Intoxicated by balance
Ivre d'Équilibre is a non-profit circus school located in Saint-Juéry, near Albi in the Tarn region. After starting as a student association, it opened its own school in 2021 at La Laiterie – Fabrique artistique. Its project, deeply rooted in community education, uses circus arts as tools for individual and collective development, creativity, autonomy, self-confidence, and mutual support. The school welcomes a wide range of students, from young children to seniors, offering multidisciplinary classes, parent-child workshops, a creative troupe for 12-18 year olds, adult classes, open practice, and holiday workshops. Acrobatics, aerial disciplines, juggling, object balancing, and acting are the main disciplines taught. Ivre d'Équilibre also develops "Cirque Extra-Ordinaire," a major adapted circus project created in partnership with institutions and professionals who support people with disabilities. As a member of the FFEC and the FREC Midi-Pyrénées, the association also works in schools and institutions, develops a company activity and organizes the Circus Vallée festival in Saint-Juéry every year.
Presentation
Ivre d'Équilibre is a non-profit circus school located in Saint-Juéry, near Albi in the Tarn region. Its story began within the Albi student community before reaching a significant milestone in September 2021 with the opening of its own circus school. This development was made possible through a partnership with La Laiterie – Fabrique artistique , which enabled the association to renovate and equip a space specifically dedicated to circus arts.
Now located at 19 route des Avalats in Saint-Juéry, Ivre d'Équilibre is developing a project that combines an amateur practice school, popular education, internships, artistic creation, adapted circus , external interventions, a company and the organization of cultural events.
Educational project and values
Popular education is one of the cornerstones of its identity. For the association, circus arts are not simply a set of techniques to be learned: they represent a tool for individual and collective development. Self-confidence, group cohesion, autonomy, pushing personal limits, creativity, sharing, and mutual support are at the heart of the educational project.
Target audiences and pathways
This philosophy explains the wide diversity of the audiences welcomed. Ivre d'Équilibre offers activities for everyone from toddlers to seniors, including children, teenagers, and adults. Parent-child sessions even allow children as young as two to discover the world of circus arts.
- Parent-child sessions: discovery from the age of 2, monthly workshops (groups 2-4 years and 5 years and over).
- 4-5 years: playful discovery; disciplines approached through play to stimulate psychomotor skills, creativity and attention.
- Groups 6-8 years, 6-10 years and 9-12 years: longer and multidisciplinary sessions to develop physical abilities, expression, self-confidence and relationship with others.
- Teenagers: possibility of joining La Loutre Académie (12-18 years old, intermediate or advanced level) focused on creation and collective performance.
- Adults: multidisciplinary courses open to beginner and intermediate levels, to discover or continue the different disciplines.
- Seniors: classes specifically designed for gentle practices to develop balance, flexibility and coordination.
The school emphasizes the creation of a supportive group in which everyone can experiment and progress without the gaze of others becoming a hindrance.
Subjects taught
Five main families of disciplines structure the teaching of Ivre d'Équilibre :
- Acrobatics
- Aerial disciplines
- Juggling
- Balances on objects
- The acting
This diversity allows for the use of very different abilities and gives each practitioner the opportunity to find techniques adapted to their desires and abilities.
Acrobatics allows us to rediscover and develop the body's potential, while object balancing works on concentration, proprioception, and body control. Juggling requires coordination, precision, and perseverance. Aerial disciplines offer a different relationship to the body and space. Acting reminds us that the circus is also an art of performance and expression.
Advanced courses and training
For teenagers wishing to take their skills further, La Loutre Académie is a troupe for 12-18 year olds at an intermediate or advanced level, built around a creative and performance experience. Adults also have access to a multidisciplinary course, and the school offers open practice slots for independent practitioners.
- Courses for beginner and intermediate levels (adults).
- Open training slots: room and equipment available to work without supervised classes.
- Contact improvisation dance workshops for adults.
Interventions, workshops and schedule
In addition to its main location in Saint-Juéry, Ivre d'Équilibre also operates in Albi. Three weekly classes are held at the Cantepau district's Community Social Action Center. Workshops are another important aspect of their activities: children's workshops during every school holiday period (except Christmas) and adult workshops with guest instructors.
2026-2027 Calendar
The 2026-2027 calendar has already been widely published. Children aged 4 to 6 and 7 to 10 have access to camps during the All Saints' Day break, in February, April, and July. Teenagers aged 11 to 17 also have several specific sessions.
The association is also working on an original project for a traveling circus camp by bicycle, announced from July 4 to 11, 2027. The project includes two preparatory meetings during the year and seeks to give young people an experience inspired by a real tour.
Adapted circus
One of the most remarkable aspects of Ivre d'Équilibre is its " Extra-Ordinary Circus " project. The association clearly embraces an approach to adapted circus arts, particularly aimed at people with disabilities or those experiencing various motor, social, or psychological difficulties.
The principle is to use the wide variety of circus disciplines and apparatus to adapt the practice to each individual. Psychomotor skills, proprioception, coordination, attention, balance, interaction with others, and non-verbal communication can thus be developed through circus-related situations.
Ivre d'Équilibre does not wish to position itself as a mere service provider for specialized institutions. The association advocates a partnership approach: projects are developed with the teams that support the participants (educators, psychomotor therapists, and other professionals). The objective is to integrate circus arts into a genuine educational or therapeutic project.
Itinerancy, company and creation
The school has a strong mobile component: its team can transport the necessary equipment and work in schools, institutions, associations, and other organizations wishing to explore circus arts. Ivre d'Équilibre is also an artistic company, developing forms of street performance and creating shows that can be performed in the street, in schools, and in various other venues.
This connection between teaching and creation is also reflected in the Circus Vallée festival, which was created in 2024 as a way to evolve the school's traditional end-of-year celebration. Circus Vallée has become an annual festival held every June in the Parc des Avalats in Saint-Juéry.
Despite its growth, the festival maintains its connection to its origins: the school's students remain at the heart of the event, and each edition showcases their performance. Circus Vallée thus brings together amateur practice, creativity, community involvement, and opportunities to connect with a wider audience.
Networks and partnerships
The school belongs to the FFEC and the FREC Midi-Pyrénées. The FFEC license is included in the annual registration fees for the main children's and adult courses, allowing Ivre d'Équilibre to participate in a network of schools sharing common values around the transmission of circus arts.
The association also maintains links with other schools in the Tarn region. Its participation in the local network allows for the exchange of practices, speakers and projects, and strengthens the visibility of circus arts in the department.
Synthesis
With its school opened in 2021, Ivre d'Équilibre is a relatively young structure, but its project is already particularly diverse. Regular classes, workshops, a creative troupe, open training, seniors, parent-child, adapted circus, traveling interventions, a company and a festival now form a coherent whole around the same conviction: the circus can be at once an artistic practice, an educational tool, a space for meeting and a means of emancipation.
In Saint-Juéry and Albi, Ivre d'Équilibre offers a particularly open vision of circus arts. From young children discovering movement through play to seniors gently working on their balance, from teenagers involved in collective creation to people with disabilities supported in an adapted project, everyone can find a personal way to enter the circus.
