Zirkusluft – Hausen am Albis Circus School

Zirkusluft is a circus school for children and teenagers located in Hausen am Albis , in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland.

Founded in March 2018 by Dominique Schneider , it offers multidisciplinary circus arts education in an environment that prioritizes creativity, the pleasure of practicing together and personal development.

A founder with a circus background

Dominique Schneider herself has a background deeply connected to the world of circus. Coming from a family of artists, she notably practiced for eight years at the Kinderzirkus Robinson in Zurich, before developing experience in supervising children and creating her own school.

Learning formats

Zirkusluft offers several learning formats to meet the different expectations of young practitioners.

The Zirkusmix

Zirkusmix courses provide a complete introduction to circus arts, combining trapeze, ground acrobatics, duo acrobatics, human pyramids, juggling, dance, theatre and clowning.

These sessions are not limited to learning technical figures: the students also work on preparing short acts presented in front of an audience at the end of the season.

Zirkustraining

The school also offers Zirkustraining courses, which focus more on technical training. Unlike Zirkusmix, these courses do not include a final performance, allowing participants to dedicate more time to their individual development.

The subjects taught

The trapeze

The trapeze occupies a particularly important place in Zirkusluft's educational identity.

The sessions begin with a warm-up combining movement, stretching, balance, and muscle strengthening. Students then gradually discover different aerial figures, with particular attention paid to safety , concentration , and body control .

Acrobatics

Acrobatics is another pillar of the teaching. Participants work on rolls, hand balances, cartwheels, dynamic figures, partner acrobatics, and human pyramids.

Juggling, dance and theatre

Juggling, dance and theatre complement this training by bringing dimensions of coordination , rhythm and artistic expression .

Other disciplines

Zirkusluft also encourages the exploration of other disciplines, including tightrope walking, balance ball, unicycle and AirTrack acrobatics.

A non-competitive pedagogy

The pedagogy is based on a non-competitive approach: each child can discover their own abilities, choose the subjects that interest them and progress at their own pace.

Self-confidence , mutual support and individual responsibility occupy a central place in this approach.

The artistic ensemble

The school also has an artistic ensemble, created in January 2019, which forms the core of its stage activity.

This group brings together particularly motivated children and teenagers who wish to dedicate more time to circus arts and creating shows.

The young artists actively participate in the design of their acts, the choreography and the organization of the performances.

The collective work goes beyond simply being on stage: the members of the ensemble also take part in preparing the performance space, the costumes, the setup and the cleanup.

Zirkusluft thus develops a genuine approach to artistic autonomy , in which children gradually become actors in their own creations.

The ensemble regularly presents public performances and can also participate in festivals or events.

Holiday internships

In addition to the annual courses, the school organizes circus weeks during school holidays.

These workshops allow participants to discover or deepen their knowledge of several disciplines over five consecutive days . They generally end with a short performance for family and friends.

In summary

Zirkusluft thus combines technical teaching, artistic creation and collective experience in a human-sized structure, entirely dedicated to the transmission of circus arts to young people.

His approach allows beginners to gradually discover this world, while offering the most motivated students the opportunity to develop regular practice and a real experience of the stage.