360° Shorts: Purple, neon, and existential

Circus acts are traditionally performed in a ring. It was within the circle, the hippodrome, where horses could run and audiences could gather. Later in history, this also meant using a circus tent, where the magic happened. This is still true, of course, but in contemporary circus, the form is much more multidisciplinary and elusive regarding where and how it is performed. Indoors, outdoors, in theatres, or at site-specific locations, circus acts are now adaptable and fluid.

At the same time, the current performing arts market seems to mainly direct artists to create solo or duo shows, whether due to society's increasing individualisation or for practical and financial reasons. Often in circus creations, individualisation can create meaning and depth. A circus duo or solo act combines the specific qualities of its performers, shaping personal characters directly from the creator's imagination, with the support of a partner, which could be an apparatus, another performer, or both.

During the natural progression from professional circus schools to the job market, what is often asked of students for their graduation act is a brief personal performance that demonstrates their mastery of a specific discipline, thus showcasing their specialisation. This final act acts as a rite of passage, something existential to them, something unique and characteristic of their identity, which can be performed as a short piece. In some ways, it represents their first professional solo work. 

Bringing all these elements together, 360° Shorts is the distinctive format that the CircusDanceFestival in Cologne (June 6-8) presented to its audience. The festival's goal is to explore the 360° dimension for solo or duo circus creations with a duration of 10-15 minutes. This format debuted in 2023, and CircusDanceFestival released a new call for 2025, receiving over 300 applications from around the world. The 2025 jury committee has been composed of the festival’s artistic director, Tim Behren, and the production manager, Luzie Schwarz, with Valentina Barone and the international guest jury member 2025, the dancer, choreographer and director Kitt Johnson. 

Nine acts were selected, with three being presented each day of the festival. Coming from several countries and representing different approaches to dance, combined with various circus disciplines, these short acts formed the heartbeat of the festival. Whether on the ground or in the air, whether spectacular or political, humorous or avant-garde, the 360° Shorts revealed many identities that can coexist within current European creators. On this occasion, I would describe it as purple, neon and existential. 

360° SHORTS DAY 1

Aapo Honkanen – My head is heavy, and it hurts (FI)

An act situated in the head, literally and figuratively. The artist appears on stage as one with the cyr wheel, balancing it on his head. He is occupied by overthinking, shame, and judgment. He’s asking himself:  ‘How heavy are my thoughts? Lack of self-confidence, trauma, mangoes, loneliness... All that, in my head.’ He uses the cyr wheel as a powerful metaphor; when it becomes his head, he is at its mercy, controlled by heavy cyclical thoughts. In contrast, when he is mastering the discipline, he is using his head to take control of it. We’re following his path to freedom and the search for his identity, disentangling various existential questions about what it means to be a man, an artist, a person. He uses the image of a thick jacket gifted to him by his dad, and feels trapped by it. ‘Be a man and wear the jacket’, he says, talking to himself. Throughout the piece, we see Aapo forcing a smile as if from a place of pain or fear while he overcomes these barriers. We’re witnesses to his first steps as he faces us, the world, and himself, in a sensitive, timid, and tentative character. The ending is a delightful, subtle satire of every dysfunctional family relationship, in which Aapo does not know whether to get rid of the now useless jacket or his invisible head, which he tries to decapitate with the cyr wheel. My head is heavy, and it hurts was Aapo’s graduation act from ESAC in Brussels in 2024.

Duo Bau - Doppie Punte (IT)

A strange creature walks on stage. It is slowly stretching its muscles and exploring movement in a unique connection between two bodies and a braided plait. Two women explore what it means to create a connection between them. Something we’re all striving for, connection, is their point of departure, as they test trust and the internal silent communication necessary for every movement. Their hair is braided together, which paradoxically establishes a strong connection and, at the same time, creates physical limitations. For every movement, there has to be a sign of communication, whether agreement or disagreement, and every particle of the whole needs to be ready and listening. Using the contrast of connection and limitation, the duo revisits movements and patterns from acrobatics, acro-dance, physical theatre and clowning, to create surprising figures. Maria and Sole of Duo Bau explained that Doppie Punte stems from their desire to explore the essence of human relationships, their complexity, fragility and the impact they have on our lives. Who would we be without others? The embodied ambivalence towards the need for cooperation with the other becomes performative: as individuals or as one body creature, Duo Bau is covering/mirroring/supplementing the space the other body leaves behind. Doppie Punte is intended to be a full-length show which will premiere in 2026.

Arnau Pérez Company – Vibra! (ES)

Is couple dancing still a thing? Specific dance styles can be special for meeting someone and sharing intuition, synchronisation, clear communication, and awareness of the vibrations between the bodies of the two partners, as they become one. With Vibra! Arnau Pérez Company is romantically bringing dancing couples back to pop culture and reinventing it through their vibrations. Dressed in completely cartoonish white costumes, the two dancers on stage claim to come from a remote future and have developed a machine that can recognise the inner individual time of the participants through the frequency of their vibrations. As they say, they are reaching for a point of unity between the temporality and the personal rhythm of every participant. The duo becomes one as they create a common time and space. Vibra! has a circus attitude in a modern ballet, with codes of street style and popular Latin music. They then take some time to slowly meet and dance together, while the audience gets in sync with their rhythm. They are intimate and playful with extravagant moments, as their connection is palpable. Gradually, the stage opens up to the audience, and a shared atmosphere is created, full of shared temporalities and vibrations. A liberating experience for anyone involved.

