Programme

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

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 explores how scenography in contemporary circus evolves into an apparatus itself, guiding the dramaturgy and redefining the performance space. By examining the foundational role of apparatus and spatial design, this session offers insights into the essence of circus, revealing how scenographic elements shape both narrative and the audience’s understanding of the art form. 

Panel
TBD  

Preview 1: A Forgotten Home  
Company: Marie Asplund  
Kl. 16.00–16.15 (15 minutes) 
Marie Asplund is a 22 year old circus artist specializing in aerial fabric and recently graduated from Stockholm University of the Arts. She combines dynamic techniques and flexibility, inspired by her bond with the fabric—strong yet fragile. Her recent work expands into crochet and fiber art. A Forgotten Home, her first solo project, explores our original home: the womb. Using worn-out fabrics she once climbed, Marie crochets a womb to capture the feeling of floating within it. She invites you to imagine this forgotten space, blending movement and fabric in a recreated world of lost memories. Made from fabric and created by hands. In this preview she is inviting you to join this world and imagine with her.   

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: Photo 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: Footballs 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

Sirqus Alfon (SWE): Football Dramatics

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): Spare Your Darlings

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