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Caravan Circus

Caravan - International Youth and Social Circus Network

Caravan is an international Youth and Social Circus network that consists of 36 circus schools from across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and America, and advocates for the positive impact of youth and social circus. The network was established in 2008 by 7 European circus schools with a common goal to use social circus as an educational tool and to dedicate this work to groups from disadvantaged backgrounds with specific needs.

25/08/2026

✨ CTF strengthens social circus 🎪

🍾 As we celebrate the completion of Circus Transformation in Action 9, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Erasmus+ Youth Accreditation and the + Finland, Sweden, and Ireland for supporting and funding the program’s four international training modules 💪

Through Youth Accreditation, young people and youth workers have opportunities to travel, learn, and develop professionally in different cultural contexts across Europe. CTF 9 is a powerful example of how international mobility can strengthen individuals — as well as the organizations and communities they return to 🌍

Across the four modules, participants:
🫶 Deepened their sense of belonging to the social circus sector.
🌐 Developed international professional networks.
🛠️ Gained new skills and perspectives to support their work as circus trainers.
💁‍♂️ Shared knowledge and experiences across cultural and national borders.

The impact of this learning will extend far beyond the CTF program. The young people and marginalized communities that participants work with locally will benefit from their strengthened skills and confidence through more inclusive, creative, and high-quality circus experiences🌟

🙏❤️ We are deeply grateful to Erasmus+ and the National agncies for investing in learning through mobility, international exchange, and youth work — helping to strengthen the social circus sector across Europe.

Thank you for making these opportunities possible! 🎪

24/08/2026

Learning also means choosing the right toolbox 🧰

The Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) program brings together circus professionals from across Europe and immerses them in social circus contexts — encouraging them to question some of the assumptions and certainties shaped by their previous training.

📋 Across 4 modules in a year long, each led by two different trainers, participants learn how to design an educational journey that responds to the specific group they are working with 🤝

To do this, they explore several dimensions of learning:
🧠 The cognitive level — understanding concepts, knowledge, and reasoning.
💙 The emotional level — building confidence, perseverance, and a willingness to challenge oneself.
❤️ The social level — developing communication, collaboration, and interaction within the group.

🤹 The technical level — strengthening physical, artistic, and psychomotor skills.
These dimensions do not exist separately. They must work together, supported by creativity, to create a coherent educational approach that responds to the needs of each group 💡✨

🤝This is what makes social circus so powerful: it can transform the experience of the people taking part, while also transforming the circus professionals who choose to work in this field 🎪

And the participants from CTF 9 have a few reflections to share about their experience.

Let’s hear from them! 💬

18/08/2026

What connects daring and learning? 🎪✨

🎓During the Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) programme, participants are invited to try the very exercises they will later ask their own groups to perform.

By experiencing these activities themselves, they gain a deeper, more embodied understanding of what they are asking from their learners — including the challenges, emotions, and sense of achievement involved 🤝💡

This approach directly supports several competencies within “The Act of Teaching,” including:

🎯 Defining achievable objectives adapted to the target group and context.
🔧 Creating, adapting, or using educational tools to prepare, monitor, and evaluate a project.
🎣 Choosing the most appropriate format for a project’s final presentation.
🎭 Establishing clear guidelines for being on stage.

Participants also develop their ability to create, develop, and implement an educational project as a team — a key competency within “Steering Teaching” 🌍

🚀 Through this accumulated experience, they can build a more empathetic and learner-centred teaching practice. By becoming more aware of their students’ perspectives, they can better encourage them to take risks, express themselves, and dare to create ✨

And we have a few testimonies that show this process in action.

Let’s hear from the participants! 💬

12/08/2026

🎓 Learning is part of being human 🫂

🎪 The Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) program brings together participants from across Europe — and beyond — around a shared interest : learning how to pass on a love of circus to diverse communities and social audiences 🌍🤝

💙 During the program, participants immerse themselves in a supportive learning environment that gives them the foundations they can later apply in their own classes and organizations. Along the way, they develop skills and human qualities rooted in empathy, trust, collaboration, and mutual support 🙏

How can we truly create social circus without first experiencing — and reproducing — a safe and inclusive environment for the most vulnerable members of our societies?

💁‍♂️ 💁‍♀️ Understanding the different elements of a respectful, supportive, and accessible learning space is essential. It enables participants to remain consistent in their own teaching practice and strengthens the credibility of the program as a whole.

📣 This environment also helps amplify the message of social circus. Participants return to their organizations as active voices for inclusion, participation, and equal opportunities, carrying that message beyond their own schools and communities ✨

🤝 After the latest edition, participants took this experience back to organisations including Sorin Sirkus, Galway Community Circus, Sirkus Cirkör, AtroCirco, Skala, Palestinian Circus School, Coraggio, CIRQUEON, Circusful, Cirquenciel, Ateneu Popular 9 Barris, Zaltimbanq, Sirkus Magenta, Ecole de Cirque de Bruxelles, Don Bosco, Upsala Circus, and Kreativni Pogon 🌍

And we’re lucky to have a few trainers ready to share their thoughts on this caring and supportive learning environment.

Let’s hear from them! 💬

11/08/2026

🎪✨ What makes up the expertise developed through CTF?

🧰 The Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) program develops no fewer than 27 competencies across four modules delivered over one year.

