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! 💬

#caravanctf #socialcircus #caravannetwork

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! 💬

#CaravanCTF #SocialCircus #CircusEducation

🎓 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! 💬

#CaravanCTF #SocialCircus #CaravanNetwork