ARABAS Youth Circus – Bremgarten Circus School

ARABAS Youth Circus is a youth circus based in Bremgarten, in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland. Founded on January 9, 1996 by children passionate about the circus and their parents, it has been offering an original artistic and collective experience for thirty years, combining technical training, the creation of shows and participation in the life of a real circus.

The association welcomes around forty children and teenagers each year who wish to discover circus arts or deepen their practice in a structured environment.

No prior artistic knowledge is required to join the project. The main thing is to want to practice regularly, participate in group activities, and commit to preparing the annual show.

Training begins after the autumn holidays and continues weekly throughout the school year .

A progressive training

Basic training allows young artists to develop their flexibility , coordination , skill , and acrobatic abilities.

They then discover different disciplines and can gradually choose those in which they wish to invest more time.

The curriculum includes, in particular:

• ground acrobatics
• juggling
• the trapeze
• aerial fabric
• the balances
• clowning

Each participant typically takes part in one or two acts of the annual show.

The acts are developed gradually with the support of professional facilitators and artists, who bring their technical and artistic skills to the training.

A pedagogy of the collective

ARAS's pedagogy places great importance on collaborative work. Children learn to trust each other, to work together, to take responsibility, and to participate in a shared artistic project.

Learning is therefore not limited to the acquisition of technical skills: young people also discover the demands of the stage, concentration, perseverance and the construction of a show.

The annual show under the big top

An intensive week of training is organised during the spring break, followed by two rehearsal weekends in May and June.

During the summer, the association sets up its own big top in Mellingen , near the Mellingen-Heitersberg train station.

Children, their families and volunteers participate in this installation, which also includes several caravans used for cooking, costumes, reception and technical needs.

A final week of camp and rehearsals precedes the first performance.

The show is then presented over several weekends, in a four-pole tent that can accommodate approximately 290 spectators .

Each year, ARABAS develops a new program around an original theme, combining technical prowess, creativity, humor and staging.

In 2026 , the association celebrates its thirtieth anniversary with the show Zirkusziit , a creation built around a time machine allowing us to revisit the major stages of its history.

An intergenerational community project

Another distinctive feature of ARAS is the very significant involvement of families and volunteers.

Parents are involved in particular:

• to the making of costumes
• to the maintenance of the equipment
• to the assembly of the installations
• to the support of children
• to the organization of performances

This participation makes the circus a truly intergenerational community project .

Arabas Zirkuswelt: the circus school

To mark its twentieth anniversary in 2016 , ARABAS also created Arabas Zirkuswelt , a school allowing people to discover and practice circus disciplines outside of the preparation for the big annual show.

This school offers, among other things, introductory courses in:

• acrobatics
• the balances
• juggling
• the diabolo
• the trapeze
• aerial fabric

It allows young people to develop their physical and artistic abilities through a playful and progressive approach.

ARABAS thus constitutes a particularly complete structure, bringing together a circus school, a youth circus, a place for artistic transmission and a true experience of collective creation.

Its operation offers participants the opportunity to discover not only circus techniques, but also all the steps necessary to produce a professional show under a big top.