If you can do it at SANCA, Arne has done it. He started as a student back in 2006. His father, Carl Bystrom, had already taught him to juggle three balls and after being tipped-off about SANCA by Tara Jensen, Carl convinced Arne to try his first class: Wednesday night Circus Arts with Chuck and Jo. Arne started off being an acrobatic flyer with his father as the base.
Having never really found his place in team sports, Arne was excited about the physical outlet in Circus. It was fun enough to keep practicing; so he kept on doing it. He practiced handstands in the backyard and worked on his skills, and before you knew it he started to get better and circus started to get really fun. Nickolai Pirak joined the SANCA team in 2006 and became Arne’s first juggling teacher. Nickolai says he remembers encouraging Arne to start juggling 5 balls; now Arne is doing 7 balls with pirouettes.
SANCA needed summer coaches and Arne was recruited. It was a slippery slope from there. After that summer he started coaching regular classes.
He teamed up for hand to hand with Zora and joined the Youth Company. The next summer he and Zora toured with Circus Smirkus. That’s when he knew that circus was what he really wanted to do. Arne decided instead of attending a traditional college he would go to circus school. On a college scouting trip he went to Turbo Fest at Quebec City Circus School, hung out with Nickolai in Germany and got to crash in the Circus Dorm at Rosny in France.
In the end it was the Quebec City Circus School that called to him with its small, warm and supportive environment. So after three years in Quebec, Arne has graduated and is the flyer in an acro/juggling duet. He stands in a two high and juggles (7) balls with a partner by dropping them down from above. All ’cause it was fun enough to want to practice.
He is back in town for now and dreaming of working for Teatro Zinzanni.Friday November 30th was the very last day that he will be sporting his mustache that he grew out for “Movember” http://us.movember.com/about : changing the face of men’s health by raising awareness of testicular and prostate cancer with a month of facial hair growth.
VIdeo of Arne:
Arne and Jérémy from Arne Bystrom on Vimeo.
Arne and Jérémy from Arne Bystrom on Vimeo.