The continuum of circus: training to production, and the need to identify goals
Introduction
I am very honoured to be with you for the next two days; thank you Di Robson for your invitation. Before beginning I would like you to be informed that I will do my best in English but it is not my mother language, so do not be offended if once in a while I come back to French words to express my ideas. I am allowing myself the right to make mistakes like the ones happening in circus because even if we fall the public accept that we can try again.
What I want to share with you are my questions, questions about circus arts, questions about what's going on now and what will be the future of circus arts. What will be the circus of tomorrow? Who will be the circus artists of tomorrow? I am ambivalent. I am anxious and at the same time I am very excited. My anxiety is very closely related to the fact that the new generation want everything very fast, quick. For me, I call them 'The fast food generation' but they are not alone, very many producers have the same profile. I am talking about old and young producers. They are very hungry. They are looking for young talents well done and ready to be eaten. Get them in the microwave and in less than three minutes you can eat. This is what I called the 'Magic Button Producers Generation'. They are not ready to invest, they are ready to push the button of the photocopier and print bills, pounds, dollars, francs because for them money does not belong to any culture. They buy, they eat, they flush……
My excitement belongs to my convictions, to my faith in the young generation. If we trust young people, if we believe in young artists, if we are ready to support them, if we are ready to share our experience with them, if we are ready to listen, to understand another language than ours, well everything can happen. These young artists interbreeding with experienced artists are capable of finding their own ways of expression with a lot of character, with a lot of meaning, what they have in their soul. They will not just show their personality but they have big hearts, they want to share their emotions, their dedications and they are looking to give all what they have and more because it is their cause, their life.
What I am expressing is my point of view, I am completely open to your comments, I am here to learn, I am here to listen, I am here at your service.
Main Themes
The Circus of tomorrow starts in today's Circus Schools.
The <Metissage> or interbreeding is an art. An art to create alliances between different art forms, between different cultures, between the schools and the creators and the producers. From this art will grow new circus artist, will flower, will bloom circus. From the practice of this art we can believe in the future of circus arts.
Different Topics - Different Angles
Since the Big Bang in the Soviet Union, it is getting harder and harder to scout circus artists. Just ask Le Cirque du Soleil who are organising auditions all across the world and I'm only pointing out the artists, the situation for trainers is worst.
Who will do this? Are the producers ready to invest, are they ready to help the development of the future? Do they feel responsible for these matters? Where stands the government about circus arts. In France, in Belgium, the Circus arts are not just officially recognise but they can get financial support? How does it look like in UK?
The oldest school in Occident or in Europe is the Moscow School and it is relatively recent because it was founded in 1927. The places to learn how to become a circus artist were the circus companies themselves. The family who were the owners and they were very many became the ones who taught the skills to their children. They gave to circus very many artists and once in while they have accepted outsiders to become a member of the family and by the same token learn about circus.
So by asking what is a circus school, I am talking about the new structure, those for who the mission is to train, to prepare the circus artist of tomorrow.
What were they in the past?
Families
It goes very far, let me give you an example. In Italy, in a little village, Cesentico, was founded the Academy dell Circo. The director is Egidio Palmiri. When Egidio has created his school he did it for the children of Italian circus artists, this was the condition to be admitted at the school. For Egidio this was one of the only way to continue the tradition.
There are very many of these families we can consider them as Dynasty. Let me give you some names: The Bouglionne in France, The Togni in Italy, the Knie in Switzerland.
I have great respect for these families and we have a lot to learn from them.
The National Association of Youth Circus
A Code of Good Practice
Teaching basic skills - what's happening with all of that?
A code means regulations but what's above the rim, the goals of these training?
Where's the place for creativity?
Where's the place of interpreting the arts?
Do they push too hard on production before getting the fundamentals?
Do they have dance, acting, music?
Do they know that circus was born into?
Every answer to every one of these questions do not allow a clear and general vision of what are the circus schools. So many answers, so many schools.
For the last 15 years we have to recognise that all the schools became very legitimate. They became a reservoir where companies and producers were scouting new talents. The best example are the festivals. Just about 80% of the participants at festivals, except Monte Carlo are from the schools. These events are a very important window, they are great show cases. Hundreds of agents, producers, artistic directors are attending these festival to buy, I am not saying negotiate, I prefer the verb buy. We they do not buy, they find inspiration and very often they will find someone who will repeat the act. There is no ethic, there is no respect in this business.
If today, we can always find some self made person in circus, this will not last for very long. Now the companies, the producers, the agents, the artistic directors prefer to make scouting in the schools and it could become a big problem because they are not ready to wait, they see a great potential, they want it right away. They do not want to wait, they do not want to invest in the development of this artist. They don't think at the after career, they do not care about them. They have needs and lets go fill the needs, no preoccupation for the middle or the long term.
May be this could be a good topic to create alliances, to get some ethics.
China, they start at three years old, most of the schools belong to circus companies.
Moscow, if I can say the classical, great artists, great formateurs, this school was the supplier for all soviet circus companies; today it is not easy, financial problems and some ethic problems, is the student really free, or does he have to be under contract with Rossgoscyrk to be at the school?
Hungary school in Budapest, where the tradition remains very strong.
Le Centre national des arts du cirque, the French state school, created by the French government. Certainly one the most provocative school artistically speaking, it is a very young school, challenges the brothers art, bringing theatre metteur en scene, choreography. Giving the opportunity to their students to go out of the school with a creation, with a production and the possibility to become a company. Having a real network to develop to prepare the future candidates. As far as I am concerned La France is certainly the most advance country in circus arts. The government has even recognized officially circus arts and street performers at the same level as dance, music and theatre. Recently they have elaborated a chart concerning the training in circus arts, from the initiation to the university degrees.
