THE ACADEMY OF CIRCUS ARTS
The Academy of Circus Arts was founded in 1993 by Martin Burton, who is Zippo the Clown and the Director of Zippo’s Circus. At first, the Academy worked alongside Zippo’s, but it is now an entirely separate company, which became a registered Charity in 2003.

The Academy of Circus Arts stands out from other circus training schools because it doesn't have a permanent base - for much of each year we are on tour in England, performing at festivals. Students have the opportunity to perform from the very first show of the season, alongside professional circus performers who are also their training instructors.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF
The Directors of the Academy are Martin Burton; Chris Barltrop, a circus consultant and formerly Director of the Moscow State Circus, Dea Birkett, the writer and broadcaster; and theatre producer Julius Green. Our non-executive Directors are Blaze Birge and David Jones, well-known internationally as both show directors and as performers, while Greg Milstein is an Associate Director and Ann Dorwin an Artistic Advisor. Our Directors of Training are Marisa Saenz and Lucas Ibanez, and our training instructors are professional circus performers chosen for their skills and their experience in teaching a variety of performance disciplines.

DATES
The provisional dates for our 2012 course are from April 4th until September 12th. Please note that these dates have changed recently.

FEES & EXPENSES
The performances help finance the Academy, which means that we can offer the course at a lower fee: the Course Fee for 2012 will remain at £3,300.
Students will also pay £100 for costumes and personal equipment, which remain their property at the end of the training, and must have their own public liability insurance providing £2 million cover. We can offer advice on finding appropriate insurance, which currently costs from £15.50.
Please note that all fees must be paid in full and cleared prior to the course start date.

Students' other costs are largely food and general living expenses such as laundry, cleaning supplies and personal items. We supply a list of recommended items to bring, which range from bedding, tin-openers and saucepans, to workout clothing and steel-toed boots. We recommend that students bring £50 per week for these living expenses.

During the course, students may often decide to buy items like make-up, costuming and equipment specific to their chosen skills; for example, specialised tights for trapeze, specific shoes for tight-wire or distinctive juggling clubs. Students may also wish to budget for these extra costs.

SPONSORSHIP & LOANS
Whilst we can’t offer help with sponsorship, UK students can apply through Arts Council England, and you may contact them and their regional offices via www.artscouncil.org.uk

For information on financial assistance to support your learning, please visit www.direct.gov.uk/adultlearning or contact 0800 100 900.

TRAVELLING ACCOMMODATION
Students may provide their own travelling accommodation: a car and caravan, van, or motor-home, for example.

Alternatively, we can offer accommodation in a bunk-room, at a cost of £25 per week. These are either small individual rooms, or larger, shared rooms. Each room has bunk beds, cooker, sink and storage space and portable toilet facilities and offer good, basic accommodation. There is a shared shower-room and a laundry room with washing machine and dryer. We ask for a deposit of £200 against damage to the bunk-rooms, which is refunded when rooms are vacated in good condition at the course end. As with the course fee, accommodation charges must be paid in full before the start date.

 
INTERVIEWS AND AUDITIONS
Whenever possible, we ask applicants to attend an audition. The Academy generally holds two open auditions during the year. Those attending an open audition are asked to participate in a round-robin of general physical skills assessment with our training staff. Applicants are also encouraged to present a sample of skills they are working on, such as juggling, voice or dance, either as a brief demonstration or as a short presentation piece. This is meant to be a skill demonstration only: We do not expect you to present a full circus act!

Video auditions can be clips posted online, for example to Vimeo or YouTube, or can be submitted on DVD or CD. Their combined total should not exceed 8 minutes. We won’t penalize applicants with longer videos, but we won't watch after 8 minutes so put the good stuff first. If you have an act, then this should be included, otherwise it should be a basic demonstration of your flexibility and any of the skills that you are working on.

Preference will be given to applicants providing physical auditions either via video or in person (as opposed to a monologue submission or straight theatrical audition).

Please note that CD and DVD audition discs will not be returned.

