If you’ve been obsessing and nerding about handstands, I’m sure you know this guy. Mikael Kristiansen is a circus artist specialised in handbalance and he is one of the best known handstand teachers in the field, trying to make handstands and everything related understandable intellectually as well as physically. The first time I met him, I had a good amount of aha-moments regarding technique and how to approach practice in general. He opened a new perspective for my practice relating it more to developing an art and comparing it to learning how to play a music instrument, dancing or learning a language, instead of putting it into the perspective of fitness, wich is very tied to sets and reps. After all, handbalancing is an art and in contemporary circus, where he comes from, there is so much more than just the skill in itself.
Mikael is very appreciated by many handbalance practitioners for not sugarcoating the path to learning handstands. I learned the terms “pain” and “suffer” from him and that it’s completely normal to produce “garbage” most of the time, just to get a glimpse at what a nice attempt might feel like. He is an artist at heart and is currently working on a new project called the Handstand Forest. Freelancing his way through the artists life, he has a ton of wisdom to offer and is very generous about it.
If you’re looking for a coach…
I highly recommend you try online coaching with him or visit one of his handstand workshops. For more info and contact visit his website here.
This episode is for anyone of you who is obsessed with handstands. Mikael will tell you what you need to focus on in order to keep your practice efficient and safe long term and also what it takes to be a circus artist in contemporary circus.
After you’ve watched the episode, let us know which insight resonated with you the most and why. Leave a comment below, so people can learn from you and you can learn from others!
The world is your playground, so just do whatever you love!
-Soundschi <3