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Workshop Overview

INTROS of you and me

TIPS on how to start the application and audition process

RESOURCES for where to start your research

Q&A / open table discussion

HELP signing up for CircusTalk or CSAW and additional questions you may have for me after the workshop

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My Story

GYMNAST growing up in Montana isolated from the circus world

16 attended École Nationale de Cirque (ENC) Summer Camp in Montreal

17 auditioned for ENC at one day audition in Vancouver - not accepted

18 auditioned for ENC & École de cirque de Québec (ECQ) - not accepted

19 applied for 24 schools, video auditioned for five, live auditioned for 6

20 choose Circadium out of five accepted schools

20 - 21 started working for CircusTalk and founded CSAW (Connecting Circus Students Around the World) to help circus students like me

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TIPS - WHAT I LEARNED

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1 - Start Early

2 YEARS before auditions is a good time to start research

It’s never too soon to look into circus school routes, but I think it’s a good idea to start informing yourself or your child two years before you want to apply and audition. (Ex. if I am going to audition for schools in 2022, I should start doing research into which schools in 2020.)

OTHER OPTIONS

This of course does not mean that you have to give yourself two years. I know plenty of people who decided they were going to audition for a school one month beforehand and ended up just fine!

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2 - Ask Yourself Questions

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

What is your skill level and what are your goals? Do you want a full time program of 3 or 4 years? Do you want a short course? Is it a good idea to look into pre-professional schools first? Will your financial situation factor into which schools you can apply for? Are you more interested in specializing than going to school? Where do you want to live? Do you want to do circus forever?

LOTS OF PROGRAM TYPES

Pre-professional, short course, intensives, year-long, multiple years. There are so many options out there!

NARROW YOUR RESEARCH

Having asked yourself these hard questions and decided a general direction you are going in will let you start to filter your research.

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3 - Ask Other People Questions

CIRCUS PEOPLE CAN HELP CIRCUS PEOPLE!

Other people want you to find your dream school as much as you do! Ask them for help.

ASK STUDENTS

One of the reasons I founded CSAW was because I believe that the best people to ask about the schools you are interested in is the students who attend / attended those schools. You can ask students the real questions like: do you like your teachers? What are the problems with the school? … I can think of three schools I chose not to attend because I asked students in those programs about them.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Chances are that you know someone who knows someone who goes to the circus school you are interested in. I would often visit the Facebook or Instagram page of a school, find photos that they had tagged students in and then directly message those people.

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4 - Choose Your Target Schools

YOU’VE DONE THE RESEARCH

Now it it’s time to pick which schools you want to apply for!

HAVE A BACK UP PLAN

I would recommend applying and auditioning for at least three schools. You want to make sure that you have options, and auditions can be highly competitive so it is always a good idea to have back up plans.

START APPLYING ASAP

Once you’ve chosen, start those school applications ASAP. Circus school applications can be hard. They are often confusing and take a lot of time and preparation. ESAC, in Brussels for example requires over 20 documents including an x-ray of your spine!

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5 - Organize Everything

SPREADSHEETS ARE YOUR FRIEND

Applications can start to get super confusing. Especially when you are dealing with multiple languages. I highly recommend keeping all of your info in one place. I used this spreadsheet method in 2018: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DzZbMlLUV_c67NUHVvvgloylpD7llyNRTLJxYX8lSvA/edit#gid=0

APPLICATIONS ARE JUST THE FIRST STEP

It is rare that circus schools actually refuse your application unless there is an issue with the visa, or they are extremely competitive. But you aren’t done yet! Once your application is accepted, you have to audition. Most schools require that you bring documents to the live audition and you want to be ready for that! Organize your info.

VIDEO APPLICATIONS

If you are doing video applications or auditions, make sure to start early and save all of this info too! It can take ages to edit an application video, but sometimes you can reuse videos from one school to the next, so organize that too!

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6 - Be Persistent

THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS OILED

Never be afraid to reach out to the administration of the school that you are auditioning for. Often times schools don’t always list all the information on how to apply for them, when the deadlines are or other necessary information. It can be confusing, and sometimes asking is the only choice you have!

I found that a lot of the schools that asked me for hard documents would accept emails and quite a few schools accepted video audition even though their website didn’t list it.

TAKE YOUR TIME

It doesn’t always work out that you graduate high school and then go to circus school right away. Sometimes our paths are unclear and that is okay. You can spend several years auditioning until you find what it is right for you. I spent almost four years auditioning!

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RESOURCES - WHERE TO LOOK

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FEDEC (EUROPEAN FEDERATION FOR CIRCUS SCHOOLS)

BEST RESOURCE OUT THERE

FEDEC remains the best circus school database. I learned most of what I know from starting on FEDEC. The program specific search feature is among the most useful of the features. Unfortunately, it is limited to FEDEC members which means that the information is pretty Euro-centric.

LIMITED OPTIONS

Finding condensed circus school information is hard. Language barriers, outdated websites and unanswered questions make it particularly challenging for countries outside of the European Union. This is why I have started the work I am doing for CircusTalk and CSAW. I want to help make the information more accessible.

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CSAW (Connecting Circus Students Around the World)

FOUNDED IN 2018

My circus school process was challenging and I wanted to help future students have an easier time. CSAW has two main objectives:

ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION

Living documents like this are what CSAW is all about https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/116bcl8vXKrWYAG4eHbgH_D5x_pTb-gJjYhHgWnxZvXo/edit. It is amazing how many schools do not even post HOW to apply for their auditions, much less the application deadline or the audition date.

CSAW AMBASSADOR PROGRAM

The goal of the CSAW Ambassador program is to eventually acquire an ambassador representative from every circus school in the world. This way, there will be a master list of every school, their ambassador and how to contact them. Future students like you can ask their real questions to real students. We now have 11 ambassadors from 4 different continents!

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CIRCUSTALK

IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING ALTERNATIVE ROUTES

Circus school is NOT the only option if you want a professional circus career. Some of the most successful circus artists didn’t go to circus school. If you are looking to do short form trainings, intensives, workshops, or simply to start your pro career now, CircusTalk is a great resource.

SEARCH THE SCHOOL FEATURE

Here you will find a lot of schools that are not on the FEDEC site.

KEEP AN EYE ON THE NEWS SECTION FOR EDUCATION

We are doing a “Meet the Graduate” and “Meet the Circus School” article series in an effort to get more school information out there.

https://circustalk.com/

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