The Circus

Presentation

La CiRQueRie is a circus school and a space dedicated to live performance, created in 2013 and located in Dissay , in the Vienne department. Its project seeks to develop local cultural activity that fosters encounters between professional artists, amateur practitioners and local residents.

The circus school: the heart of the activity

The circus school forms the core of the regular activity. The workshops are open to different audiences and offer a progression built around three main learning phases.

1. Discovery and awareness — particularly through circus-based motor skills, to experience movement, space, objects and situations inspired by circus arts.
2. Initiation and learning — acquisition of the technical basics of the different circus families and progressive development of autonomy.
3. In-depth study and creation — transformation of techniques into tools to build sequences, acts and artistic proposals.

This progression reflects La CiRQueRie's philosophy: technical learning is not considered separately from the pleasure of playing , expression , and creativity . The workshops give significant importance to expressive games, group activities, and circus scenarios.

Teaching techniques and objectives

• Work involving acrobatics , juggling and balancing on objects .
• Development of balance , strength , momentum , control , skill , flexibility and controlled risk-taking .
• Pedagogy aimed at enabling participants to understand , act and express themselves with their bodies, as well as to progress and share with others.

Long-term projects can lead to the construction of a technical sequence and then to a real performance presented to the public.

Weekly workshops

The weekly workshops currently listed are held on Friday evenings in the gymnasium of the Jeanne Kaes school in Beaumont. Three groups are offered:

• 3-6 years — work in logic of discovery and circomotricity.
• 7-12 years — progressive development of technical skills, autonomy and expression.
• Adolescents-adults — in-depth study, creation and autonomy.

This openness to diverse audiences is also reflected in the association's local projects. Documents from the Communauté de communes du Haut-Poitou attest to interventions that may involve nurseries, various school levels, and nursing homes.

La CiRQueRie has a genuine experience in arts and cultural education. Its school interventions can combine the discovery of the history of the circus and its professions, the demonstration by an artist-facilitator, the regular practice of several disciplines, the technical development, the rehearsal and then the presentation of a show.

These projects do not only aim to provide a one-off activity: they can constitute a real cultural and artistic journey allowing children to discover the circus, meet professionals, experiment with several techniques and gradually build a collective production.

Holiday camps and vacation stays

The organization also operates in the field of holiday camps and summer camps. It is a partner of the "Les P'tits Acrobates" camps organized in Beaumont-Saint-Cyr, where children are accompanied under a big top by professionals from La CiRQueRie.

These stays allow young participants to discover several dimensions of circus arts: juggling, balance, clowning, learning, and creation. This activity complements regular workshops and school programs.

Hosting artists and artist residencies

La CiRQueRie is committed to supporting professional artists by hosting artists and companies in residence. This policy is based on the belief that encounters between amateurs and professionals are mutually enriching .

Residency brings teaching and contemporary creation closer together: students attend a place where circus is taught, researched, experimented and created by professional artists.

Programming, meetings and performances

La CiRQueRie develops a cultural program blending professional and amateur performances. Students can participate in performances: in May 2026, La CiRQueRie presented a show as part of Dissay en Fête .

The school also participates in meetings between circus schools — in May 2026 it was present at the FREC Atlantique Regional Meetings organized at Le Plongeoir – National Circus Center of Le Mans, promoting collective practice, exchange and the presentation of creations.

The federal situation has recently evolved: the FFEC still presented it as "non-federated" during the 2025 Regional Meetings; it now appears in the official directory of schools of the Federation and in the list of the FREC Atlantique, participating in 2026 in the regional meetings among the schools of the network.

Through its courses, its circus motor skills projects, its adapted circus, its traveling interventions, its school projects, its partnerships with holiday camps, its artistic residencies and its programming, La CiRQueRie develops a project much broader than a simple weekly leisure activity.

Its base in Dissay and its courses in Beaumont-Saint-Cyr allow it to have an impact across the Vienne and Haut-Poitou regions. The association builds links between amateur practice, arts education, cultural action and professional creation.

La CiRQueRie is a space for discovery, learning, expression and creation around circus arts and live performance: from circus motor skills for young children to creative projects for teenagers and adults, from adapted circus to residencies for professional companies, its project promotes an accessible , collective circus open to its territory .