Youth Circus Sundays ages 12 -18

Youth Circus is all about giving students experience in a wide range of circus arts for a number of reasons, although there's still scope in classes for some specialism.

The art you start out loving might not be the thing you adore forever. And there can be challenges as young bodies grow – bones and muscles may develop at different times. This can mean some arts can feel more difficult for a period of time, while you begin to get better at others. So it's good for confidence and coordination to have choices.

General format

Most sessions follow a schedule that starts with warm-up games then acrobalance to get everyone playing together.

Then the focus may be trying new skills or creative tasks to explore aerial and acrobatic moves, to develop imagination, collaboration, creativity and problem solving. Students who already have a repertoire of tricks are given tasks that encourage them to approach the moves or sequences in different ways. There's always another way! Everyone's body moves in different ways and mind thinks in different ways so students often help each other find routes to positions, with guidance and encouragement from the instructors.

Then students are split into three groups, swapping disciplines every 20 minutes so they all try each discipline. We usually try to make sure they get one vertical apparatus, one bar or horizontal apparatus and a third thing could be trampoline, object manipulation or acrobatics.

Personal progress

Students can make requests about what they might want to learn or try the next week, so they are driving their own progress.

If someone has a passion for a particular art, they may be able to join classes in the evening to spend a full 90-minute session on it if they're 13 or older. Just ask!

Our Performance Programme is another option for students who are keen to progress. There's nothing like the focus of performing in front of a live audience to give you extra drive. The programme covers all the same aerial and acrobatic training of the regular classes, and also includes coaching in performance skills and techniques.

The Performance Programme is open to aged 10-18 and runs on Wednesdays 5.30pm-7pm. Students spend six months working towards a full-production show twice a year, in June and December.