Circus schools are institutions that offer professional and sometimes degree-level training in various

circus skills Circus skills are a group of disciplines that have been performed as entertainment in circus, sideshow, busking, or variety, vaudeville, or music hall shows. Most circus skills are still being performed today. Many are also practiced by non-per ...

such as acrobatics, aerial arts, object manipulation, and other specialized physical skills. The rise of the circus school as a venue for the transmission of traditional circus arts and the formalized research of new acts is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of the

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

Notable professional circus schools

* (La Plaine Saint-Denis, France) * Centre Nationale des Arts du Cirque (Châlons-en-Champagne, France) *

Circomedia Circomedia is a school for contemporary circus and physical theatre based in Bristol, England. The school offers a variety of training courses and workshops that teach circus skills in the context of physical theatre, performance and creativity. ...

(Bristol, UK) *

Circus Juventas Circus Juventas (formerly Circus of the Star) is a youth performing arts circus school located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, serving youth throughout the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The organization was founded in 1994 by Dan and Be ...

(St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.) *

Circus Center Circus Center is a circus school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1984 by Wendy Parkman and Judy Finelli as the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. History In 1974 the Pickle Family Circus was founded by Peggy Snider and Lar ...

(San Francisco, California, U.S.) *

Cirkus Cirkör Cirkus Cirkör is a Swedish circus company, and is today Scandinavia's leading performing circus company within the art form of contemporary circus. Cirkus Cirkör has toured the world with a number of successful and praised circus shows. The compan ...

(Stockholm, Sweden) * Ecole Nationale des Arts du Cirque de Rosny - ENACR (Rosny-sous-bois, France) *

École nationale de cirque The National Circus School (french: École nationale de cirque) is a professional circus school located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is for higher education in the art of circus. The NCS also offers academic subjects at the secondary and col ...

(Montreal, Canada) * École Nationale de Cirque de Châtellerault (Châtellerault, France) * École de Cirque de Québec - ECQ (Québec, Canada) * Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque (Brussels, Belgium) * École supérieure des arts du cirque Toulouse-Occitanie (Toulouse, France) *

The Flying Fruit Fly Circus The Flying Fruit Fly Circus is Australia's national youth circus, and the only full-time circus school for young people in Australia. History The Flying Fruit Fly Circus was one of the productions of the Murray River Performing Group, initiall ...

(Albury, Australia) *

Gamma Phi Circus Gamma Phi Circus, sponsored by Illinois State University, is the oldest collegiate circus in the United States. It began as the Gamma Phi fraternity, founded in 1929 by ISU gymnastics instructor Clifford "Pop" Horton. The fraternity's first circu ...

(

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of th ...

) * National Centre for Circus Arts (formerly The Circus Space; London, UK) *

National Institute of Circus Arts The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) is a government-accredited tertiary-level circus school in Australia, located in Prahran, Victoria. History NICA was established in 1995 by Swinburne University of Technology after a study revealed t ...

(Melbourne, Australia) *

New England Center for Circus Arts The New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) is a non-profit circus school based in Brattleboro, Vermont. As of 2016, the School reported 6,000 students. Originally in the Old Cotton Mill, in Brattleboro, the school moved into a new custom-built ...

(Brattleboro, Vermont, U.S.) * New York Circus Arts Academy (New York City, U.S.) *

Philadelphia School of Circus Arts The Philadelphia School of Circus Arts (PSCA) is a contemporary circus school in Philadelphia. It began in June 2008. The curriculum includes aerial skills, such as static trapeze, corde lisse or rope, lyra) and juggling, unicycling, tightwire, ...

(Philadelphia, U.S.) * Zip Zap Academy (Cape Town, South Africa)

Circus programs within degree-awarding academic institutions

at Illinois State University is the oldest collegiate circus in the United States. It was founded in 1929 and is part of the College of Applied Science and Technology at ISU. Florida State University Flying High Circus is a collegiate circus that was founded in 1947 as an extracurricular activity club. Members must be students who are registered and seeking degrees from FSU. Student interest clubs that offer students the chance to train recreationally in contemporary circus arts include Cirque NouveaU: An Aerial Arts Club at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, a club that offers ground skill workouts in partner balancing and tumbling to undergraduates.Chang, Anni
"Student Group Looks to Get off the Ground"
''The Daily Northwestern'', November 22, 2010. Retrieved on September 28, 2015.

References

{{Circus skills Lists of schools