360° SHORTS DAY 2

Les Têtes Chromées - Chaos-oscillateur (FR)

Chaos-oscillateur is an invitation by Les Têtes Chromées to a hypnotic journey between the clouds. The duo performs the rare classical circus discipline of Washington trapeze in a contemporary expression. They explore the tension between the pendulum of the two trapezes and their two bodies. They are contemplative and slow, using various exercises on the ground and in the air, balancing one by one, or simultaneously, on their hands and head, while flying through the air on the trapezes. Combining these elements with electronic and experimental music composition, they bring the audience into a slow trance and a hypnotic experience, which is further accentuated by the weather conditions on a slightly windy and rainy afternoon. Instead of being deterred by it, they take advantage of the situation, slipping into our collective dreams and making us feel like witnesses to something important, as they encourage each other and trust the flight. Chaos-oscillateur is being developed into a full-length show.

Leles – Emotional Balance (BR)

Leles is a unique, quirky hybrid animal that comes on stage to speak about Emotional Balance. It is a phoque(seal) and a flamingo that knows that life is unbearable if we cannot express our emotions. Just like a flamingo is using ’no muscular effort’ to stand on one leg, Leles is showing the audience how ‘no muscular effort’ is required to do a one-arm handstand on canes. Leles is a handbalancer and a contortionist who uses this clownesque caricature to speak about emotions, while questioning the circus’s tendency to do ‘moves for claps’, just like a phoque does. This hybrid animal is ironic, funny, and very skilful, dancing like classic russian ballerinas and mocking moves that ‘need to seem effortless’. At the same time, it speaks volumes of an existential path towards what is expected from a performer, both traditionally and currently. Emotional Balance is the graduation act of the artist Isabela Leles Amaral from ESAC in 2024.

Sirje Tolonen - Chainsaw Princess (FI)

This chainsaw princess plays with contrasts, combining a calm and confident presence and a costume entirely dressed in pink. She arrives on stage smiling with one hula hoop, almost trotting as she already knows what she will do next, increasing the technical difficulty of her technique. Chainsaw Princess is a powerful and captivating solo that evolves and stays with you, from absolute silence, in which she’s playing around with one hula hoop doing tricks and spinning it around, to a crescendo of destruction with dozens of hula hoops around her body. Combining the routines with heavy metal music sung by a female voice, she looks like a pink witch as she manipulates all the elements and proceeds to kill them softly, one by one, as she deconstructs the act to reach complete silence again, all the way to a classic hula hoop movement. Chainsaw Princess is Sirje Tolonen’s graduation act from ESAC in 2023 and has already performed internationally over 200 times.

360° SHORTS DAY 3

Ellie Barnard - The State (UK)

The State is a solo about a human learning to fly. It haunts us with its unexpected movements, eerie laughter, and low singing ‘’When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.’’ Sometimes comical and scary, and always confronting, Ellie Barnard is trying to make or even force the audience to smile in all kinds of ways. Following a fierce solo on straps, using elbows and unexpected movements that erupt one after the other, she sings to us about war, bombs, and Palestine, reminding us of our spot and perhaps why we should or shouldn’t be smiling. She brings melody to share and to scare: “Here we sit, accepting the silence and ignoring the sirens”. The State is Ellie Barnard’s graduation act from ESAC in 2024.

Tweni Tweni - Miraj (SE)

Starting with a vogue-slap on the face, Miraj is queer-burlesque in high heels and is all about giving and taking power between a bitchy flyer and a remissive porteur. The power dynamics are constantly shifting as the duo’s entities exchange the lead, showing bravery, resilience and physical mastery through impressive and intense hand-to-hand acrobatics, with the audience unable to take their eyes off them. All this while teetering on 9-inch platform heels. Miraj is criticising beauty standards and the ‘’fix yourself’’ mandate, speaking on connection and abandonment existing in all relationships, and the difficulty to bear both personal and shared weight. The theatricality and sassiness are maintained throughout their act, even when both of the flyer’s heels have snapped off. Of course, it was an accident, but the “ejection” of the platforms happened almost in sync for both shoes, which did not break, creating a liberating effect on the performers before freeing the flyer into the air for their last spectacular hand-to-hand figure. After touring for more than ten years, Miraj at CircusDanceFestival was the last ever gig their creators performed together.

Justine Berthillot and Xavier Roumagnac - Desorden (FR)

Neon, rollerblades, and drums are the combined elements of this dark pop-occult ritual performed by Justine Berthillot on roller skates, while Xavier Roumagnac scores the music on drums and electronics. It is a captivating performance that spirals, bringing performer and audience into a trance, as she’s gliding, slipping, defying gravity and playing with balance. Her movement and the music suck all the tension in, giving subtle or more powerful accents and flowing into each other. In Desorden, it is unclear if she’s wandering into the unconscious, lost in her head, in a cloud, a nightmare or is watching us, but the movement succeeds in being both beautiful and intense. At the same time, Xavier Roumagnac’s music is like a pulse, a heartbeat coming through raw and organic. Combined with the sight of Melissa Guex’s Down opening the festival, another solo created by and for a dancer and a drummer, the ending act of the 360° Shorts closed the circle of the festival 2025 performances, a perfect final act in the round, an explosion of vital creative energy, straight to the core of chaos and the acceptation of exhaustion from giving everything out, as circus can envoke.