The 12th Young Stage International Circus Festival is to be presented in person in Basel, Switzerland from November 5-9, compliant with COVID-19 regulations.  20 artists from 12 countries bring their exciting and diverse stories on stage. The performers will be evaluated by an expert jury and judged for the opportunity to win prizes and engagement opportunities. Let’s meet this year’s artists!

FLYING POLE – MINNIE KIM, KOREA

«I am from Korea which is the only divided country that has left for now in the world. I’ve always wanted to bring peace to the world though my work. I sometimes wish I were a bird and could cross the border to where I’d never be able to visit.»

With her act «Song of the Birds», Minnie tells a touching story. The music is composed by Pau Casals, a Spanish cellist who fought against injustice with his music and who wanted to bring freedom and peace to the world through his music. Minnie also wants to bring peace to the world through her artistic work: «I am from Korea, which is the only divided country that has been left for now in the world. I sometimes wish I would be a bird and could cross the border to places where I’d never be able to visit. I wish for no war, I wish for freedom», she says.

PARTNER ACROBATICS – MARIO (DE), BRITT (NL) & TIJS (BE)

«Once we commit to something, we are also becoming vulnerable because we limit our options.»

The trio Knot on Hands illustrates the physical dimension of partner acrobatics with their act «Brace of Impact». The fragile balance of their act, in which every move of the three partners has to be right in order so that they don’t get out of balance. At the same time, the meaning also alludes on a metaphorical level to interpersonal relationships that are built on the same balancing act. The trio combines artistic technique at its best with a profound message: «We enjoy how our work can be enjoyed by a group of schoolchildren who come to see a ‘circus’ just as much as by a group of adults coming to see an art show.»

AERIAL HOOP – DIEGO SALLES, BRASIL

«This act is for the heart. It’s one’s heart immersion.»

The act «Symposium» is an impressive artistic interpretation of love and represents different stages of love, which is why the music of the act is also a mix of the music of three different artists. «Symposium» is an act for the heart, an immersion in one’s heart. And it is based on the «Socrates Symposium», in which the meaning, the beginning and the reasons for the feeling of love are discussed.

HAIR HANG DUO – CHARLOTTE (CAN) & PENELOPE (A)

«We knew that the combination of ours skills had the potential to become something unique that people had never seen before.»

In Charlotte’s first year of circus school, she had heard a song during a creative workshop in 2008 and always wanted to save it for a special future performance: And now, the moment of this special performance is here. Aside from their goal to create seamless transitions, they have the challenge to execute synchronized sequences while Charlotte hanging on Penelope’s hair and they can’t see each other.

EQUILIBRISTICS/CONTORTION – KALLE PIKKUHARJU, FINLAND

«The spectrum of human emotions is very wide: It is impossible to say where one emotion ends and the other begins. This piece really resembles the complexity of our emotions. In our sadness we still have hope and strength for the future.»

In his act, Kalle combines traditional and dynamic moves, which are unusual for contortion. Also his music highlights this contrast. «My act expresses the contrast between the way I move and the tricks I do, but also the contrast and complexity of music and emotions.» Kalle expresses his passion for psychology in his creative work. «Some people find contortion very freaky and scary, others beautiful and aesthetic.»

DANCE ACROBATICS – GUILLAUME (CAN) & ARTHUR (F)

« Il s’agit d’une pièce contre l’homophobie, mais qui va au-delà en délivrant un message prônant l’acceptation de toute forme d’amour.»

Guillaume and Arthur collaborated with Matthew Richardson, who was inspired by them. Together, they have created a piece against homophobia but also something that goes beyond to deliver a message which expresses the acceptance of any form of love. For the two of them, the most difficult part of their act will be the fact of feeling very vulnerable on stage as they will be sharing something very personal and intimate with the audience.

DUO TRAPEZE – MAXIME & CORENTIN (CAN)

«Deux garçons qui sont captivés, fascinés par leur petit objet qui illumine l’univers qui les entoure. C’est la vie, c’est leur imagination.»

