey through fire, water, air and earth, exploring the differences and symbiotic interaction between the elements.  

Ensemblen Balans-resonans is an artist collective started on the initiative of circus director Tilde Björfors, opera singer Thomas Volle and cellist Mime Brinkman. 

Together, the three take the artistic lead to experiment and playfully develop what can arise in the meeting between the art forms of opera, music, circus and visual art. Händel på händer is their first project together.  

Ensemble Balance-resonance
Director: Tilde Björfors  
Thomas Volle: Tenor  
Sandra Marteleur: Violin  
Arsema Asghodom: Violin  
Mime Brinkmann: Cello  
Jan Unestam: Balloonist, balloon artist  
Nelli Kujansivu: Feet juggler  
Louise Bjurholm: Acrobat  
Henrik Agger: Acrobat  

Kl. 18.15–19.30: Evening meal  

Performance: Lotta & Stina: 20 years later, still here!   
Kl. 19.30–20.40 (70 minutes) 

2 women, 23 years, 23 countries, 10 000 shows, 5 broken bones, 2 000 dickheads, 1 cancelled show. This is the starting point of an autobiographical performance about two women´s wild joyride through two decades of circus arts.   

From the glitz and glamour to countless hours of practice, blood, sweat and tears. In 20 years later, still here!, the circus artists Lotta Paavilainen and Stina Kopra share the highs and lows of a life in showbusiness. The performance is both a love letter to live audiences, and a tribute to a long-lasting friendship between two women. 

Lotta Paavilainen and Stina Kopra began working together with the circus discipline of rola-bola in 2001 in Finland. At the Belgian circus education École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque, they dedicated three years to refining their technique. They are the only female duo in the world performing acrobatics on rola-bola. Despite being told that they are too short, too heavy, too this, and too that, they have proven the opposite for twenty years.  

By and with: Lotta Paavilainen och Stina Kopra  
Co-directors:  Heidi Niemi, Troels Hagen Findsen  
Costume design: Enna Paavilainen  
Light design: Vilma Vantola  
Sound design: Satu Kankkonen, Palle Nothlev  

Saturday, February 15  

Kl. 09.30–10.00: Check in 

Preview 3:
Kl. 10.00–10.40 (40 minutes) 

Preview: Föra & Följa
Company: The Vessel

Föra & Följa is a children's performance by circus artist Sarah Lett and folk musician Thea Åslund. The performance explores themes of self-confidence and individuality, displaying the ebb and flow of a relationship with oneself. Inspired by Norse mythology’s Fylgja—a spirit closely tied to a person's fate and fortune—the duo appears as two sides of the same person, weaving together circus arts, folk, and electronic music, and inviting the audience to embrace and celebrate all aspects of their identity.  

Preview: Football Dramatics 
Company: Sirqus Alfon
Football Dramatics
is an interactive family show that explores the cultural power of football through theater, dance, and circus. It celebrates iconic moments—goal celebrations, fan rituals, and referee calls—inviting the audience to join in and shape the experience. Developed with input from football-loving youth, it aims to reach new audiences. 
 

Pitchsession 1  
Kl. 11.00 –12.15 (75 minutes)  
Presentation of projects from Sweden, Denmark and Finland. 

Kl. 12.15 –13.15: Lunch  

Pitchsession 2  
Kl. 13.15 –14.30 (75 minutes)  
Presentation of projects from Sweden, Denmark and Finland. 

Kl. 14.30 –16.00: Coffee break   

Preview 4: Cirqus Hialøs 
Company: Ent
Kl. 15.00–15.30 (30 minutes) 
Energetic and contemporary circus with very old music, more faithful to tradition than tradition itself. Based on Hialøsa’s interpretations of Scanian very old pop, this music and circus performance moves between the controlled and the chaotic. Halfway into national romanticism, the aesthetic stumbles and the unforeseen takes its place. A pseudo-authentic old Scanian party takes place and physical, emotional and musical possibilities are explored. Cirqus Hialøs drifts between life, dance and death.   
 
A show for all ages, families and backgrounds.   
No language needs to be understood.  
 
Artistic directors on stage: Lalla la Cour, Simon Wiborn, Malte Zeberg, Alva Bosdottir, Love Aamås Kjellsson, Karoline Aamås, Eivind Øverland, Andreya Ek Frisk.  

Performance: Lotta & Stina: 20 years later, still here!   
Kl. 16.00–17.10 (70 minutes) 

2 women, 23 years, 23 countries, 10 000 shows, 5 broken bones, 2 000 dickheads, 1 cancelled show. This is the starting point of an autobiographical performance about two women´s wild joyride through two decades of circus arts.   

From the glitz and glamour to countless hours of practice, blood, sweat and tears. In 20 years later, still here!, the circus artists Lotta Paavilainen and Stina Kopra share the highs and lows of a life in showbusiness. The performance is both a love letter to live audiences, and a tribute to a long-lasting friendship between two women. 

Lotta Paavilainen and Stina Kopra began working together with the circus discipline of rola-bola in 2001 in Finland. At the Belgian circus education École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque, they dedicated three years to refining their technique. They are the only female duo in the world performing acrobatics on rola-bola. Despite being told that they are too short, too heavy, too this, and too that, they have proven the opposite for twenty years. 

By and with: Lotta Paavilainen och Stina Kopra  
Co-directors:  Heidi Niemi, Troels Hagen Findsen  
Costume design: Enna Paavilainen  
Light design: Vilma Vantola  
Sound design: Satu Kankkonen, Palle Nothlev  

Kl. 17.15 –18.30: Evening meal 

The selected projects presented in the form of pitch sessions are: 

Below Zero (SWE): In Praise of Shadows

Circus I love you AB (SWE): Fun n°1

Petri Dish (SWE): Kyo Ru Gi

In2iT (SWE): Ustopia

Regina Baumann (SWE): Klädställningen

Grind art club/Vejde Mischa (SWE): OPA FASHION

Cirkus Cirkör (SWE): The Extraordinary History of Circus

M.P.A.C. (SWE): FAIL AWAY

Arctic Ensemble (FIN): Ensembled

Sisus (FIN): Yes Person

Race Horse Company (FIN): The replaceables

Sirkus Aikamoinen (FIN): ”V”

Cirkus Grand Danois (DEN): Grand Danois

Cph. Collective (DEN): The Genesis

Out of Balanz (DEN): TURBULENCE

Marie Asplund (SWE): A Forgotten Home