Christer

Hello everyone!

This is basically where I have to write something interesting about myself... I will give it a try!

I was born in Norway in 1985 and started walking when I was 7 months old, but walking on the ground was not enough for me so when I was 7 years old I started practising walking on a rope. I do not come from a cicus family. Actually, my family is a very normal Norwegian family. I grew up in a house with my parents, two brothers, a dog and some birds. It has never been a question for me if I want to do something else with my life than living as a circus artist. I spent every single day after school outside in the garden on the rope that my father had put up between the house wall and the fence.

This is me at the age of seven!

In Norway there was not any contemporary circuses around when I was young so most of my inspiration came from the four traditional circuses (Merano, Agora, Zorba & Arnardo). This has influenced me in both good and bad ways. I never knew of any other ways of performing circus until I was 15 and moved away from home to go to the only circus school in Norway (Fjordane Folkehøgskule). After this I went three years to Vasaskolan Circus Gymnasium and three years at Ecole Superieure des Arts du Cirque in Brussels (ESAC).

I hate costumes with glitter, strass and paljettes. I hate when women in circus wear string bathing suits. I don't mind animals in circus if they are treated well and taken good care of, but most animal acts are so boring to watch that I prefer circuses without animal acts.
I feel that the contemporary circus have more to offer in todays society than the traditional circus, but a good traditional circus can be great entertainment if it is well done.

I perform in Circus Monti with my act on the slackrope that I created with Samuel Jornot (director of the circus school in Tilburg, Holland) during my last one and a half years in ESAC and presented every night during one week in June 2008 in front of a live audience as a final examination. It's an act with lots of fun and stressful moments in good balance (pun intended) both for me and for the audience. I work with a goldfish in a bowl that I bring with me on the slackrope, and I can promise you that I do everything I can to make sure that the fish stays inside the bowl, that the fishbowl stays in the palms of my hands and that I don't fall down from the rope!

Enjoy the blog, and if you come to see the show this season I wish you an entertaining evening with us in the red and yellow Monti chapiteau!

www.christerpettersen.com

A tender moment between the goldfish and me

A relaxing moment in my act

(Photo copyright Xavier Claes/Soleil Rouge)