Maxime and Corentin know each other since they are 11 resp. 12 years old. Since the beginning, they have always wanted to try different things and to push the discipline to its limit. «Being two guys on a trapeze is already uncommon, and we wanted to use that to our advantage by creating a relationship outside of the love story archetype», they say. Their act contains technical sequences that demand an enormous amount of energy and concentration. They also have our lightbulb that must be manipulated by another person. «From a certain perspective our number is actually a trio act. Additionally, sometimes the movements and path of the lightbulb are a bit random, so we don’t have full control over what will happen.»

CYR WHEEL – MIKAIL KARAHAN, GERMANY

«Ich mag das Scheitern. Ich mag das Problem. Es stellt den Prozess in Frage. Der Prozess führt zum Fortschritt. Und der Rest ist Glück.»

With iT SOCKS! Mikail created a performance dedicated to the feeling of being too late: Between imbalance and possible falls, he is challenging physical boundaries. «Having the chance to open up yourself, allowing yourself to also be fragile and just human is what I am looking for. Surprising yourself and dealing with the unexpected is what I am seeking for.»

DIABOLO – CHUN-HUANG CHANG, TAIWAN

«I want my performance to give people a sense of chasing dreams.»

The source of the story of Chang’s performance is his own dream, his passion for the performance art with the diabolo: «I would like my performance to give people a sense of chasing their dreams, and to make the audience feel touching emotions through my performance. » With his music choice, Chang wants people to experience a visual and auditory resonance through the mood and melody of the lyrics.

TIGHT WIRE/PARKOUR – JOEL K. MALKOFF, USA

«The credit belongs to the man who knows great enthusiasm, great devotion, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.»

Joel’s act «Eat Your Ashes» draws from many subjects that are dear to his heart into an artistic and expressive performance: His personal search for positive expressions of masculinity, the metaphorical ascension from the earth to the sky and the artistic unification of opposing forces. «Tight Wire had attracted me immediately. I found it poetic and inspiring and I liked that it is something very special also in the circus world, not many people practice it. That signaled to me that there might be some unexplored territory.»

MAGIC, OBJECT MANIPULATION & MOVEMENT – LUKAS BRANDL, GERMANY

«Das Dilemma eines Mannes, der sich in einer bizarren Welt verloren hat, aus der es scheinbar keinen Ausweg gibt. Kontrollverlust oder gar Ohnmacht?»

Lukas’ performance is inspired by the subjects of loss of control and powerlessness. «The protagonist is a mirror of our selves in the hopeless handling of what at first appears to be useful and finally becomes a curse», says Lukas.Unlike most magicians, he decided that the protagonist is the victim of the magic and not a powerful magician. The magic effects tell a story and are not pure entertainment.

JUGGLING DANCE – KONSTANTIN KOROSTYLENKO, UKRAINE

«The stage is my life and I’ve always liked risk. Juggling is a very big risk.»

In his performance, Konstantin combines juggling and dancing, which is a very challenging combination when juggling with ten balls. He has always liked the risk, as he says: «Juggling is a very big risk, the most exciting is when you get to do a difficult trick in front of the audience.»

CLUB JUGGLING – VASYL & STEPAN (UKR)

«Just do what you love. We love to make objects fly.»

A few years ago, the two brothers decided to create something modern and cool, they started to work ambitiously on this idea from then on. “The story is short: Just do what you like to do – and you will see the results of your creation.” Vasyl and Stepan have even created their own music with a music app.

HULA HOOP – LAURA SAVOLAINEN, FINLAND

«Sometimes you find yourself thinking how crazy it may sound that you first spend hundreds or thousands of hours training to shine for a few minutes. But at the same time I think that it describes exactly how much I love performing.»

Laura’s act was created around the idea of having 7 hoops on stage. «I wanted to be able to perform my act completely independently, without the help of assistants. For this reason, I had to have my hoops on stage from the very beginning.» Laura is following a quite traditional dramaturgy, as the amount of hoops used is increasing towards the end of the act. She mixes this setup with contemporary impacts in her movement qualities and in her music.