FITNESS & SKILLS
You do not need to have any circus or performing skills to join the course, but we do ask that you are of good health as the course can be very physically demanding. You will be asked to provide confirmation from a qualified person, your family doctor for example, stating that there is no existing condition or reason why you should not undertake circus training. Because you will live with the circus you must be over 18 years of age, but there's no upper age limit - we have had successful students aged up to 40 years old and from all backgrounds.

If you are joining us for a gap year before starting university, you will be able to try a range of circus skills and fun activities, as well as having the opportunity to join in with circus life when we travel to festivals during the summer. For those seeking professional tuition to work towards a performing career, we have a structured programme leading up to our final graduation show.

You will find that any fitness preparation you can do before the course starts will help greatly when you join us. Strength training is useful for aerial work and flexibility training will assist in developing all skills, from juggling to tumbling to trapeze. Always seek proper advice before undertaking any fitness training.

THE TRAINING
The course is organized into three distinct sections. For the first month of training we encourage all students to try a wide variety of disciplines, for example trampoline, trapeze, juggling, comedy, acrobatics, etc. Group classes in dance, tumbling, trampoline, juggling, equilibristics and general aerial skills are the norm at this time. Students can begin to discuss their aptitudes and progress with their trainers, designate their preferred skills and continue to develop these skills into acts over the next two months. The final months concentrate on honing performance skills, the preparation of individual acts for the Graduation Show performance and on professional development.

When the academy moves on to a new location, usually each week, everyone may help with building up and pulling down the the Big Top - our circus tent. In this way, you can learn a tremendous amount of technical skills, including how the tent, lighting and sound systems are assembled. You can also help to rig equipment required for your own act, for example the trapeze or tight-wire, learn how the equipment works and how to make it safe. When you are developing your own act, we help you choose your costume, music and make-up. Open-ring practices and small-scale student showcases are often a part of the training schedule.

DAY TO DAY CIRCUS LIFE
There's no such thing as a typical week on the circus! Because the schedule includes a variety of festivals and performances, each week can be quite different from the last.

But to give you a guide to how a week on tour might be....
Monday: Move to festival venue and set up the living quarters.
Tuesday: Build-up the circus tent and take the rest of the day off for sightseeing or shopping!
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: Classes available all day.
Saturday: Public performances. Evening “open-ring” practice.
Sunday: Public performances. Then dismantle the big-top, pack down and get ready to move on.

THE GRADUATION SHOW
At the end of the course we have our Graduation Show, where each student has the opportunity to perform their individual act before an invited audience.

OUR RECORD
ACA graduates have been or are currently performing with circuses including The American Three Ring Circus; Arnett & Paulo's Circus; Bassline Circus; Beechman Circus; Circus Berlin; Big Kid Circus; Billy Smarts Circus; Bobby Roberts' Super Circus; Brian Boswell's Circus (South Africa); The Bulgarian State Circus; Carson & Barnes Circus (USA); Courtney's Circus (Eire); Culpepper & Merriweather Circus (USA); Duffy's Circus (Eire); The Famous Foolhardy Circus; The Festival Circus; Circus Gerbola (Eire); Giffords Circus; Gilbert & Paulo's Circus; The Great European Circus; Happy's Circus; The Circus of Horrors; Jay Miller's Circus; Peter Jay's London Festival Circus; John Lawson's Circus; The Magic Circus (Holland); Circus Markus; Circus Mondao; Cirque Pinder; Circus Rambo (India); Circus Rapscallion; Circus Ricardo; Santus Circus; Cirque du Soleil; Circus Sunshine; Cirque Surreal; Zippo's Circus. amongst others.

Several graduates appeared in the aerial performances at the Millennium Dome, others have progressed to teaching circus skills, and three graduates have created and successfully toured their own travelling circuses.

APPLYING
You can download our application form here:

as a Microsoft Word document (.doc)
or as a text file (.txt)

USERS OF MICROSOFT WORD: please do not email files with the suffix .docx
but save them as the older version of Word with the suffix .doc
Thanks

We prefer that application forms are sent by email to acircusarts@gmail.com otherwise they may be sent by post to Circus Headquarters, Enborne, Newbury RG20 0LD.
We can then keep you informed of events and audition dates through this website or by email.