Year 1

In the first year the focus is on improving your technical and performing skills.

• You will be prepared to take a wide range of subjects in circus techniques and learn about the various circus disciplines.
• The programme includes: circus history, health and anatomy, cultural philosophy, dance, theatre, ballet training, music and physical preparation.
• As of the second semester you concentrate on your chosen specialisation. But you also continue taking classes in the various circus disciplines.
• You create a group production with other students, supervised by a choreographer (Circus from Dance).
• You design and perform a solo act or a duet.

Year 2

The second year marks the start of the main phase. You focus on deepening your specialisation and your profession as a performer.

• You take intensive specialisation classes in small groups.
• You create a solo act, which you perform before an audience.
• You continue with the art classes from year one (dance/theatre/music) and a number of theoretical classes. You start with Laban movement analysis.
• You continue with classes like health, safety, food, training and rigging.
• You take part in a group production about circus based on theatre.

This year (2019-2020) students of the second year Circus Arts made an online group video production, completely filmed from home: SAFE.

Background info SAFE
What happens when fourteen Codarts students and their director get deprived from an opportunity to make a theatre performance? What happens when they are forced to spend their time in isolation because of Covid-19?They started with a blank page and a Zoom meeting on April 2 and finished SAFE on May 1, 2020. During one month they had brainstorms and filmed, recorded and edited the material with their own phones and computers. They proudly present: ‘SAFE, because we are all different and the spectrum is endless’.

SAFE is a collective research and creation by 2nd year Codarts Circus Arts students and director Joris Schoenmaeckers.
Watch it here: SAFE

Year 3

In the third year, your independence as a circus performer becomes more important.

• You take intensive specialisation classes in small groups.
• You can do an internship with a company in the Netherlands or abroad, for at least three weeks.
• You take classes in entrepreneurship to learn about production, marketing/PR and financial management.
• You create one solo piece and one duet. For the duet you collaborate with a fellow third-year student from another specialisation.
• Together with a coach you develop your own training programme. By now you know what the best warming up is for you.
• You make a production, supervised by a circus maker/director.

Year 4

The final year is your graduation year, with the following highlights:

• Your specialisation: with a coach chosen by you you will optimise your individual act.
• You take classes in the fields of music, light, sound, production, costumes and styling. You use this knowledge in making performances.
• You write a graduation paper, demonstrating that you have analytic research skills. You are capable of presenting a convincing and appealing performance and you have a well-considered view of the profession.
• You graduate with an individual act and a group production supervised by a renowned circus maker. You perform these in one of the larger theatres in Rotterdam.

After graduation

Already during your studies at Codarts we bring you in contact with the professional network, such as Fedec and Circostrada. You take part in festivals like Rotterdam Circusstad, Cirque Mania, PERPLX and Circa (Auch). Every year you get the opportunity from local and international initiatives to join their projects.

Our partners will show you their spaces and way of working. Codarts Circus Arts works together with Circusnext – European Circus Label, Theater op De Markt, Korzo – Cirque Mania and PERPLX.

After graduation you can start as an independent artist or be part of a collective. A number of our alumni work in professional Dutch companies like Panama Pictures, Scapino Ballet, TENT en Boost. Circunstruction follows students during their studies and supports them after graduation at the ‘creation workshop’.

More and more of our graduates find jobs at international circus theatre companies like: Grensgeval and Circus Ronaldo (Belgium), Seven Fingers and Cirque Eloise (Canada), Cie XY en Cie L’MRG’ée (France), Fabrica C (Italy), Compañía de Circo “eia” (Barcelona).

Many artists who started a business on their own got awarded at the international circus world for example with the BNG Circusprijs and at the Young Stage Festival in Basel, Atoll-Festival in Karlsruhe en 30 CC in Leuven (Belgium).

Many of our alumni start their own collective. To name a few: Tall Tales Acrobatics, Circus Katoen, Janus, Knot on Hands, Tooling Bodies, Company Sinking Sideways and Company Trenina.