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 Halifax circus school has students flying high January 24, 2003 By Julie Totten Editor - Raegan Neville Haligonians who want to run away and join the circus can leave their suitcase at home. They can now take circus lessons at Atlantic Cirque, a school where students of all ages learn about everything from the trapeze to the tightrope. Anais Guimond wraps her hands around the two pieces of white fabric that hang from the ceiling and hoists herself up off her feet. Grasping the fabric, she uses the strength of her upper body to hold herself in the air as she wraps the fabric around her feet. Her legs push out to either side, and in a matter of seconds, she is doing the splits, suspended in midair. Guimond is demonstrating how to perform with the tissue, a type of apparatus used in circus acts. Originally from Quebec City, she has been giving circus lessons to Haligonians since September 2002 when she opened Atlantic Cirque--the only official circus school in Atlantic Canada. "I totally fell in love with the city," Guimond says. "And I thought it was the perfect opportunity to open a circus school and offer people here something that they don't have." Guimond has been involved in the performing arts since she was a little girl. At the age of five, she was taking ballet lessons, which eventually led to gymnastics and theatre. The magic of the circus didn't catch her eye until high school, when she began training on the bungee-trapeze. Since then, she's trained at the Cirque du Soleil studios in Montreal and Las Vegas, performed in over 500 cabarets, and dazzled the crowd at last year's Nova Scotia Tattoo. Opening a circus school not easy, says owner Guimond moved to Halifax in 2001, after spending two years in Barbados, co-hosting TSN's Caribbean Workout. She says she was surprised there wasn't a place for people to learn about circus arts. "I thought it was strange that Halifax had Buskerfest, but not a circus school," she says. But for Guimond, starting up a circus school hasn't been without its challenges. It took her more than a year to put together a business plan, which she originally wrote in French, and later translated into English. But it has been people's misconceptions about circus arts that has been the hardest obstacle to overcome. "The name was Atlantic Circus School in the beginning, but I changed it to Atlantic Cirque," she says. "People were thinking about lions and clowns, not a school for performing arts." When people hear "cirque," they think of Cirque du Soleil, a circus act that doesn't involve animals, she says. Although you won't see any lions at Atlantic Cirque, you will see a lot of equipment, which Guimond and her boyfriend, Patrick Doyle, set up and take down for every class. They are currently holding classes in the gymnasium of Shambhala Middle School in Halifax's north end. "I'm looking for a new place," she says. "The space is good here, but it's not big enough, it's not high enough, and I have a lot of other equipment that I could install if I had more room." No experience necessary for students Students at Atlantic Cirque take classes once a week for 12 weeks. The cost ranges from $193 to $310, depending on the level of the course. While flying through the air on a trapeze may sound intimidating to some people, Guimond says anyone can learn how to perform in a circus. In fact, of her 90 students, none have had any former experience in circus arts, she says. Carolyn Clegg, 27, can vouch for that. Her fiancé gave her circus lessons as a Christmas gift. "It's just fun for me and a good way to work out," she says. "It's all the things you wanted to do as a kid, but weren't allowed to do because your mother wouldn't let you." Bhima Oison, another beginner, says he's fascinated with circus performance. "I really enjoy moving my body in different ways, and I like hanging off things," he says. Although Clegg and Oison aren't the only beginners, there are several people in their class that are performing at a more advanced level. A few of them will probably perform in the next Tattoo, Guimond says. "I just watch them with my mouth wide open thinking, 'I can't believe they're doing that,'" Clegg says. "But it's fun, too, because I know that I'll eventually be able to do it, too." Guimond says most of students are drawn to Atlantic Cirque because they want to try a new, fun way to get in shape. "The adults don't want to get a membership at the gym and have to go three times a week," she says. "They want to do something different and if you do one circus class, you're going to be sore the next day, that's for sure." The circus school also offers an alternative for kids who don't want to take part in more competitive, activities such as hockey, soccer, and gymnastics, says Guimond. "Here they can do whatever they want," she says. "They don't have to do anything if they don't want to do it. That's what makes it different."
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