Youth Performance Programme

Performing is more than an aerial or acrobatic sequence, and this is where you’ll learn about it, by doing it with mentors. With two ensemble shows a year, you’ll be developing the concept and creating your characters while gaining circus skills that make you shine.

You’ll collaborate with mentors and other students to come up with your own characters for solo or duo acts within the show’s theme, in ways that allow your individual traits to shine through. Therefore you don’t need to come with any pre-made routines, you just need an excitement to perform, play and find new ways of working with their circus equipment. And because they are ensemble shows, you’ll also develop choreographed group pieces as transitions between acts. You’ll be guided and supported as a group by the directors to create acts that come from within yourself and that you are proud to share in the final show.

The prospect of the show provides a focus for you to improve in technique, as you make your acts more complex and challenging. As you collaborate on the process of creating characters and developing the narrative of the show, you will progress artistically, expressively and performatively.

It’s for you if you’re aged 10-18 and enjoy aerial, acrobatics, dance, gymnastics, physical theatre or other physical arts, and can train for 90 minutes on Wednesdays. It’s ideal if you want to take your circus skills into a more professional setting, if you’re considering a career in circus, or you just want the experience of performing in a directed show. We’d also welcome additional input from young people who have an interest in rigging, staging, lighting, audio, costume making and other skills associated with show production.

The course runs on Wednesdays from 5.30pm until 7pm beginning in August with a show in December, and January with a show in June.