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 The circus of life December 11, 2003 The Coast Halifax’s first circus school is a flying success. Megan Wennberg gets under the big top with Atlantic Cirque. One after another, 11 kids race down the blue mats, fly off a trampoline and scurry back to the end of the line. Moments later they’re swinging, hanging, spinning and balancing six feet up in the air on cerceaux and trapezes suspended from the Shambhala School gymnasium’s ceiling. Until three months ago, none of these kids were involved in the circus arts. Anaïs Guimond opened the Atlantic Cirque circus arts training school in September of 2002 to fill a need she believed was not being met. When Guimond moved here from Quebec two-and-a-half years ago, Halifax had hosted the Busker Festival for 15 years. To her surprise, however, the city still didn’t have a circus training school. “People could come to Halifax to see buskers,” says Guimond, “but there was nowhere to try it.” Now, not only can students try their hands, arms and legs at circus arts, on February 8 they’ll be able to audition for the National Circus School. The School will be holding auditions for the first time ever in Atlantic Canada and the registration deadline is January 15. The National Circus School is located in Montreal and trains students to become professional circus performers. Unlike Atlantic Cirque, which offers many foundation courses and provides students with all the basic skills they need, the National Circus School offers high school and college diplomas in circus arts. As Moira Macdonald, media relations person for the National Circus School, says: “Now people will be able to audition to literally run away and join the circus!” When Atlantic Cirque first opened, Guimond was hoping to attract 48 students. Five weeks after opening she was up to 75. Atlantic Cirque now has 100 students, which is all the small gymnasium currently housing the school can handle. Atlantic Cirque will be moving to Bedford in 2004, where it will be part of the sports complex being built off highway 102. Guimond is hoping to make the move in time for February’s National Circus School auditions. At present, Guimond teaches classes three nights a week on weekdays and daytimes Saturdays in the gymnasium of the Shambhala School. Registration for Atlantic Cirque’s winter session is underway and students can register online at atlanticcirque.com. Classes range from circus introduction for five- and six-year-olds, to intermediate and advanced courses for experienced teenagers, to an adult program for anyone over 18 who has a general interest in circus arts, whatever their experience level. Guimond says her students, be they five or 58, are all drawn to the school for the same reason, namely “they’re looking for something different.” A smiling girl with one yellow sock and one orange sock approaches on stilts. Behind her, another girl disappears in the folds of the tissu (long swaths of material hanging from the ceiling) and a boy swings by his knees from a trapeze. Brianne Roberts, 8, spins a red plate with a thin stick high above her head while standing, sitting, then twisting on the floor. Brianne says she’s taking the general circus class because she’s always climbing on her swing set at home. “People call me the monkey,” she says, “because I always climb up things and I’m always playing around.” Kari Beiswanger, 9, of the yellow and orange socks, sums up her reason for coming as follows: “I thought it was going to be fun, and it is!” Guimond agrees circus arts are definitely a lot of fun. Originally a gymnast, she fell in love with circus arts because of the freedom they afford her. “If you want to do gymnastics, you have to do it all: floor, bars, balance beam . . .” she says. “I didn’t like that.” With circus arts, however, Guimond is able to specialize in bungee, trapeze and hand balancing. Her students have the same choices: “They have the freedom here,” says Guimond. “They’re not forced to do anything.” Excelling at circus arts requires a lot of hard work. Patience and commitment are pre-requisites that go beyond the physical need “to be athletic and strong,” says Guimond. “It’s hard on your body,” she says, holding up one red and calloused palm. But, “if it was easy, everyone would do it.” And, as Guimond tells her class in preparation for next week’s performance for parents and friends, “nobody in the public sitting here can do what you can do.” That said, the kids launch into rehearsal: Two boys pull themselves up onto a trapeze they’re barely tall enough to reach, another knots his knees into the tissu and walks on his hands until he’s spinning, and Kari dangles in complete control, the crook of one knee through the cerceau, her long ponytail hanging straight down toward the mats.
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