The Samovar / The Smallest Circus

The Smallest Circus in the World (PPCM)

The Smallest Circus in the World , commonly known as PPCM, is a venue dedicated to circus arts , urban cultures , creation and transmission, located in Bagneux, in the Hauts-de-Seine department. Its project is distinguished by a particularly strong articulation between amateur practice, professional training, contemporary creation, social circus, popular education, community action and international cooperation.

Located in the Tertres-Cuverons district, the PPCM was built around a conviction: circus arts and artistic practices can be means of expression, tools for emancipation and levers for social transformation.

Today, PPCM is simultaneously a school of body arts , an artistic factory , a performance venue , a professional training organization , and a living space open to the residents of Bagneux and Greater Paris.

Her school supports over 1,500 students and participants throughout the year. Activities are offered to children, teenagers, and adults, from introductory sessions to advanced levels. The program combines circus arts, dance, and urban practices, allowing for the creation of diverse learning paths tailored to each individual's age, interests, and skill level.

Circus arts can begin in early childhood with introductory and circus-based activities. From age 5, children can join Circo classes and gradually discover the circus arts. The offerings then expand to include multidisciplinary circus arts and various specialized disciplines.

One of the defining characteristics of PPCM is precisely the breaking down of barriers between disciplines . Circus arts meet hip-hop, dance, movement, and parkour. Acrobatics plays a particularly important role, but it is part of a broader exploration of the body, creativity, and contemporary urban practices.

Teenagers and adults also have a wide range of courses to choose from, particularly in multidisciplinary circus arts, aerial disciplines, acrobatics, parkour, movement, and physical conditioning. Courses are available for both beginners and experienced practitioners.

The close relationship between amateur school and professional training is a major characteristic of the place. Since 2008, the PPCM has been developing a true training hub that combines circus arts, urban practices, dance, artistic research, movement analysis and social circus.

Preparatory training in Urban Acrobatic Arts

For the 2026-2027 season, PPCM is offering, among other things, its Preparatory Training in Urban Acrobatic Arts . This program is aimed at young people wishing to become professionals and prepare for entrance exams and auditions for preparatory or higher education schools in circus arts, dance, and theatre.

The training program develops a transdisciplinary approach, combining acrobatics, parkour, dance, research, and creation. Trainees can also explore various circus arts specialties using the PPCM's professional equipment.

• Wire
• Chinese pole
• Trapezius muscles
• Smooth rope
• Fabrics
• Aerial straps and hoops
• Juggling equipment
• Trampolines
• Fast Track
• Different parkour modules

The program goes beyond technical skills. Young people are supported in preparing for auditions and selections, as well as in researching and creating individual and group artistic works. They are introduced to other disciplines such as theatre, dance, and music, and encouraged to consider their future career paths in the professional sector.

This preparatory course clearly places PPCM in the category of pre-professional training programs for circus arts. It does not award the DNSP (National Higher Professional Diploma) for circus artists, but it does prepare students for entry into higher education institutions and various professional pathways within the performing arts.

PPCM also possesses recognized expertise in social circus . For many years, it has been developing educational methods in France and internationally, using circus arts with extremely diverse audiences and in extremely diverse contexts.

This experience has now given rise to a comprehensive, certified training program dedicated to the design and facilitation of socially-oriented artistic projects. PPCM therefore not only conducts social circus projects itself, but also trains professionals capable of designing and leading these initiatives.

The institution works particularly on re-engaging young people who have dropped out of school, through alternative education programs (SEGPA) and with young people in job training programs. Circus arts then allow them to work differently on their relationship to their body, to learning, to success, to confidence, and to teamwork.

The medical and social sector is also an important focus. PPCM can develop programs for children, adolescents, and adults with cognitive difficulties or mental disabilities. Circus arts then become a tool for psychomotor development, fine and gross motor skills, comprehension, memory, imagination, and expression.

More broadly, accessibility for people with disabilities is now the subject of a strengthened commitment . Since 2024, the team has been gradually structuring and training itself in order to improve access for people with disabilities to the venue's artistic and cultural offerings.

Schools and leisure centers can also develop projects with PPCM. Workshops can take place at its facilities in Bagneux or directly at partner organizations. The objective goes beyond simply learning a discipline: the projects use circus arts as a tool for self-improvement, cooperation, creativity, and success.

This educational dimension is inseparable from the history of the PPCM in the priority neighborhood of Tertres-Cuverons. The venue asserts its role as an agent of social transformation in the area and develops specific rates allowing residents of several neighborhoods in Bagneux to access classes more easily.

The PPCM is also a true artistic hub. Artists and companies are welcomed there for creation and residencies, while a program allows residents, students and professionals to discover works of contemporary circus and emerging cultures.

This close connection to creative work directly enriches the teaching. Students learn in a space frequented by professional artists, companies, researchers, and young people in training. The boundaries between learning, creation, performance, and cultural activity thus become much more fluid than in a traditional leisure school.

This dimension was recognized in 2023 with the awarding of the Centre Culturel de Rencontre label. The PPCM became the first Centre Culturel de Rencontre located in the suburbs, centered around a project dedicated to the heritage and architecture of the peripheries.

The venue thus develops research and actions that go beyond the sole field of circus: architecture, urban planning, neighborhood memory, cultural democracy and transformation of the peripheries engage in dialogue with artistic practices.

The international dimension also occupies a historical place in the project. The PPCM participates in various European and international networks dedicated to circus schools, social circus, training and urban cultures.

• Belgium
• The Netherlands
• Finland
• United Kingdom
• Guadeloupe

These exchanges allow for the development of trainer training programs, educational research, mobility opportunities, and common tools related to social circus and the teaching of circus arts.

Membership in the French Federation of Circus Schools network complements this professional registration. Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde belongs to FREC Île-de-France and holds FFEC accreditation number 92116.

The Smallest Circus in the World is therefore a particularly atypical establishment in the French circus landscape. It can accommodate a child discovering the circus, a teenager practicing parkour, an adult wishing to start aerial arts, a young person preparing for entrance exams to higher education institutions, a professional training in social circus, or a company developing a new creation.

This coexistence between amateur school, pre-professionalization, professional training, social circus, creation, dissemination, research, heritage and territorial action is precisely what makes the PPCM unique.

In Bagneux, the circus has become simultaneously an artistic discipline, a potential profession, an educational and social tool, and a means of building new relationships between residents, artists, and the local area. The Smallest Circus in the World is now one of the most successful French examples of a project where artistic transmission and social transformation are conceived together.