Circumstances creates impactful performances with a mission. Our productions explore a delicate balance between spectacle and care, where people support each other. Our work is not about perfection, but about collaboration, community, authenticity and embracing our imperfections, fostering a sense of understanding and belonging. Human connection is the common thread, both on and off stage.
"Circus is not about achieving, but challenging the impossible. The search for the limits of balance, gravity, time and endurance creates a unique dance." - Piet Van Dycke
Circumstances is a Flemish circus and dance company that brings together a diverse team of artists for each production. We create the performance collectively, every link in the chain matters. Circumstances is supported by a dedicated core team of enthusiastic collaborators behind the scenes. We are known for our drive, passion and flexibility. Joy, wonder and trust are woven into everything we do.
Circumstances aims to bring circus and dance closer to a broad and diverse audience. Thassos handles tour planning and promotional support in Belgium, while Buro Piket and Aurora Nova contribute to the international distribution.
Circumstances vzw was founded on 1 December 2021, with Jonas Van Soom (coordinator CIRKLABO), Evelien Alles (business director Theater FroeFroe), Maaike Vanderhaegen (programmer CC Het Gasthuis) as board members. Circumstances would not exist without the support of our partners: PLAN Brabant, Festival Circolo, DansBrabant, CIRKLABO, Miramiro, circuswerkplaats Dommelhof, PERPLX, HET LAB Hasselt, Festival Boulevard, fABULEUS and Circ'uit.
Circumstances creates wordless, physical performances that balance tension and emotion. Each creation arises from new “circumstances” featuring varying (circus) disciplines, performers, audiences and contexts. At the heart of the symbiosis between acrobatics and expressive movement lies the dynamic interplay between control and speed, dependence and autonomy, focus and calm. From these contrasts, we craft boundary-pushing experiences that explore the porous borders between circus and dance.
We travel the world with our productions, from Chassepierre to São Paulo, from Tienen to Hong Kong. We perform outdoors or in theatres. Our work reaches a wide-ranging audience: from children to seniors, skaters to pole dancers, hardcore festival-lovers to casual passersby. We strive to create real impact with our performances, extending beyond the walls of the theatre.
Currently, we are touring with three productions: EXIT (2022), an installation performance where movement, partneracrobatics, and balance board merge; GLORIOUS BODIES (2023), a piece about the power of the aging body; and BEYOND (2025), a performance about boundless bridgebuilders. Be sure to keep an eye on our calendar!
In his latest production, choreographer/dancer Piet Van Dycke succeeds in mixing dance and acrobatics in a wonderful way. One scene follows the next in an associative manner. Sometimes wonderfully clumsy, other times clever, always mischievously rebellious and refreshingly contrary. It remains exciting. And funny.
But typical of Van Dycke is the juxtaposition and intermingling of circus idiom, theatre and dance. This fresh pungency puts the space, objects and bodies in a slightly absurdist light. Van Dycke manages to forge a humorous and constantly surprising whole with this trio.
Piet has the ability to bend his imagination and life to his will and to make others part of it. He has a distinctive choreographic signature: contemporary, careful, thoughtful and mathematical in form. But placed in a context with elements recognizable to everyone. Piet knows how to give his audience an entrance to experience the abstraction of an art form like dance in an associative and personal way.
Piet possesses what the French call ‘un certain je ne sais quoi’. An intangible but palpable restless creative energy that cannot be slowed down and that feels a creative need to express itself. His choreographic work is characterized by investigating and searching for the human condition. He knows how to create a world on stage that challenges, has an ironic effect, provokes, but also touches and makes people think. A world full of associative space and one that regularly misleads us as spectators.
The breathtaking performance blows you away. It is a combination of dance and circus, with four loners who, after initial resistance, need each other to find balance in their lives. It is unbelievable how the four young men perform all those walking and movement patterns, each time just circumventing or on the contrary on purpose. And how they always leave just in time to avoid hitting that folding wall against their head. Bleating sheep and a cheering audience at EXIT by the Belgian choreographer Piet Van Dycke and his Circumstances.
The piece cleverly builds up to an impressive apotheosis (…) the performers hoist themselves into the air, slide off the wall and the four of them look for a balance that they eventually find. Impressive (…) the sensation of the weekend.
In his latest production, choreographer/dancer Piet Van Dycke succeeds in mixing dance and acrobatics in a wonderful way. One scene follows the next in an associative manner. Sometimes wonderfully clumsy, other times clever, always mischievously rebellious and refreshingly contrary. It remains exciting. And funny.
But typical of Van Dycke is the juxtaposition and intermingling of circus idiom, theatre and dance. This fresh pungency puts the space, objects and bodies in a slightly absurdist light. Van Dycke manages to forge a humorous and constantly surprising whole with this trio.
Piet has the ability to bend his imagination and life to his will and to make others part of it. He has a distinctive choreographic signature: contemporary, careful, thoughtful and mathematical in form. But placed in a context with elements recognizable to everyone. Piet knows how to give his audience an entrance to experience the abstraction of an art form like dance in an associative and personal way.
Piet possesses what the French call ‘un certain je ne sais quoi’. An intangible but palpable restless creative energy that cannot be slowed down and that feels a creative need to express itself. His choreographic work is characterized by investigating and searching for the human condition. He knows how to create a world on stage that challenges, has an ironic effect, provokes, but also touches and makes people think. A world full of associative space and one that regularly misleads us as spectators.
The breathtaking performance blows you away. It is a combination of dance and circus, with four loners who, after initial resistance, need each other to find balance in their lives. It is unbelievable how the four young men perform all those walking and movement patterns, each time just circumventing or on the contrary on purpose. And how they always leave just in time to avoid hitting that folding wall against their head. Bleating sheep and a cheering audience at EXIT by the Belgian choreographer Piet Van Dycke and his Circumstances.
The piece cleverly builds up to an impressive apotheosis (…) the performers hoist themselves into the air, slide off the wall and the four of them look for a balance that they eventually find. Impressive (…) the sensation of the weekend.
