Etac
ETAC – the Circus Arts and Techniques School of Bourg-en-Bresse and the Ain region – is a circus school founded in 1994 and located at the Maison du Cirque in Bourg-en-Bresse. Open to children from age 3 to adults, its workshops offer the opportunity to discover juggling with scarves, balls, clubs, diabolo, plates, and devil sticks; balancing on the tightrope, ball, and unicycle; acrobatics; and aerial disciplines such as the fixed trapeze and silks. The school also offers parkour and freerunning, holiday camps, and programs in schools, nurseries, leisure centers, specialized institutions, and retirement homes. Rooted in popular education and a member of the French Federation of Circus Schools, ETAC promotes a pedagogy based on cooperation, non-competition, mutual support, creativity, and celebrating achievements. Each year, the students present their work under the big top during the Br'Ain de Cirque festival, a major event organized by the school in Bourg-en-Bresse.
Bourg-en-bresse
ETAC — School of Circus Arts and Techniques
ETAC – the Circus Arts and Techniques School of Bourg-en-Bresse and the Ain region – is a circus school created in 1994 in Bourg-en-Bresse. Located since 2024 in the Maison du Cirque , a facility specially designed to accommodate circus arts practices, it develops an association project combining amateur teaching, popular education, artistic creation, workshops, outreach to diverse audiences, hosting artists and the dissemination of live performance.
Audiences and reception
The school welcomes participants from the age of 3 and up . For younger children, workshops allow them to discover the circus arts with a parent's guidance before gradually joining groups organized by age range. Teenagers and adults can also participate within the school.
Teaching and disciplines
The teaching is intentionally multidisciplinary . The workshops allow students to discover the major families of circus arts without imposing early specialization: the approach promotes exploration and versatility.
- Juggling: scarves , balls , clubs , diabolo , plates and devil stick .
- Balancing on objects: tightrope, balance ball and unicycle .
- Acrobatics and aerial disciplines: fixed trapeze and aerial silks .
Educational project
This diversity directly reflects ETAC's educational project, which stems from popular education movements. The association considers circus arts as a tool contributing to the overall education of individuals and upholds three core values:
- Artistic openness : encouraging awakening, curiosity, experimentation, creation and innovation. Students are invited to search, experiment, create and gradually develop their own relationship with the circus and artistic expression.
- Living together : using circus arts practices to develop solidarity, cooperation, mutual support, fairness, and respect. Circus arts allow for individual growth while learning to work with others and participate in a collective creation.
- Emphasis on success : a non-competitive teaching approach based on patience, hard work, perseverance, and pushing oneself to the limit. Every step forward is considered a success to be celebrated, regardless of the student's level or goals.
This philosophy allows us to welcome very different profiles and objectives within the same school.
Parkour-freerunning
Alongside circus workshops, ETAC develops a significant parkour-freerunning activity. This practice is offered to several age groups and allows participants to discover the art of movement in a safe indoor environment: jumps, crossings and acrobatic figures complement the traditional circus offering.
Internships
The workshops constitute an important part of the activity. During the autumn, winter and spring holidays, ETAC organizes circus workshops aimed particularly at children aged 4 to 15 .
- Activities offered: acrobatics, juggling, object balancing and aerial disciplines.
- Parkour training courses are organized regularly.
- Occasional discoveries of specific disciplines (Landes stilts and urban stilts).
Interventions in the territory
ETAC regularly works with numerous organizations across the region: nurseries, schools, educational institutions, leisure centers, specialized institutions, and retirement homes. Projects can take the form of a one-off introductory session, a one- or two-week internship, or regular workshops organized throughout the year.
- Forms of intervention: one-off initiation, one or two-week internship, annual workshops.
- Structures accommodated: nurseries, schools, leisure centers, specialized institutions, retirement homes, educational establishments.
Materials and proposals during interventions
During these interventions, the school can offer a wide range of activities and materials adapted to the audience being welcomed.
- Juggling: scarves, balls, Chinese plates, devil sticks and diabolos.
- Balances: balance ball and stilts.
- Acrobatic bikes: pedal boat, gogocycle and unicycle.
- Acrobatics: collective pyramids.
- Possibility of travelling with ETAC's own big top for certain projects.
Arts and cultural education
Arts and cultural education is playing an increasingly important role. ETAC is developing projects with the Louis Parant school, the Regional Conservatory, the National Stage, and the City of Bourg-en-Bresse. These collaborations have enabled the creation of artistic programs centered around the circus and the development of a special circus arts program for students in grades 3-5.
The Circus House and local roots
Since 2024, ETAC has been located at the Maison du Cirque, 2 rue Alphonse Dupont , in the Pont-des-Chèvres district of Bourg-en-Bresse. This dedicated space offers areas adapted to disciplines requiring height and volume, and allows for the convergence of teaching, cultural projects, artists, and residents around the circus arts.
ETAC aims to make this Circus Center a true resource for the region: supporting circus-related projects, organizing activities in the neighborhood, and working with local cultural organizations. Parent-child workshops, meetings, performances, stilt-walking projects, and juggling events have all contributed to the school's integration into the community.
Artist residencies and relationships with professionals
The relationship with professional artists is part of ETAC's identity. The school hosts artists and companies in residence and fosters encounters between amateur and professional practitioners, allowing students to better understand the different dimensions of contemporary creation.
Br'Ain Circus Festival
This openness finds its most visible expression in the Br'Ain de Cirque festival, organized annually by ETAC in Bourg-en-Bresse. For about ten days, the festival brings together professional and amateur shows, workshops and cultural events under the school's big tops, in partnership with the Scène nationale de Bourg-en-Bresse and La Tannerie.
The festival is also the major annual event for the students: all the school's groups present their shows under the ETAC big tops. For the 2026-2027 season, these performances are scheduled as part of Br'Ain de Cirque, from May 19 to 28, 2027. The student shows are free and open to families, friends, the curious, and circus enthusiasts.
Cross-cutting action and institutional anchoring
The Circus House, regular classes, workshops, external outreach programs, and the festival allow ETAC to build a particularly cross-disciplinary project. The association uses circus arts as a tool for education, creation, community building, and cultural development in the region.
A member of the French Federation of Circus Schools and the FREC Rhône-Alpes, ETAC is today one of the key players in circus arts in the Ain region. Its history of over thirty years , its roots in popular education, the diversity of the audiences it welcomes, its cultural partnerships and the creation of the Maison du Cirque (Circus House) allow it to develop a project ranging from the first discovery of circus arts to encounters with professional artists.
Suggested activities (summary)
- Juggling, acrobatics, balancing, unicycle, tightrope, ball, aerial silks, trapeze.
- Parkour-freerunning.
- Holiday camps (children 4-15 years old) and parent-child workshops.
- Interventions in nurseries, schools, specialized establishments, retirement homes.
- Artist residencies and Br'Ain de Cirque festival.
In Bourg-en-Bresse, children, teenagers and adults can discover and explore these practices further. Through a pedagogy that prioritizes cooperation , creativity and progress rather than competition, ETAC champions a circus accessible to all, conceived as much as an artistic practice as a powerful tool for community living .
