Niels Mertens, born in 2000 in Antwerp, Belgium, developed an early passion for team sports. In 2009, he discovered an activity that perfectly matched him: circus arts.
He began his journey at the youth circus school Ell Circo D’ell Fuego in Antwerp at the age of nine, where the main focus is floor acrobatics and aerial work. Niels quickly fell in love with these disciplines. ECDF introduced him early on to higher education circus schools, and from 2014 onward he dreamed of joining one.
From that point, ECDF provided him, in a duo with Andreas De Ryck, with intensive training under Benjamin Eugène and Giovanni Maldonado in trampoline and Korean teeterboard. His driving forces became technical progression combined with adrenaline. After three years, Niels met Tiemen Praats and Thales Peetermans in a Hardt–ECDF production. Together, they formed a teeterboard trio in 2017, now called “Sans interdit.” They applied together to the entrance exams of the École nationale des arts du cirque de Rosny-sous-Bois (ENACR) in 2018 and to the Centre national des arts du cirque in 2019.
Having grown up deeply immersed in technical training, Niels realized in France that this was not exactly what he wanted to do with teeterboard. In his view, this apparatus is often associated with danger and a very academic practice. He instead wants to détourne (divert) it from this image and from its constraints. For him, safety in this discipline is closely linked to the psychological state of the performers (focus, happiness, mental preparation time) and to how they choose the difficulty of their circus tricks. He therefore chooses to see the Korean teeterboard as a scenographic tool adaptable to performance writing and dramaturgy.
Without forgetting, however, to keep enough space for technical tricks, which audiences still greatly enjoy. He also believes they have their own aesthetics and history. So: let’s do them—because that is circus!
At the CNAC, Niels and his trio “Sans interdit” work on acrobatic lifts and banquine movements combined with their teeterboard vocabulary. The trio forms, together with three other students from their cohort—Alice Binando, Tomàs Denis, and Yannis Gilbert—a collective working with teeterboard, banquine, and acrobatic lifts for future projects.
Trio “Sans Interdit” Belgium – Korean teeterboard
The trio “Sans Interdit” is made up of Niels Mertens, Tiemen Praats, and Thales Peetermans—three individuals with distinct backgrounds and one shared passion. They met in 2012 at the Belgian youth circus school Ell Circo D’Ell Fuego in Antwerp and began practicing the Korean teeterboard as a trio in 2017.
After building strong technical foundations in a highly structured environment, the trio entered the École nationale des arts du cirque de Rosny-sous-Bois (ENACR) in 2018.
In 2019, they continued their training at the Centre national des arts du cirque. Over these four years of training, they had multiple opportunities to collaborate with circus and dance artists and directors such as Dominique Bettenfeld, Bertrand Bossard, Kaori Ito, Guy Alloucherie, and Tuur Florizoone, all of whom contributed to shaping their artistic perspective on teeterboard and circus practice.
They named their trio “Sans Interdit” (Sæns), a wordplay that expresses their exploration of the “forbidden directions” of the teeterboard. It reflects their artistic and technical approach, which moves away from conventional circus codes. They aim to challenge the usual perception of danger associated with teeterboard on stage, while fully embracing their passion for propulsion and flight.
The trio is strongly driven by the desire to détourne (reimagine) the Korean teeterboard. They seek to expand their physical and technical capacities by integrating other circus disciplines that complement their practice. For example, they have developed “the flying teeterboard,” a structure allowing them to practice teeterboard at height without touching the ground. This technical innovation opens new pathways for creation and research laboratories, as well as reflections on lighting and curtains—on what audiences usually see and do not see.
During their second year at CNAC, while working on repertoire reinterpretation, they collaborated in a very positive working atmosphere with three other students from their cohort: Alice Binando, Tomàs Denis, and Yannis Gilbert. Together, they formed a multidisciplinary collective combining acrobatic lifts, teeterboard, acrodance, and rope work, with the intention of eventually pursuing a shared professional creation.