Meli Melo

The Méli-Mélo Big Top

Located in the Porchefontaine district of Versailles since 2006 , the Chapiteau Méli-Mélo is at once an amateur circus school, a venue for live performances and a residency space for artists and companies.

Located under its own big top at 51-53 rue Rémont , the association develops a project that fosters dialogue between transmission, amateur practice, and professional creation. Its activities are primarily focused on contemporary circus arts, with weekly workshops, holiday programs, introductory sessions for schools, performances, and hosting artistic teams in residence.

Affiliations and Shareholdings

The school is a member of the FFEC and the FREC Île-de-France. It holds FFEC accreditation number 78274 and regularly participates in meetings of the federal network. In April 2026, Méli-Mélo was one of the seven schools present at the Île-de-France Regional Meetings held at the ENACR in Rosny-sous-Bois.

Public and pedagogy

For the 2026-2027 season, Méli-Mélo welcomes a particularly wide audience. Discovery begins as early as 18 months with parent-child workshops and continues with classes for children, teenagers, and adults. The workshops are designed for both beginners and those already familiar with the activity and are organized in small groups to allow for personalized guidance.

Progress is made at each individual's pace in an atmosphere that the school aims to be friendly and supportive.

Internships

The workshops organized during school holidays are another important aspect of the activity. They allow children, teenagers, and adults to discover circus arts or to further develop a particular skill. In 2026, Méli-Mélo offered multidisciplinary workshops, as well as specialized workshops for teenagers and adults focusing on aerial arts, flexibility, and balance.

Artistic and academic education

The school also develops an arts education program for schools. Introductory sessions allow students to discover circus arts under the big top and to experiment with several disciplines.

Distribution and residencies

However, Méli-Mélo is not limited to teaching. The big top is also a true local cultural hub. A program of live performances is offered throughout the year, with a significant focus on contemporary circus but also on other art forms.

This program allows students to experience live performance in ways other than through their own practice. Learning can thus be connected to professional works, artists, and companies.

The big top also hosts artists in residence for the creation or rehearsal of their shows. Méli-Mélo thus provides a workspace for professionals and contributes to supporting emerging artists.

This residency program has been part of the structure's identity for many years. It allows for the creation of an interesting connection between the school's students, the Versailles public, and the professional artists hosted under the big top.

Amateur creation and partnerships

Amateur creation also has its place in the project. Open mic nights and performances regularly showcase student work. Méli-Mélo notably participates in events organized with the FREC Île-de-France, fostering exchanges between young practitioners from different schools.

The big top is also associated with Baz'arts des mômes, an event allowing young artists to present their creations to the public in a real performance context.

This combination of teaching, amateur creation, performance and residencies is one of Méli-Mélo's main distinguishing features. A child can start circus arts with their parents, continue in regular workshops, participate in training courses and presentations, attend professional shows and interact with artists in the creative process.

Off-site cultural activities and awards

The association also has experience in cultural activities outside its own premises. Its big top and caravan have notably allowed it to develop projects in rural areas and to organize residency outings outside of Versailles.

This cultural, educational and inclusive dimension had earned Méli-Mélo the distinction in 2020 of the Social and Solidarity Economy Inspiration Prize from the Crédit Coopératif Foundation.

Today, the Chapiteau Méli-Mélo remains firmly established in the cultural landscape of Versailles. Its FFEC accreditation, its active participation in the FREC Île-de-France, its programming, its workshops and its hosting of companies allow it to go far beyond the functioning of a simple leisure school.

Under the big top in Porchefontaine, the circus arts are thus approached in all their diversity: acrobatics, juggling, balances, aerials, stage expression, flexibility and contortion become at once physical practices, tools of expression and gateways to contemporary artistic creation.