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.

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

After graduating you can start a career as an independent circus artist or as a member of a collective. Many of Codarts’ alumni have landed positions with professional companies, including Seven Fingers (Canada), Cirque Eloise, XY, Panama Pictures, Grensgeval, Freiwalds Menagerie Circus, Gandini Juggling, Corpus Acrobatics, the Dutch Opera and Freiwalds Menagerie Circus and various circus companies and vaudeville shows in Germany and Switzerland.

Joris de Jong (graduation year 2010), juggler:
‘Immediately after graduating I started working with TENT, a then new initiative by some friends of mine from Amsterdam. In their productions they combine spectacular circus techniques with other disciplines such as mime, dance, music, theatre, design and performance art.’