Working group STUDENTS/creation

STUDENTS - artistic and educational exchanges, key skills for tomorrow’s circus artists and their employability

This working Group STUDENTS/creation works on 2 of the most important priorities for the FEDEC vocational training programmes:

  • enabling students to receive top quality training which provides them with the relevant skills for their artistic and professional career plans
  • enabling schools to meet up and compare views on their educational and artistic approaches during CIRCLE-type encounters.

Working Group examines the development of student skills which develop very quickly, just like circus arts, and the interaction of those acquired during training programmes and those acquired outside the training framework. It is a question of encouraging schools and their students to create formal and non-formal learning opportunities and promoting all types of experience outside their school environment as essential to a circus artist’s career today.

Creating collective shows within the school or in collaboration with another school offers opportunities for discussion and comparison of views on educational and artistic approaches, gives fresh impetus to creation and provides freedom for new propositions. The group is in charge of the CIRCLE project which has taken place at the CIRCa Festival (Auch, France) every year since 2006 and the CIRCEYE project organised every two years as part of the European Youth Event (Strasbourg, France). It is involved in creating innovative opportunities designed to promote dialogue between the professional sector and the schools as well as opportunities for the students to try out their circus acts in front of an audience. It also actively monitors student creation in other disciplines in order to promote it.

The audience’s opinion of the student creation is also extremely important. CIRCLE and its post-performance discussions provide an opportunity to appreciate the artistic propositions through an understanding of the educational and artistic challenges, the years and levels of training and the creative process which are all as important, if not more so, than the final 20-30 minute short-form performance.

Convinced that vocational schools have a prominent role to play in helping students find employment, the working group launched a dialogue survey in 2009 between former graduates and the hosting, production, residency and scheduling structures. This was the MIROIR project. The 3rd part -MIROIR03- is being currently developed.

Since 2010, the inter-network dialogue which takes place via annual meetings with the CIRCOSTRADA network on the sidelines of CIRCa has facilitated dialogue between the training programmes and the profession and has resulted in a policy for schools hosting and supporting the younger generation (in workshops, residencies, research, shows, performance, production, etc.). Once every two years, the FEDEC is the partner of the Seminar organised by CIRCOSTRADA Fresh Circus.

Groupe leaders :

And the FEDEC team members.