L'Ecole nationale de cirque de Montreal, au Quebec, au Canada. The school was founded in 1981 in a country where there is no tradition in circus arts and not even a company, the Cirque du Soleil was founded in 1984.
Circus Space in London (private)
L'Ecole nationale des arts du cirque in Brussels (very soon a mixture of private and state)
Everyone of these schools have their specificity, their personality. Having a great diversity of schools means being rich, they do not belong to the Xerox syndrome meaning that they are not photocopiers.
The next of the actual challenges for most of these schools is the human resource, the teachers, the formatters. They have a big lack of these specialists as they have a big lack of creators. The challenge is their willingness to make links among them. Not very many of them can pretend to offer all the specialities, not very many of them have enough money to pay properly high level teachers. Linking could be a very rich experience for the teachers, for the students. it could benefit to all of them. It is another way of interbreeding, it is a gold mine. Do they want to share their diamonds?
To make a first conclusion, a partial one, let me add that in a very near future is will be necessary to establish, to create a certain kind of harmonisation between the schools. They cannot fold back in their little yard, they must develop open minds. Exchanging teachers, exchanging students will be a part of the daily business. May be I am an Utopist, may be… your Don Quixote is not dead, to dream the impossible dream is very alive.
For me, this will be the beginning of interbreeding from which will arise the development and the continuous evolution of circus arts of tomorrow. Will we stop to raise these flags to show our exoticity and our internationality. It does mean loosing the identity it means that as always circus will be capable to move the kid of three years old and at the same time this old man of 80 years old. Lets raise the flag of circus, the flag meaning freedom, meaning fun, meaning that for the next two hours you will forget the misery of the life.
What is the profile of the circus artists of tomorrow?
What are the
expectations?
Fully skilled
Fully artistic
Fully poet
Capable of dancing, singing, talking
a producer
completely dedicated
very polyvalent
Stop. We can describe the profile for pages and pages during hours and hours. Why? Because I'm afraid that for most of you including me will look for the ideal which fine but we will ask the schools to give to their students all that with we did not get, or as many parents who wish to give to their children what the missed during their childhood. It is not necessarily what the children need neither want but this is an other question.
After this brief description of the circus artist I cannot continue without pointing out what is becoming the most important of the creation and the production process. it is very closely related to the training, it is the continuous training, the perpetual training.
Any serious company who wants to innovate, who wants to create in the noble meaning of creating, who is looking for quality will have to invest in continuous training for its artists and also he might need custom tailored training. it is a must they have to integrate this item to their creation and production budget. The even might have to hire a new partner or employee in the creative team, the trainer. The trainer will be there during the creative process and he will remain with the company when this one will go on a tour.
Sometimes, it is one of the best ways to build a real team where the confidence among the members has such a huge role. Human chemistry is not automatic, is very fragile and too often producers and creators who are working in circus for the first times are not enough aware of this. How fifteen artists from different cultures, from different backgrounds can merge as a team, can amalgamate if we do not take time to integrate them, if we don't have the skills to facilitate their amalgamation.
More than that, continuous training is a very good opportunity for companies to develop the belonging sentiment, the artist feel that they are recognise and respect and more we believe that their creativity is something that we consider. It is like having these people, these artists as partners. We should observe very carefully the actual experience in London where Dome project show and Circus Space are working together to prepare the artist for the show. For me this also means new questions but it is certainly a good example of the links between a producer and a school.
Never forget that in circus when we create we start from just about nothing, only ideas. There is no play like in theatre, score like in music, repertory like in dance. This is certainly one of the specificity of circus arts.
The Freedom of the Students - what's compulsory in a circus?
Where stands the freedom?
How far can we go in interpreting the learning process, by personalising the program?
How can we develop the autonomy, the responsitivity of the students?
How far are we ready to
give him the leadership in the creative and the
production process?
Is he at the school for him or for us?
How do we deal with his own artistic vision?
These questions and many others, simply because we must find ways to give to the students the responsibility of his own freedom.
It blames at the very beginning, he was free when he decided to come, we were free to accept but after…. Where is the freedom. For me there is no answer it must remain.
It might seem bizarre to bring in this topic but my experience and my observations in very many schools have showed me that this freedom does not exist. Students are raw material, they are there to be the tools with which we build something; these schools don't care about the future of these young artists, they act as a factory so they are dressage schools.
By giving the freedom to the students we are playing a trust game. We believe that these young people can be responsible and they can achieve a lot in terms of creativity, in terms of changing. For some of you it might mean a certain kind of anarchy but it is not true. For me it is a way to make them feel that they can take risk to create, to innovate it is also a way to encourage a partnership, a way to learn how to define, to identify a process, an artistic project. These are some of the first steps to discover their entrepreneurship.
Because I am convinced that circus schools are the birth place for the circus of tomorrow
Because circus schools are great labs
Because they are allowed to make mistakes
Because it is a place to create
Because it is a place to integrate the artistic dimension
Because diversifying technique and artistic visions is the way to renew circus arts
Because it is the mission of a circus school to stimulate the curiosity, to excite the imagination, to support the risk to create, to innovate
When a circus school is the property of a Production Company, the school becomes a farm club for this company and circus schools are farm clubs for circus arts.
Because if the school belongs to a company, they will select the students not necessarily for their talents but to fill the needs of the Company
Because, what's going on in circus school could inspire companies
Jan Rok Achard