A Circus Atmosphere

Un Air de Cirque is a recreational circus school located in Lavardac, in the Lot-et-Garonne region. Created in 2018 by Romain Labadie and Coline Lendormy , the association develops the teaching and promotion of circus arts in an approach that is physical , artistic , educational and social .

The school welcomes a particularly wide range of participants, with activities starting as early as 9 months old with parent-child circus-motor skills workshops. Practice then continues with children from age 4 , teenagers, and adults.

A non-competitive pedagogy

The school's teaching method is based on a non-competitive and non-elitist approach. Each practitioner should be able to progress at their own pace and according to their own abilities.

The goal is therefore not just to successfully perform tricks. Teachers also seek to develop autonomy , perseverance , creativity , confidence , and the ability to gradually understand the risks inherent in different disciplines.

The group plays an important role in this teaching method. Un Air de Cirque seeks to use collective dynamics to allow each participant to progress individually, while promoting mutual support and respect for others .

A multidisciplinary practice

The practice is intentionally multidisciplinary .

• Juggling allows you to work with balls, clubs, diabolos, devil sticks, scarves and rings.
• Students can also discover different object balancing techniques: rola-bola, tightrope walker, balance ball and unicycle.
• Acrobatics constitutes another important branch of instruction. It includes floor acrobatics, acrobatic lifts, human pyramids, and handstands.
• Physical preparation complements this learning through stretching, breathing and muscle strengthening.
• The school also places importance on expression and the artistic dimension . Expressive games, the creation of acts, and performance practice gradually transform technical learning into proposals intended to be presented before an audience.

This dimension is particularly evident in the end-of-year show in which the different groups participate.

Regular classes for the 2026-2027 season

For the 2026-2027 season, regular classes are organized into several age groups.

The creative group

Un Air de Cirque also offers a creative group accessible from age 10 .

This group is for students already enrolled in a regular course and selected by the instructors based in particular on their motivation , availability and involvement .

Participants then attend two classes per week and develop a more in-depth artistic practice.

The objective goes beyond the single annual show: the creative group may be called upon to present its work on different stages and in different places during the year, depending on the partnerships developed by the association.

This proposal allows particularly committed young people to discover more about the process of creating an act, the regular work required for its preparation, and the experience of repeated performances in front of different audiences.

Family practice and early childhood

The school is developing a family practice in parallel.

" Family Circus " workshops are regularly organized for children aged 5 and up, accompanied by teenagers or adults. These sessions allow children and parents to directly share the discovery of circus arts.

Early childhood benefits from an even more specific project with circus-motor skills.

• These workshops are accessible from 9 months and organized into groups of 9-24 months then 2-3 years , always with the presence of an accompanying adult.
• They are not seeking to teach circus techniques prematurely.
• Circus equipment is used to support the child's motor , cognitive , and emotional development. Young children can roll, crawl, climb, stand, find their balance, and experiment with their first forms of acrobatics in a suitable environment.
• The adult actively accompanies the child while allowing them the opportunity to explore the capabilities of their own body.

This activity is notably led by Coline Lendormy , who has a certification in psychology and child motor development.

Internships

In addition to weekly classes, Un Air de Cirque organizes workshops .

They can accommodate beginners as well as practitioners seeking to improve their skills and offer a particularly wide range of disciplines: floor acrobatics, acrobatic lifts, balance ball, tightrope, American roller, juggling, diabolo, unicycle and act creation.

When the ages are very different, two facilitators make it possible to form separate groups in order to adapt the content and difficulty of the exercises.

The internships may result in the creation of an act presented to families on the last day.

The itinerant activity

The school also develops a significant itinerant activity .

With its truck and equipment, the team travels to schools, gymnasiums, playgrounds, community halls, leisure centers, social living spaces or public squares.

Interventions can take the form of a short project of less than ten sessions or a longer project allowing progression over time.

Un Air de Cirque works with preschools and elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, leisure centers and medico-educational institutes.

Projects can be built around juggling , balancing on objects , ground acrobatics and acrobatic lifts .

The team uses these disciplines to work on objectives that go beyond technical learning: self-confidence , self-respect and respect for others , perseverance , controlled risk-taking , emotional management , body awareness and group cohesion .

Depending on the educational project of the partner structure, the intervention can range from a simple discovery to initiation, in-depth study, creation of acts or preparation of an end-of-year show.

Circus-motor skills workshops can also be organised outside of school for children from 9 months to 3 years old accompanied by an adult.

The team also works on one-off events : Christmas markets, village festivals, fairs, inaugurations, sports festivals, birthdays and other events.

The management team

The school's permanent management rests on its two co-founders.

Romain Labadie is a juggler, porter, and musician. He holds a BPJEPS (Brevet Professionnel de la Jeunesse, de l'Éducation Populaire et du Sport) in Circus Activities and is a graduate of the French Association of Adapted Circus. He has over thirteen years of experience in various circus schools in France and Switzerland.

Coline Lendormy is an acrobatic aerialist. Holding a BAFA qualification and certified in child psychology and motor development, she also has experience gained in several Swiss circus schools since 2012 .

Both regularly continue their training through internships with professionals.

This complementarity explains several of the school's particularities: an important place given to acrobatic lifts , a real circus-motor activity for early childhood and the ability to intervene with very different audiences.

A school open to all

Un Air de Cirque is therefore a leisure school that is particularly open in terms of age and forms of practice.

The same project can accommodate a nine-month-old baby with his parent, a child discovering the circus, a teenager wishing to get involved in a creative group, or an adult coming to practice for leisure.

The diversity of disciplines — juggling, diabolo, unicycle, tightrope, balance ball, rola-bola, acrobatics, hand balances and lifts — allows for the construction of a complete circus practice without a competitive logic.

In addition to this regular activity, there are internships , family practice , student shows , school interventions , projects with IME and external activities .

The whole thing corresponds to the project championed by the association since its creation: to use circus arts as an artistic and physical practice but also as a pedagogical, educational and social tool accessible to the greatest number.