If the thought of facing a dready post-Christmas Toronto makes you want to run off and join the circus, you might just get your wish. The National Circus School is holding an audition tour. With stops in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, the school is accepting applications for auditions until midnight, January 16th. Auditions begin in February.

The National Circus School is renowned as one of the best in the world; its graduates have found careers with the venerable Cirque Du Soleil, as well as Eloize, Les Sept Doigts (7 Fingers), Monti, Cavalia, and Plume, among others. The school has a 95% post-graduate employment rate, and features more than 50 professional instructors. The school itself is part of a larger complex that encompasses the Cirque du Soleil international headquarters, a public space, and a performance hall, all designed to showcase the circus arts. The program is unique in that it offers those of high school age a combined academic and circus-based training, though, as second-year student Emma Stones admits, trying to balance the two can be a challenge.

“The whole experience is really crazy,” the fifteen-year-old laughs, “but in a good way.”

Stones originally started out taking dance lessons in her native Whitby, but she loved, and was always inspired by circus shows. She thought she might follow her sister’s footsteps in pursuing dance, and was involved in competitive dancing until she discovered the National Circus School. She’s spent the last 18 months living with a friend and attending the Montreal-centered school. Her first few months away from home were “weird,” but she soon adapted.

Currently in her second year, Stones says she can’t imagine doing anything else. Her typical day consists of any number of circus arts (which can include acrobatics, flexibility, and trapeze, among many other forms), a break for lunch, and then the regular high school stuff like math science, history, and French. The schedule alternates, with disciplines taking up different halves of given days, keeping things interesting for the students.

The academic side of the program covers grades seven through eleven; after that, participants are required to re-audition for the college program, which is another three years. The school currently has 24 high school-aged students. Because Stones started her circus career at the same time she would’ve started high school, she doesn’t have a normal experience to compare it with, but she notes that everyone at the school is “so close, it’s like a family. Everyone knows everybody.”

Right now, she says she’s digging handstands, but isn’t quite sure what she wants to pursue just yet. With all the activities and the sometimes-crowded nature of the program, does any of it ever feel like work?

“Sometimes,” she says thoughtfully, “for instance, we had a show right before the Christmas break –a show us students put together. It was quite hard –we didn’t have an Artistic Director, (it was) just us.” The School also holds a year-end show with an Artistic Director calling the shots, giving students a taste of the professional circus life.

As of August 2009, the school will be offering complete dormitory services for high school students from across the country. Applicants to the program can, like Emma, audition with their dance skills, although those with backgrounds in gymnastics, acrosport, diving, figure skating, and martial arts are also welcome. The school also runs a summer camp for those between nine and seventeen years old, and scholarships are available to those who qualify.  For more information, go to www.nationalcircusschool.ca, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call toll free 1-800-267-0859.