Daring to jump

Tilde Björfors is the artistic director and founder of Cirkus Cirkör. She originally trained as an actor, but encountering the contemporary circus Cirque du Soleil in France set her on a different path. She liked the notions of danger and of pushing boundaries that were present in a form of circus based on physical circus skills while also emphasizing artistic qualities. So she jumped in – precisely because she was afraid to do so.

– When you choose to face fear instead of avoiding it, the world expands. Choosing to work with art is moving into the unknown, because creating is choosing not to know. And our greatest fear is something we do not know: death. The circus is a special art form, where people choose to work so close to death, she says.

Cirkus Cirkör uses musicians in a different way than traditional circuses. In the Festival performance ‘Inside Out’ they collaborate with the band Irya’s Playground, which performs as an independent and sometimes competing voice in a performance about something as simple as life.

– When I created this performance, I wanted to look for the soul of the circus. ‘Inside Out’ it’s about daring to jump. About living in the present, and living near your heart, says Björfors.

See the video: Circus Cirkör featuring Irya's Playground: Inside Out