These competencies are organized into four key areas:
🌍 Social Context
🧑‍🏫 The Act of Teaching
🧭 Steering Teaching
🧩 Circus Techniques and Creativity

Together, they form a specialized body of knowledge and skills for professional circus practitioners who want to use circus techniques with people who have fewer opportunities, specific needs, or diverse social and cultural backgrounds

🤝 That is why CTF works with experienced trainers who carefully design their modules to support meaningful learning and help participants develop their practice.

🙌 During the latest edition, we were fortunate to benefit from the involvement of six wonderful trainers: Ilaria Bessone, Steven Desanghere, Negri, Raphaël Beretti, Lukáš Houdek, and Katka Klusáková 🙏

🎓 Each trainer brought a different perspective on social circus practice, offering participants new ways to understand, experience, and imagine the field. As a result, they completed the program with a broader and richer range of skills — giving them an even stronger foundation for their own teaching and educational work 🎨

👀 And what do the trainers themselves think about this experience?

Let’s hear from them! 💬

05/08/2026

🎪 What does CTF actually put into action? 💪

⏭️ For nearly 10 editions, the Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) program has been training professional circus artists — most already active in teaching — to adapt their practice to audiences outside the traditional circus world 👀

Over four modules across one year, participants learn how to work with social and youth audiences, designing inclusive, accessible, and meaningful circus experiences for all 🌍❤️

This project is offered free of charge to practitioners linked to Caravan Network members, who also send their own instructors. It is made possible thanks to our funding partners, who help us advance social circus learning through three of our four main pillars:

🎓 Expertise – strengthening the pedagogical, social, and reflective skills of participants
🤝 Community – connecting circus artists from across Europe so they can learn, exchange, and grow together
📢 Advocacy – empowering participants to become active voices for inclusion, participation, and social circus beyond their own schools and companies

Thanks to all these combined efforts, CTF has become a unique and essential learning space in Europe 🇪🇺

🙏 We warmly thank our partners and funders, whose support makes this individual and social transformation possible. And we have something special for you: in the coming days, we’ll share words and actions from the people at the heart of the program — the participants themselves 💬✨

30/07/2026

“One for all, and all for one.” 🤝✨

Alexandre Dumas knew what he was talking about: moving forward in the world can sometimes feel difficult. It takes strength, time, and commitment to learn, grow, and push ourselves beyond our limits — and we all hope that this journey is not something we have to trace alone.

That is exactly why Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) was created 10 years ago 🎪

🌍 CTF helps professional circus artists meet, train together, and build a real community across Europe and beyond. More than a program, it is a space where people support one another, learn from each other, and grow together.

The program is also made possible thanks to the support of 16 circus organizations across Europe during the 2025–2026 cycle. We warmly thank them for their commitment, without which none of the 22 participants in the latest edition could have taken part 🙏

✨And the participants themselves say it best — once they complete this transformative journey, they leave with their own reflections, experiences, and voices to share.

That is what we’ll be highlighting here and now 💬

28/07/2026

🌍 Together, we go further 🌟

🚞 Travel opens the door to new horizons, especially when we choose to look closely enough to let others show us aspects of the world, and of ourselves, that we had never noticed before.

🎪This idea is reflected in what participants in Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) share with us. Over the course of one year, the programme creates a space for meeting, learning, and exchange between professional circus artists from across Europe — and sometimes beyond 🤝✨

Along the way, participants strengthen their English skills, while also discovering how solidarity in diversity can become a real strength: not an obstacle, but a launchpad for going even further 🚀

🧱 They learn to understand and apply these shared approaches to build together more effectively and pool their resources.

💬 But perhaps the best way to explain that is through their own words — and that is exactly what they accepted to share with us ⤵️

21/07/2026

🎪 What is Circus Transformation in Action (CTF) really for? 🧐

As we close the 9th edition of CTF with the Community Circus , we wanted to take a step back and revisit why this programme was created in the first place.

🚩 CTF is the flagship programme of the Caravan Network — the initiative that best reflects our mission and the reason our 24 members from 13 countries chose to join us: circus can change lives 🌍💙

This vision comes to life through 3 of our 4 pillars of action:
🫶 Community
🎓 Expertise
📣 Advocacy

🗣️ Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about what gives CTF its value and helping people strengthen their communities through social circus. We also want to highlight the voices of the people who experience the programme from the inside: our participants, all professionals working in the circus field 🤹

💬 That’s why we’ve gathered a selection of quotes from their feedback — and as we look ahead to the 10th cycle, starting in next September, we can’t think of a better moment to share them. ✨

Stay tuned 📻

16/07/2026

🧳CASES by Upsala Circus - international project is a powerful contemporary circus performance about migration, belonging, and the search for home 🌍✨

🤫 Without a single word, the show turns real stories into movement, acrobatics, juggling, equilibristics, and contemporary dance — creating an emotional experience that speaks across languages and borders 🤍🎪

🗣️ Created for audiences 10+, Cases travels through Europe in 2026, reaching 20 cities in Poland🇵🇱, Czech Republic 🇨🇿, Slovakia 🇸🇰, Slovenia 🇸🇮, and Sweden 🇸🇪. The project is co-funded by Creative Europe, and it brings together art, movement, and deeply human stories in one unforgettable performance.

If you are looking for a show that is visually striking, emotionally resonant, and meaningful, Cases is one to follow during the coming season 💫

Adresse

Rue Picard 3
Brussels
1000

Téléphone

+499396376

Site Web

http://www.caravancircusnetwork.eu/

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