The Circus in Balance

Cirque en Équilibre is an association created in 2005 that develops circus arts in Chartres and more broadly in Eure-et-Loir. Its project combines an amateur circus school, workshops, educational interventions, creation of shows, hosting of artists and organization of cultural events.

The circus school

The school welcomes children from the age of 4 , as well as teenagers and adults. It allows both the discovery of circus arts and the pursuit of regular practice , while progressively deepening one's knowledge of certain disciplines.

The teaching is based on a resolutely multidisciplinary approach. Cirque en Équilibre considers circus as an art form before viewing it as a pursuit of performance. Technique is a means of developing expression, creativity, body awareness, and relationships with others.

The association's educational project emphasizes solidarity , mutual support , listening , perseverance , and discipline . The activity also helps develop psychomotor skills, concentration, self-confidence, body awareness in space, and the ability to assess and manage risk.

The school adapts its teaching to the age, abilities, and level of each participant. Sessions generally combine warm-up, learning of the different disciplines, and then a cool-down.

The educational progression

The program is structured in several cycles . The initial stages focus on discovering the disciplines and learning safety rules. Students then develop fundamental techniques while working more closely with the group. As practice progresses, the work can evolve towards more in-depth technical training, specialization, and greater exploration of expression, improvisation, and aesthetics.

This progression should allow for a gradual move from discovering the equipment to creating and setting up the course .

The subjects taught

Cirque en Équilibre offers a particularly wide range of disciplines.

Juggling

Juggling allows you to practice with balls, clubs, rings, scarves, diabolos, Chinese plates and flower sticks.

Balances on objects

Balancing on objects also plays an important role. Students can work on balance balls , tightropes , and American rollers .

• On the ball , progression can range from different climbing and descending techniques to movements, rotations, jumps, inclined planes and manipulations of objects performed in balance.
• On the wire , students gradually learn to become autonomous, to walk forwards and backwards, to perform different positions and possibly to integrate a dance dimension.
• The American roller allows you to work on body positioning, weight distribution and different ways of mounting and balancing.

The unicycle

Unicycling is another important discipline at the school. Practitioners can learn to ride alone, stay in place, perform slaloms, ride in groups, and gradually incorporate choreographic elements.

Stilts

Stilts are also among the activities offered. They allow participants to work on height, different types of walking and movement, obstacle courses, running, dancing, and collective creations.

Ground acrobatics

Ground acrobatics is one of the fundamentals of the teaching.

The training focuses on balance, core strength, body locking, and acrobatic basics. Depending on their level, participants can progress from cartwheels and roundoffs to more advanced elements, particularly using the mini-trampoline .

Acrobatic lifts and pyramids

Acrobatic lifts and pyramids allow for the development of a collective practice in which trust , listening and contact with partners take an essential place.

Aerial disciplines

Aerial disciplines are also represented.

The school teaches, among other things, the fixed trapeze and aerial silks . These apparatuses allow students to discover the sensations associated with losing their support on the ground and then to progressively learn different figures and sequences.

Body language

Physical work is not limited to circus techniques.

Physical expression plays a central role in the educational project. Students can work through clowning games, mime, improvisation, dance, body rhythm, and voice placement.

This approach reminds us that the goal of school is not simply to learn how to create a figure. Technique must gradually be used as a vocabulary to serve an artistic intention .

Collective creation

Collective creation thus constitutes the logical culmination of the educational journey.

The association seeks to gradually transform the group of students into a troupe . The participants learn to work together, to accept the gaze of others, to verbalize their feelings and to use their technical skills to build a collective artistic proposition.

The educational project explicitly states that there is no pursuit of performance for its own sake . The objective is to enjoy learning, to flourish, and to find one's place within the group.

This approach has also allowed some practitioners to develop a significant technical level over the years.

Cirque en Équilibre offers advanced training and has seen some former students go on to professional programs. However, the school remains primarily focused on amateur practice : it simply allows highly motivated students to develop their skills sufficiently to consider other career paths.

Internships and interventions

In addition to weekly classes, the association regularly organizes workshops during school holidays .

These workshops combine circus and theatre , allowing children to discover or deepen their knowledge of different disciplines over several days.

Cirque en Équilibre also works directly with schools and facilities that welcome children.

Projects can be organized in different forms, from half-day or full-day awareness sessions to cycles of several sessions.

The association thus distinguishes between awareness workshops , discovery workshops and longer courses of initiation and improvement .

This activity allows Cirque en Équilibre to reach audiences who do not necessarily attend school during the year.

The interventions are not limited to the school environment. The organization also works with specialized institutions , which allows circus arts to be adapted to different audiences and abilities.

Professional artistic activity

The association also develops a professional artistic activity.

She creates and distributes clown shows and develops new creations inspired by different theatrical forms.

Since 2012 , the show " Le Pupitre ", performed by Aurélien Falkowska and Georges Pennetier, notably combines clowning and percussion .

This artistic activity creates a direct link between amateur education and live performance.

L'Arrondi, an artist residency

Cirque en Équilibre also has a space dedicated to artistic creation and hosting in Soulaires .

L' Arrondi is a residency space that welcomes artists and companies. The history of the place dates back to the installation of an initial creative space in 2011, complemented a few years later by a big top to host classes and performances.

This location offers the association an additional dimension: alongside the school in Chartres, it has a space where artistic residencies, creations and encounters can develop.

The Baudruche Festival

The association also organizes the Baudruche Festival .

This event blends different artistic disciplines and develops a program aimed at both schools and the general public . It is now one of the important projects undertaken by Le Cirque en Équilibre.

A multi-faceted positioning

All of these activities give the association a fairly broad positioning.

• For members , Le Cirque en Équilibre remains first and foremost a school allowing them to practice circus arts for pleasure, from age 4 to adulthood.
• For schools and specialized facilities , the association provides a team capable of developing one-off or regular educational projects.
• For artists , it also has a space for creation and residency.
• Finally, its shows and festival contribute to the dissemination of circus arts and live performance in Chartres and Eure-et-Loir.

After more than twenty years of activity , Le Cirque en Équilibre thus combines amateur practice, technical progression, collective creation, popular education and live performance.

The diversity of disciplines offered allows students to discover the circus arts broadly before deepening their practices: juggling, acrobatics, lifts, balances, tightrope walking, roller skating, unicycle, stilts, trapeze, silks and body expression.

This multidisciplinary approach, complemented by internships, shows and meetings with artists, allows for the construction of a path from initial discovery to improvement and creation .