Our Performances
Cirkör on stage now, then and in the future
Game changing circus since 1995: Dive into our catalogue of performances!
The Extraordinary History of Circus
An odyssey through success and hardship, from the edgy 90s, to the 70s era of elephants and drumrolls, through the huge Barnum & Bailey shows to the birth of the modern circus in 18th-century Paris.
A co-production with Uppsala Stadsteater.
World premiere in Uppsala Stadsteater's theatre tent on July 26, 2025. More information to come.
2024: Tipping Point
Balancing in a Time of Change
Cirkus Cirkör’s performance balances between the display of skill and strength, entertaining and thought-provoking.
Dagens NyheterA circus show that challenges and stretches structures – our human structures and what holds our societies and democracies together. Why do they look the way they do? What keeps them in balance?
Extra Everything
A pedagogical circus show that doesn't skimp on the toppings
Extra Everything is exactly what it sounds like: a colorful, vibrant circus show that doesn't skimp on the toppings. Under the artistic direction of Jesper Nikolajeff, we follow three characters as they enter the circus tent and discover a world where everyone can be themselves.
Knitting Peace
This is contemporary circus built on poetry instead of stories. Wonderfully enjoyable – and with breathless moments witnessing the body's ability.
GöteborgspostenFollow the threads to peace in an elegant stage show that marries breathtaking artistry with beautiful live soundtracks.
A short visit at the rehearsals
An International Peace Movement
During its journey around the world, Knitting Peace has engaged and met
peace knitters who shared their works and thoughts about knitting peace. The amount of knitting that has come in has been overwhelming and it is clear that the combination of circus, striving and knitting has grown into a movement that spans several continents.
Knitting Peace at a museum, party or event
We have created Knitting Peace-inspired and personally tailored performances at, among others, the Nobel Prize Banquet, the Swedish Institute in Paris and the Army Museum in Stockholm.
Foto: Bernhard Ludewig
2023: Våga vakna
Foto: Karin Robérts
A story of collective strength
Via live music, aerial and balance acrobatics and video works, a visual world is created where the artists tackle questions on a micro and macro level about a kinder and more sustainable world.
2022: Trådar & Glas
Threads connect, threads repair and threads tangle. Glass can crash, glass can clank and glass can clink.
"Trådar" and "Glas" are two performing arts experiences beyond the ordinary. We meet jugglers, acrobats and clowns in a vivid video scenography. To chamber music by composers from the Baltic Sea region, our minds are expanded in two magical circus concerts for all people aged 3-100 years.
2022: Pippi at the Circus
Pippi at the Circus has become happy, grand entertainment in magical light with a strong stance for the competent child.
ExpressenBjörn Ulvaues and Cirkus Cirkör take on Astrid Lindgren's super classic in a newly written and spectacular circus musical.
Circus Life
Foto: Jesper Nikolajeff
Circus life is the party of the century: a confetti bomb filled with all the goodies of the circus. Acrobats fly through the air, juggle and perform stunts as if there was no tomorrow.
Circus Life has lived a long life: taking over schools in the early 00s, as a preparty for Pippi at the Circus in the summer of 2022, and as its' own large performance at Parkteatern in 2023.
2021: Circus Days and Nights
Philip Glass turns the circus into opera that’s magical and profound.
L.A. TimesNewly written opera by Philip Glass with libretto by David Henry Hwang and Tilde Björfors, based on a collection of poems by Robert Lax.
Foto: Mats Bäcker
Philip Glass
Philip Glass’ life’s work does not lend itself easily to summary. Reviewing his creative life, what strikes one first is his many collaborations spanning genres and media types.
Robert Lax
According to The New York Times, he was one of America's most important poets. He himself left life in New York to live alone on an island in Greece. Who was Robert Lax?
The Dimensions of Circus
During the rehearsals of Circus Days and Nights we explored the different dimensions of circus.
Foto: Mats Bäcker
Collaboration
Foto: Mats Bäcker
Balance
Foto: Mats Bäcker
Trust
Foto: Mats Bäcker
Failure
2021: Puff
Of course, you can Bungy jump from a hot air balloon!
Puff: A poetic and nerve-wracking tribute to the timeless innovative power of circus art.
2019: God's Disobedient Rib
Circus to attack the church's view of women.
Svenska DagbladetIn the book "God’s Disobedient Rib", the reader follows along as Gunilla Thorgren reads the Bible from her feminist point of view. A large ensemble of circus artists and actors tells the story through words, acrobatics and music.
2019: Bloom
It is so beautifully intertwined, so self-evidently connected that anything else in this life than high somersaults seems unthinkable.
ExpressenIn Bloom, the artists embrace the demands and anxieties of everyday life. With creativity and circus, negative emotions are disarmed and fears become poetry.
2019: Fit In
Three friends in a colourful world are trying to find their own place. Maybe they are different colours or even a mixture of everything?
2018: Epifónima
Magnificent celebration of the raw female power.
Dagens NyheterFemale values can change the world. Epifónima was inspired by women's struggles throughout history and celebrates the values traditionally seen as feminine.
A performance with women
Director Tilde Björfors talks (in Swedish) about the choice to create a show with and by female artists.
2017: Under
… a visually magnificent performance in which the fall, the hope and the insistent struggle are recurring.
Svenska DagbladetSeven people crash. Seven people, in the middle of the world, dreaming the ancient dream to manoeuver in and finally conquer the sky. It is about the wish to tame the untamable.
2017: Movements
The testimonies of the refugees come alive in physical poetry
Svenska DagbladetIn a touching, sensitive work, Movements uses acrobatics, storytelling and physical theatre to explore the human connection in extreme times. Movements follows the real journeys of displaced people who arrived in Malmö during the autumn of 2015 and the volunteers who were there to greet them.
