The Paving Stone Eaters

The Pavement Eaters

Les Croqueurs de Pavés is a non-profit circus school founded in 2005 by a circus performer and a group of instructors. After nearly twenty years of activity in Châlette-sur-Loing, in the Loiret department, the association moved to the Cantal department and settled in Ussel-en-Planèze , between Murat and Saint-Flour. There, it now develops a project combining amateur instruction , community education , adapted circus arts , school programs , workshops , artist residencies , and cultural programming .

Audience and ages

Les Croqueurs de Pavés welcomes children from the age of 4 , as well as teenagers and adults of any age . The aim is to allow everyone to discover, learn, and then improve their skills in circus arts, regardless of their starting level.

Teaching and disciplines

The teaching is multidisciplinary. Recreational classes primarily focus on ground acrobatics, juggling, and balancing on apparatus. Specific courses and workshops also allow participants to practice aerial disciplines, including trapeze and silks. Since establishing itself in the Cantal region, the association has been developing this area more specifically, also offering aerial hoop.

• Ground acrobatics
• Juggling
• Balances on devices
• Trapeze
• Aerial fabric
• Aerial hoop

Holiday internships

Holiday camps allow for an even deeper exploration of the diverse techniques. Open to children from age 5 and accessible to all levels, they bring together regular students and children from outside the school.

• Ground and aerial acrobatics
• Trapeze
• Fabric
• Juggling
• Thread
• Balance ball
• American roll / rolla-bolla
• Unicycle

Pedagogy

The school's pedagogy is explicitly rooted in a popular education approach. Les Croqueurs de Pavés advocates a practice open to the widest possible audience, respectful of differences, and excluding any logic of competition .

The goal is not simply to learn tricks. Circus techniques take on their full meaning when they are appropriated by the students and integrated into a personal or collective creative process. Each participant is therefore encouraged to progress at their own pace and build their own path within the group.

The teaching methods place great importance on mutual support and respect. Parachuting and collective risk management, in particular, teach students to care for and trust others.

• Self-confidence
• Emotional Management
• Courage
• Perseverance
• Autonomy
• Awareness of one's limitations and the ability to reasonably exceed them
• Concentration
• Listen
• Creativity
• Imagination
• Precision
• Perception of space

School interventions

The school develops a significant activity with educational institutions. Interventions are offered primarily from CP (first grade) to CM2 (fifth grade), with the possibility of intervention in the final year of preschool, but also with middle and high school students.

The association works directly with teachers to adapt the project to the age, psycho-physical maturity, and specific needs of the students. This adaptability is one of the fundamental principles of its pedagogy.

Adapted circus and social intervention

Les Croqueurs de Pavés also develop a genuine adapted circus and social intervention component. The team works with medico-educational institutions, reintegration services and facilities for children and adolescents.

• Medical and educational institutions
• Reintegration services
• Facilities that accommodate children and adolescents

For people with physical or mental disabilities, circus arts are used to develop motor skills , balance , coordination , sensory awareness , and self-expression . Instruction may rely more heavily on demonstration and guidance of movement when verbal understanding is a barrier.

The school also works with people facing social marginalization. In this context, circus arts can become a tool for restoring self-esteem and confidence, finding one's place in a group, and building supportive relationships.

This inclusive approach is sufficiently structured for the association to have a specific educational project dedicated to adapted circus.

Cultural activities and residences

The other major distinguishing feature of Les Croqueurs de Pavés lies in their cultural activities. Since its creation, the association has not only aimed to teach circus arts: it also seeks to promote street arts and create cultural events accessible to the widest possible audience.

• Circassians
• Actors
• Puppeteers
• Dancers
• Musicians

Hosting resident companies is also part of the association's long-standing mission. Les Croqueurs de Pavés thus seeks to create bridges between the amateur practice of their students and the professional world of performing arts.

Development and equipment

Since its arrival in Cantal, the association has been gradually developing its new location in Luc d'Ussel. A specific campaign has been launched to equip the space for aerial disciplines and allow the development of regular classes and workshops in trapeze , silks and hoop .

After more than twenty years and a significant change of location, Les Croqueurs de Pavés are now building a project in the Cantal region that goes far beyond just weekly classes. Amateur instruction, workshops, aerial arts development, adapted circus, school and community outreach, artist residencies, and cultural events all contribute to the same ambition: to make circus and street arts accessible to as many people as possible.

This articulation between popular education , artistic practice and cultural development in rural areas makes Croqueurs de Pavés a particularly interesting structure in the Auvergne circus landscape.