‘This is circus completely
outside the box’,
The Times
Petit Mal: Concrete Circus is a high
energy, action packed show featuring
seemingly impossible stunts that fuse
acrobatics with extreme trampolining,
break dancing and hip hop.
As the company prepare to head to
Brighton Dome this Christmas, we asked
Kalle Lehto, Rauli Kosonen and Petri
Tuominen few questions about the show
and how they became circus performers.
So tell us why Race Horse Company
wanted to make this show?
The inspiration for the show came from
us wanting to make a show with skills
that we haven’t seen on stage before.
Something that was new took us in a
new direction, so we started working on
it and then… voila, Petit Mal: Concrete
Circus.
Where did the show’s concept come
from?
We started cheap. We didn’t have any
money, but Petri had an idea to start
from when he was travelling in Nepal.
He saw this little kid standing in the ruins
with 3D glasses on and I guess he had
some kind of idea that it would be good
to have that kind of wreckage on stage
whilst still having a bit of hope left - the
kid was still smiling with his 3D glasses
on. So the show takes the reality of
that kind of moment and we follow it in
that direction. That image was the key
point, of course the show doesn’t have
anything to do with that situation but that
was the starting place and we share that
sort of idea of the world. We start with
the wreckage and we build stuff onto it,
but it’s not completely sad. There’s funny
stuff in it so even when there is disaster,
you can still have a laugh.
What happens when you’re making
the show?
Sometimes we fail and crash but we
just get up and go on again. It gives us
faith that we can fail and then get up
and try it again or do something else.
It’s calculated risk but there’s always a
chance of failure.
Tell us how you all became to be
circus performers?
Kalle Lehto: I went to circus school but
before then I was a writer and I did a
little bit of dance but when I was at circus
school I started to do more acrobatics and
that was it! It wasn’t like it was a big dream
to be in circus, I just wanted to move so I
thought I’d apply and it looked fun.
Petri Tuominen: I don’t think it was so
different to me either. I studied to be an
electrician and I didn’t like it so I didn’t
even start work, I was unemployed, and
then I saw a circus, which looked fun so
I tried it.
Rauli Kosonen: I wanted to be a stunt
man at one point… then I found myself
at chef’s school when I was 16, but that
didn’t work out as it didn’t feel like it
was my thing. I spent all my time on a
trampoline at a circus youth space where
we got to jump around as much as we
liked so I was spending all my time there.
Then I found out there were actually
circus schools you could go to for real. I
went to three schools in the end!
How would you describe your style?
Kalle Lehto: Somebody called what we
do ‘floating’. There’s a special technique
we use for work on the trampoline, it’s
finding the difference between tensing
your body when you’re falling towards
the net and how you relax when you’re
bouncing back into the air. But the key
point I’m always trying to find is the point
of suspension in the air, when you’re
not falling or rising, when you’re at zero
gravity and you’re just floating. It’s those
little things that we play with.
For me it’s more like breaking. When
you’re coming from a certain direction
and you stop it somewhere, whenever
you want, and just freeze, and that’s the
same thing I try to do with my acrobatics.
I move as long as I feel like it and then
I find a freeze moment at a point in the
show and I let it be. In this show, mostly
my freezes are when I crash. Crashing to
the floor is always good.
Petit Mal: Concret