Refuge and hope
Cocky commitment is our first core value. To question, explore, challenge and critically examine. Therefore, it is also essential for us to work with activism in various ways far outside the stage.
2016: Satyagraha
Tilde Björfors' production of Philip Glass's opera about Mahatma Gandhi exudes genuine musical understanding.
Svenska DagbladetCircus meets opera in a poetic and physical stage interpretation of Gandhi's nonviolent resistance.
2016: Aquanauts
Fire, Air, Water and Love.
Exploring the elements of water, fire and air, the show explores how fellowship, togetherness and equality can help us overcome anything. The result is a poetic and magnificent experience filled with aerial and water acrobatics and astonishing artistic swimming formations. Together, we are an incredible force for good.
2016: Limits
Limits is outstanding circus poetry on an urgent theme: migration.
Svenska DagbladetWe are capable of much more than we believe if we dare to challenge our limits. For people in extraordinary circumstances, sometimes there is no choice but to take the leap.
2015: Borders
… a peculiar fireworks-display of strong stage poetry about human vulnerability in search of a better life.
Svenska DagbladetA tribute to the circus pioneers of history, directing the spotlight on migrants' life-threatening escape across the Mediterranean. The result: Contemporary circus activism.
2014: Underart
The result is beautiful contemporary circus poetry at its best: wistful and comical at the same time. An absolute body experience that reaches to the root of the heart…
Svenska DagbladetUnderart is an ode to what happens after a crash landing. What happens thanks to a crash landing? Based on the director Olle Strandberg's own lived story.
2011: Romanesque Arches
Cirkus Cirkör took over Vadstena Monastery with a tailor-made performance based on Tomas Tranströmer's poem Romanesque Arches.
2011: Undermän
It's so beautiful when these bundles of muscle finally get to float (almost) weightlessly in each other's arms and build new pyramids.
Svenska DagbladetUndermän is the true story of three male partner acrobats who lost their partners, and consequently their careers and dreams as well. In a quest to regain their zest for life, they decide to create something completely new.
2010: Wear it Like a Crown
Seeking order in the collisions between the left and right cerebral hemispheres.
Chaos and order gets explored, and risks gets transformed into opportunities. A performance about choosing to proudly wear our failures, fears and shortcomings as a crown.
Into a circus mind
Like all our performances, Wear It Like a Crown became much more than a performance. For example, this concept film was created by Tilde Björfors and Johan Bååth.
2008: Inside Out
A dizzying circus drama about daring more than you dare
The circus artists play the roles of various body parts such as blood cells and protoplasm. This enlightening and creative juxtaposition brings interpretive magic to the gorgeous imagery of live performers together with footage of the human body.
2006: Momo
A beautiful and teeming fool's mirror.
Dagens NyheterMomo is the little girl who, through her freedom from everything that binds people, poses a threat to the grey men who try to steal people's time. Momo has a very special ability - she listens - and through this, she elicits the imagination and creativity of everyone she meets.
2005: Havfruen
Alluring delight with soul, humour and cool acrobatics.
Urban (B.T.)HC Andersen's tale about the little mermaid becomes a story about magic and genuine feelings. The focus is on Andersen's poetic, disturbing and endlessly beautiful story about the mermaid's longing for the prince's love and an immortal soul – a tale about elements that can never be reconciled.
2004: 99% Unknown
A rollercoaster of bodily creativity.
Svenska DagbladetThe more we learned, the less we understood. Even though research has taken us so far, our knowledge of the body is still 99% unknown. Our humility in the face of the body's incredible magic is only growing, and who is the stem cell really - the world's greatest magician?
2002: Romeo & Julia
A festival of fierce acting, circus arts, acrobatics, dance and comedy.
Dagens NyheterShakespeare for the 21st century. With trapeze artists, acrobats, actors, mimes, dancers and jugglers in the roles. In a high, sloping stage space, we tell with bodies, movement and words - Shakespeare's story of young, consuming love. Fierce. Beautiful. Dizzying.
2000: Trix
Circus performed as art … an exuberant mix of colour splendor and poetry perfected by extraordinary artistry.
Westdeutsche ZeitungA mixture of theatre and circus. Meet acrobats, tightrope walkers, aerialists, mimes, a magician, a juggler, a kautschuk artist and a man who makes the impossible possible.
1999: 00:00
…beautiful, dirty, skilful, absurd and not least comical.
SydsvenskanWould we be different people without clocks? That and several other questions about time are the basis for 00:00. A circus performance that takes place in the eye of the storm, in the fraction of a second.
1998: Supercirkör
It's not a circus, it's not a theatre, it's more of a one-hour rock video in live format.
Sundsvalls TidningTogether with the film and music video director Jonas Åkerlund, we had a dream of a big performance outdoors. Despite the small budget, minimal staff and no backing from any production company, we decided to drive anyway.
1995–1996: Skapelsen & Ur kaos föds allt
There are hardly any reasons for contemporary circus artists to stay in Sweden in the early 90s. But after having organised a 24-hour festival at Orionteatern in Stockholm with 200 young artists and creators on stage, more and more people feel compelled to stay here and build something new.
Some artists decided to stay in Sweden and started creating a show: Skapelsen (The Creation).
We established contemporary circus in Sweden
Cirkör means Circus Heart
Cirkus Cirkör was started in 1995 and is the most prominent circus company in the Nordics today. Our business includes performances on tour in Sweden and the world, courses and educational programs for all ages, a circus gymnasium and events for companies and organizations.
