Background

Cirkus Xanti is a Norwegian non-profit project company for creation, production and presentation of contemporary circus – and the owner and producer of The Circus Village, a mobile circus center and festival.

As a concept Cirkus Xanti started in 2001 with the big top creation and touring of the performance Ringen, and the social circus project Sirkus Cirka, in collaboration with Haugesund Teater and Pain Solution. Ringen was the first large scale contemporary circus performance in Norway and was met by great reviews and enthusiasm in all the main newspapers in Norway.

After many years of struggling for recognition of circus as contemporary performing art, Cirkus Xanti finally got support from the Arts Council of Norway in 2009 to develop contemporary circus production and presentation through the project The Circus Village.Two 3-year grants, 2009-2011 and 2012-2014, made Cirkus Xanti able to create and produce the unique mobile circus center and festival now consisting of six circus tents, four of them for production and presentation.

Founder

Founder and artistic director of Cirkus Xanti, Sverre Waage, has created over 80 performances since 1977, in every conceivable performance genre. In total he has created 24 circus performances from 1982-2021.

His first circus performances dates back to 1982, mainly street circus, site specific and contemporary circus. Then also as a performer under the name of Xanti Schwartz as an homage to Bauhaus Theater’s ”Circus” from 1924 by Xanti Schawinsky). Sverre Waage officially opened the regional theatre Haugesund Teater in 1987 with the creation and presentation of the new circus performance Tivoli.

In 2006 his circus-theatre creation Trollprinsen, produced and presented by Det Norske Teatret in 2004 and 2005, won the Norwegian Theatre Guild’s prize, Hedda, for best performance for a young audience.

Performances

Since 2007 Cirkus Xanti has created, produced and toured with Trollringen (2007), CircusCabaret (2007), Vintersol (2007), Sirkus Cirka (2007 - 2022), Loop (2010), Bastard (2011-2022), Pluto Crazy (2012, 2013, 2015), Red Fever Tree (2015, 2016), As A Tiger In The Jungle (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022).

In 2018 Cirkus Xanti produced and published the report about the status of contemporary circus in Norway: The Rising Wave

Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12DoGM1RekM9efEsYnHYd0V2E14pK23Ow