The Southern Stars

The Southern Stars

Les Estrelles del Sud is a circus school and training organization located in Saint-Cyprien , in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Created in 2013 , the organization has been developing the practice and transmission of circus arts to an audience ranging from children to adults for over ten years, while now developing a real component dedicated to professional training.

The school champions an artistic, educational, and human- centered approach. Its goal is to make circus arts accessible to as many people as possible in a supportive, safe, and professional environment. Learning is tailored to each individual's abilities, desires, and objectives to foster personalized progress.

Beyond technical acquisition, the circus is used as a tool for expression and personal development.

• Motor Skills
• Self-confidence
• Autonomy
• Creativity
• Team spirit
• The pleasure of practicing

Regular classes welcome children, teenagers, and adults, whether for a first introduction or for more in-depth practice. Students can gradually build their artistic journey throughout the year.

Teaching and disciplines

The teaching is multidisciplinary. Les Estrelles del Sud develops in particular juggling, balancing on objects, ground acrobatics and aerial disciplines.

• Juggling
• Balances on objects
• Ground acrobatics
• Aerial disciplines : aerial silks, trapeze, aerial hoop (when technical conditions and equipment allow)

The workshops organized during school holidays allow children and teenagers to discover or deepen their practice. They also provide an entry point for young people who do not necessarily attend school throughout the year.

External interventions

Les Estrelles del Sud also develops a significant external intervention activity. Workshops can be organized for:

• Schools
• Educational structures
• Leisure centers
• Associations
• Local authorities, town halls
• Companies, works councils
• Festivals and cultural or festive events

When performances take place directly at the client's premises, the team favors easily adaptable disciplines such as juggling, balancing acts, and physical expression. At the Capellans Gymnasium in Saint-Cyprien, the facilities allow for the integration of aerial disciplines such as trapeze, silks, and hoop thanks to the appropriate equipment and rigging points.

Each session is tailored to the audience, location, duration, and educational objectives. The school particularly emphasizes:

• A playful introduction to the circus
• Body language
• Self-confidence
• Cooperation
• Sharing

Vocational training

One of the major developments within the organization is its focus on professional training. Les Estrelles del Sud is now a Qualiopi- certified training provider and offers artistic and educational training in circus arts.

• Acrobatics
• Aerial disciplines
• Balances
• Juggling
• Physical preparation
• Artistic creation

However, the curriculum is not limited to circus training. It also includes work on physical expression through dance, with floor barre, standing barre, adagio, pirouettes, jumps and choreographic variations.

Musical expression allows for the exploration of rhythms, sound structures, and their application within a choreographic work. Dramatic expression addresses improvisation, stage presence, character development, and the creation of collective images.

Place is also given to artistic culture and the history of performance, with a reflection on costumes, makeup and sets.

The training also includes supplementary instruction in French, a modern language, anatomy, physiology, nutrition, risk prevention and mathematics applied to professional situations.

Finally, trainees learn to build a real circus act: artistic design, organization of the different stages, staging and understanding of certain technical and economic aspects of a show.

The stated objective is therefore to gradually support the transition from amateur or advanced practice to a genuine professional project as a circus artist.

This professional development extends a dimension that has been historically present in the Estrelles del Sud project. From its earliest years, the association presented itself as a school but also as a place of creation, a laboratory for social connection and an artistic incubator.

Les Estrelles del Sud now constitutes a multi-level structure:

• A school allowing children, teenagers and adults to regularly practice circus arts
• A provider of artistic workshops working with a wide range of audiences
• A training organization now supporting people wishing to build a professional career path

In Saint-Cyprien, this articulation between amateur practice, transmission, creation and professionalization makes Estrelles del Sud a particularly interesting structure for discovering circus arts but also for supporting practitioners wishing to gradually transform their passion into an artistic and professional project.