Circolo Festival

From October 13 to 22, the Netherlands' largest circus festival takes place in Spoorpark Tilburg for ten days of high-quality contemporary circus. We interviewed two former students of APACA, the circus academy Fontys in Tilburg, who will be performing at the Circolo Festival. They shared insights on friendship, the 'Keep an Eye' project, their experiences in Tilburg, and, of course, their excitement about performing at Circolo Festival. When was the last time you attended a circus? This is your opportunity to relive that experience, so keep reading!  

Two Circus Friends

All the way from Latin America, Micaela and Itzel came to Tilburg to study APACA and became friends there. Micaela starts, “I'm from Chile, and I came here in 2019 to study. My specialty is aerial rope. It's cool that you hang from the roof, and you climb up to do your tricks.” Itzel continues, “I was born and raised in Mexico. I do aerial hoop, and I just graduated. I have been living here for four years, and I'm trying to find my way to stay in the Netherlands because it is where I started my network, and in Mexico circus is not well-supported.” 

They both just graduated in June, and for now, they are part of the ‘Keep an Eye’ project and want to build a network here. “It's a bit scary being an artist; it’s hard, but I'm trying to take it day by day,” mentions Micaela, “we all perform in Circolo Festival under the name of ‘Keep an Eye.’ This project helps artists build foundations for performance and supports the transition to the work field,” Itzel adds, “Our show now is a half-hour work in progress. The idea is to continue after Circolo Festival and keep improving our show.”

'Keep an Eye' Project 

For the ‘Keep an Eye’ project, Micaela and Itzel, along with one other duo and a solo artist, have been chosen. “They help us; we have meetings with them to talk about the budget plan, we get to perform in a tent with the light, and we have our coaches who are very patient with us and are always open to explain things. They also help us to invite programmers and important people because the idea is that some artists or programmers come and we get some visibility in the field, that’s why it is called 'Keep an Eye,'” Micaela explains, and Itzel adds, “A big part of an artist's life is that you need to network and get people to know your name. But because we recently graduated, it is hard to get inside the field; most of the opportunities are given to people that they already know. But now people are getting to know our work, so we can get more involved.” 

Performing at Circolo Festival

The inspiration for their performance at Circolo Festival came from their own lives. Micaela explains, “It is a show inspired by our friendship. Like somehow, we met in this country, and we found a piece of our own countries in each other; we come from a similar background.” 

In the show, they try to incorporate a variety of elements. “We really like physical theater and clowning, but the show will also have very intimate parts. We try to put a little bit of all the things that we like to do on stage, so it can be funny and sentimental.” 

They are trying to discover another way of doing circus. Itzel tells “We do not really use a lot of circus technique like in the traditional way,” Contemporary circus, as Circolo Festival calls it, is a lovechild of circus, theater, dance, music, design, visual arts, and everything that can be imagined. She adds “it's more like we're trying to develop this kind of new combination of aerial circus and theater storytelling.” 

Tilburg 

Tilburg is home to one of the two circus academies in the Netherlands. How did this academy help them become the artists they are today? Itzel starts, “It helped me find what I really like to do on stage. I think it was mostly the environment. Not just the classes, but the people in my class. They gave us the tools, and we decided what to do with those tools.” Micaela adds, “Sometimes teachers also pushed us a bit to try something; that's when I discovered that I loved clowning. The school helped me in those artistic aspects.” 

Now that they both have graduated, they are exploring if they want to stay in Tilburg. Micaela mentions that quite often people left Tilburg after graduation. “Our class is the first one that decided to stay here; some are trying to find a space to open for circus training.” Itzel mentions that it's nice that there are different creative students in Tilburg. “I find it helpful that there is this school for dance, music, and art. Because it is kind of a student city, it helps me meet people who do different things and that gives a lot of knowledge and input to my art as well.” 

They both think that Tilburg is starting to help artists, facilitating places like Circolo Festival and ‘De Nieuwe Vorst.’ “But I still would like to have more places and opportunities to meet other artists and more facilities for the circus environment,” Micaela adds. It would be a dream to have Circolo Festival all year round in Tilburg.

Circolo Festival 

Itzel and Micaela often get questions like “Are you an acrobat? Do you know how to juggle? But circus is way more than that!” Itzel explains, “It's not just doing one trick after another. It’s more like a mix; we do physical theater, some people use dance or get inspiration from visual art. It's multidisciplinary.” 

“We just hope more people go to the circus and then they can be like, oh wow! The world of circus should be more recognized.” Circolo Festival is the perfect place to get to know circus and be amazed by the creativity and possibilities. 

Micaela and Itzel will perform on October 13th or 14th at the Fontys Arena at the ‘Spoorpark’ from 17:00 to 17:30. Look at the Circolo Festival website to see the whole program. And a nice side note, people under 26 get a 50% discount on their tickets, so it's definitely worth checking out. For all the information and tickets, head over to www.festivalcircolo.nl