Loiret Circus School – ECL
The Loiret Circus School offers year-round circus classes in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Mesmin for children and teenagers aged 4 to 16. Acrobatics, aerial disciplines, juggling, balancing, and clowning are explored through a teaching method that emphasizes experimentation, creativity, self-confidence, and the joy of progress.
45160 Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Mesmin
Created in 2019 , the Loiret Circus School develops the practice and transmission of circus arts in the Loiret and more broadly in the Centre-Val de Loire region.
After several years devoted in particular to circus interventions and projects, the school now offers regular year-round workshops in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Mesmin , near Orléans.
The school promotes an accessible, playful, and creative approach to circus arts. Its educational project views the ring as a space where children and teenagers can discover their abilities, gain self-confidence, experiment, and progress at their own pace.
Freedom is one of the central values of the project. Each participant should be able to discover circus disciplines without performance pressure, try, make mistakes, start again and gradually build their own way of practicing.
Technical learning thus becomes a support enabling the development of autonomy , perseverance , coordination , creativity and team spirit .
A multidisciplinary approach
The teaching is multidisciplinary and is based on the major families of circus arts.
- Juggling and object manipulation help develop dexterity, coordination, and concentration.
- The balance exercises lead students to explore support, posture and body control in unusual situations.
- Acrobatics is approached on the ground but also through different aerial situations.
- Aerial disciplines are therefore part of the program offered by the school and allow for the exploration of a different relationship to the body, height and space.
- Clowning complements technical learning through work around play, expression and each person's personality.
The goal is not to impose a single discipline or way of practicing, but to allow students to explore these different families before developing their own affinities.
Regular classes
Regular classes welcome children from the age of 4 .
Groups and age ranges
The sessions are organized into several groups adapted to the age and development of the participants:
- Awakening group (4-6 years) : a specific group whose sessions are adapted to motor development and which constitutes a first discovery of the circus world.
- Children (7-11 years) : a longer course allowing for in-depth exploration of the different families of disciplines.
- Adolescents (12-16 years) : a third group with practice adapted to their age and progress.
The workshops are supervised for the 2026-2027 season by Loréane Bentz and Maxime Larouy .
A free circus school
Beyond learning techniques, the team wants to create an environment in which participants can dare to try, gradually overcome their apprehensions and consider each attempt as a step in their learning.
Accessibility is also an important aspect of the association's project.
The Loiret Circus School states its aim is to make circus arts accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of the initial level of participants.
This philosophy is reflected in the way the association presents its school as a " Free Circus School ": a space in which everyone can experiment and create at their own pace, according to their abilities and personality.
A mobile dimension
The Loiret Circus School also has a touring dimension stemming from its history and initial project.
Since its creation, the association has been active in various locations, which it temporarily transforms into spaces for discovering and learning circus arts.
The opening of annual workshops in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Mesmin now makes it possible to complement this activity with regular and progressive practice throughout the year.
With its introductory groups, children's and teenagers' classes and its multidisciplinary approach combining acrobatics, aerial arts, juggling, balances and clowning, the Loiret Circus School offers an amateur practice path based on experimentation , creativity , pushing oneself beyond one's limits and the pleasure of practicing collectively .
