If you want to run away and join the circus, you would literally have to leave home to do so because the nearest training institute is in Melbourne. But for the first time, Canberra has a nationally accredited circus course.

Job prospects for circus performers are good, judging by the 20+ kids who grew up in Canberra’s youth Warehouse Circus and have gone on to international shows like Cirque du Soleil.

A couple of successful alumni include Jeremy Davies, CEO of Circus Nexus in Melbourne, and Elena Kirschbaum, creative producer at Highwire Events in Melbourne and director of Gluttony at Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Each of these local circus kids had to leave home when they outgrew Warehouse Circus, including Tom Davis, who had to move to Melbourne to pursue his circus ambition.

He now does marketing support remotely for Warehouse Circus, which owns Hand to Hand Academy, a Registered Training Organisation offering Canberra’s first accredited Certificate IV circus course.

“Canberra represents,” Tom said. “We’ve got graduates who helped found Warehouse Circus who are now running major circuses and we’ve got kids who are now in Circa or Gravity and Other Myths.”

Tom grew up with Canberra’s Warehouse Circus – a fixture here for 35 years – but it only caters for young people up to 25, so eventually he had to leave Canberra to continue further.

“It’s the upping stumps and relocating that makes it really hard for some people,” Tom said. “It was a big decision for me, I had to move away from all of my family. But I would have very happily just kept doing circus in Canberra if it meant finishing with a qualification and being able to train full-time.”

When Tom was a kid growing up in Canberra, he did three evening classes a week at his local youth centre.

“You hit a point where you grow out of your youth circus and there’s no next step,” he said. “You either muddle forward with an independent career, which many people do, but it’s not easy. I needed more training and so getting to go to Melbourne’s National Institute of Circus Arts was huge. The idea of being able to train four or five times a week at school was tremendous.”

Tom still landed on his feet, with the help of supportive parents.

“When I told my parents that there was a university degree in circus and I was going to apply, they were absolutely all for it,” he said. “Mum paid for my first year. It really did give me a career.”

Tom went on to tour with Circus Oz around Australia, North America and Canada, before working at Sydney’s big top and circus tent season. Back home, he designed and delivered Canberra’s first Circus Festival.

Such a balancing act will now be easier with Canberra’s first vocational circus course.

Warehouse Circus CEO, Aleshia Johnson, said Hand to Hand Academy offered a Certificate IV in Performance with specialisations in Acting for Stage and Screen, or Circus and Physical Theatre.

This is not only Canberra’s first accredited circus course but also Canberra’s only accredited course for acting for screen.

“Now Canberra screen and stage actors, musical theatre performers, voiceover artists, jugglers, acrobats, and experimental performance makers can train locally, earn a nationally recognised qualification, and take a real step toward further study or industry work,” Aleshia said.

There’s a wealth of experience at the Academy, including international circus performer Idris Stanbury, and Annabelle Carberry, a Flying Fruit Fly graduate who’s travelled the world and formed her own circus groups.

“The circus and physical theatre sector is in dire need of this,” Idris said. “I wish this course existed when I was studying.”

For more info: cpaw.au/HandtoHand