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the two year professional training program at Aloft

Applications are now open for Year 1 of Aloft Circus Arts Professional Training Program 2024-2025!

 

We are accepting 10 students who want to find their artistic voice and dive into 9 months of intensive circus study, skill acquisition and creative exploration.

 

Applications for auditions are now open and are accepted on a rolling basis. Our live audition is on March 28/29 2024. 

Contact

Reach out to Kristi Alyssa

Manager of Aloft Professional Training Programs 

at aloftkids@gmail.com

with any questions

the details

about the program

Year 1 of our Professional Training Program is focused on building foundational skills and techniques, with 9 months dedicated to exploring new disciplines, developing generalist skills, and starting to develop your own unique work. With a wide introduction to varied topics in the circus arts, in the first trimester we aim to expose our students to many circus disciplines. In addition to exploring many topics in the circus arts, the first trimester also includes education (goal setting, nutrition, injury prevention etc.) to help you succeed in the program and in your training as a circus artist.

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In the second trimester, you will choose your major discipline to focus on (with an optional minor discipline). Classes to help you become a well-rounded and competitive circus artist such as dance, acro, theater, conditioning, flexibility, juggling, classroom and more are included in your weekly classes with your cohort throughout the entire program. During the first trimester you may also take up to 5 classes in our recreational program for further study. During the second trimester you will select your major coach (and declare an optional minor if you’d like) who will work with you in a one hour private lesson per week to help you develop your act. Your act will be shown in an end of year cabaret show as well as some ensemble demonstrations of group work classes (juggling, acro, dance etc.).

 

Unique to Aloft’s program - in addition to learning how to be a performer, we will teach you how to run a show! You will leave Year 1 a more marketable and empowered circus artist with more skills than just performing. Included in Year 1 is production class- where you will learn how to stage manage, run a sound and lighting board, artistically direct, rig and more in order to produce a bi-monthly open-mic style cabaret show. Ticket proceeds of that show will go directly back to your cohort and into a tuition pool to reduce the cost of tuition! You get to learn employable skills and earn at the same time!

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Year Two will be a personalized residency focused on the creation of an exquisite graduation act which will combine intensive private coaching with two mentor coaches, a prescribed independent training plan, personalized career guidance and a final show creation process featuring your act. Year 2 includes lab weeks where Alofts invites coaches from around the world to work with you. Past coaches have included Liza Rose, Chloe Farah, Tanya Burka, Amy Cohen and more.  Depending on student progress, this second year, if desired may supply opportunities for teacher training. Year Two will also culminate in the Lab Weeks, a solo cabaret and ensemble Show Creation with your guest director. Year Two is optional. If there are spots in the program during Year 2, we will hold auditions to accept qualified students directly into Year 2. 

 

Year 1 and Year 2 do not run concurrently, our next Year 2 cycle will be September 2025-June 2026. If you are interested in joining Year 2 directly - please watch our social media for audition announcements around late 2024.

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The mission of our program is to create curious and questioning artists committed to advancing the role of circus the US and abroad. We aim to inspire our students and give them the tools to make physically and emotionally rigorous work that challenges ideas of who we are and what we can do, as individuals and a unified force. We want to guide aspiring professional circus artists into exploring their own creative voice and putting their work out there into the world! 

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We are pleased to run the next cycle of the Aloft Professional Training Program, developed to deliver the same excellent artistic and technical training that Aloft is known for in a more accessible and efficient package. Our program seeks to be one of the most affordable professional training programs (without compromising quality!) with a schedule that provides more options for students to work and make a living outside of the program and expedites the process of skill acquisition in the first year. ​

what our grads have to say

Christine Conroy

Aloft’s full time program has helped me grow physically, mentally, and artistically. The coaches are so talented and helpful! The program gives you time to explore a variety of circus arts, then allows you to hone in on what you are passionate about. In addition to outstanding aerial training, Aloft offers a variety of apparatuses that are not often available, including tightwire and tramp wall. The lab year gives you the opportunity to work with circus professionals that share their experience, training methods, and practical advice about succeeding as a circus professional. I consider myself extremely lucky to have participated in it, and would recommend it to anyone hoping to become more technically proficient, creative, and physically expressive.” Christine Conroy

Where are they now?

Our grads primarily remain in the circus industry after graduating. Many grads have started their own companies and created their own shows including Yes Ma’am, Reminiscent Circus, CCcircusarts.

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Other grads have gone on to circus directing degrees, touring the US, cruise contracts, international circus schools like ESAC, corporate gigs, consistent performances with cabarets and variety shows, coaching circus, joining our admin team, perform at national and international festivals, Cirque du Soleil, work in Vegas, travel with traditional tent shows.

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Most have gone on to continue creating art , learning new apparatuses, and enjoying the exciting life of a circus artist.

a student in a knee hang in the span set of a lyra
duo trapeze
juggling party
straps
image of aloft
tightwire split
duo rope
a lunge on tightwire
single point trapeze split in the ropes
juggling balls mid air
handbalancing with a chair on her foot
rope backbend
hanging in silks
chinese pole looking up at the pole with someone coming down headfirst
duo trapeze
a moment in the dance piece from flock 2018
danger lyra
group juggling in flock
hula hoops
acro catching someone from flock 2018
acrobatics featuring a two hi catch from flock 2018
acrobatics
tightwire
tramp wall
final show-flock
trampoline
moment festival
aerial silks
tightwire
dancing
tramp wall
final bows
juggling
juggling
silks
silks
stretching
rope
dancing
clowning
tramp wall
danger lyra
single-point trapeze
acrobatics
hula hoops
handstands
tumbling
acrobatics
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