Step one: Take 14 kids aged four to seven who are trying circus for the first time.
Step two: Put them in a space filled with tightwires, trapezes, tissus, juggling gear, hula hoops, trampolines and crash mats.
Step three: Don’t tell them what to do.
Kids are wired for exploration and play. That is their work.
The role of teaching artists is to support young artists in their work, to help them reach their creative and physical potential.
A good circus training space is one where creative outcomes are valued equally to physical outcomes, where the child is respected as a working artist, where the teaching artist has the freedom and confidence to say yes.
christine larsen 