38 performers, 6 coaches, one artistic director, 840 minutes of show, 8 months of training, 65 volunteers, 1,265,332 litres of hairspray, 123 minutes of applause and hugs beyond counting: A Circus in Wonderland was a huge success!

No less than 3,100 people have witnessed Alice’s exciting journey, setting a new record of attendance to our May Show! They laughed, shivered, cheered and escaped reality, through this exceptional emotional experience. After all, this is what CircusWest is all about: sharing a dream, showing passion and having fun!

Mission accomplished.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR… FOR CIRCUSWEST’S 30st ANNIVERSARY!

For more awesome pictures of the show,
check out Erin’s Facebook Photo Album!

A crown, a pair of rabbit ears, a chessboard… Nothing says “mystery” like the accessories for CircusWest’s next May Show, A Circus in Wonderland, starting at the PNE Garden Auditorium this Thursday, May 9^th, through Sunday, May 12^th.  Jay Nunns, Artistic Director, tells us the story behind the story…

And if you still haven’t got your tickets, hurry up, click HERE!

What is “A Circus in Wonderland” about and why pick this theme?

Each year, we ask the kids what they would like the show to be about and what stories we have not told over the years we have been doing this. Perhaps, due to the large number of girls in the cast and the popular Tim Burton movie – the kids wanted to do Alice in Wonderland. For circus, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ offered more opportunities for creating different world and having characters that could believably ‘break’ into circus.

As I did more reading about the Lewis Carroll tale — I found that there were many characters which could lend themselves to circus.

What kind of circus arts can we expect to see?

We have a myriad of acts in this show ranging from aerials to juggling to unicycling to tightwire to human balancing and acrobatics — just to name a few. We have created a card castle act where people stack large playing cards and perform acrobatics over, under and through. As well, we have a stacking bike act where 8 people share a bike as it rides on circles on the stage. And, we have three performers who roll upwards on aerial straps attached only on their arms.

How long did it take to create this show?

We started developing acts/ideas for the show in November — getting ideas for acts and building the script for the show.
In essence, we start building the show in September of each year as kids begin training then.
In the earlier part of the year — we worked on skill building — and in January we began developing concepts/acts for the show.
As for the circus skill part of the show — the Cirkids have put in many years to learn, develop and refine their special skills.
All of April is spent constructing the show (we call it blocking) with the acts that have been created. The challenge we have is that we are also building skills for the acts at the same time as we are constructing the show. A fine balance — that we endeavour to manage each year.

Like Alice following the white rabbit, track down the signs of A Circus in Wonderland in the streets of Vancouver, and win 4 tickets to come enjoy the show at the PNE Garden Auditorium next month!

Here’s the drill: our wonderful posters (see picture) are currently decorating some bus shelters in the Vancouver area.
Find them, make a list of the precise spots and take a picture of yourself standing next to at least one of them.
Then, send this highly classified information to marketing@circuswest.com before May 3rd and see what happens!

Let the quest begin…

Don’t let the Cheshire Cat’s mischievous grin discourage you: you don’t need to find ALL the bus shelter ads. The winner will be the person able to list the most bus shelters. If there happens to be several winners, we will organize a lucky draw to determine who will take the pot.

Those 4 tickets are usable for the performance of your choice. Of course, CircusWest staff members are not allowed to participate. And if they still do… OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

Don’t miss the tea party!

Of course, the best way to make sure you’ll get to admire A Circus in Wonderland is to buy tickets HERE! The show will take place on May 9 through May 12, twice a day (at 12:30PM and 7:00PM), and starring CircusWest’s top performers. You can also read more about this year’s show HERE.

Last but not least: CircusWest is Vancouver’s non profit circus school. We need all the help we can get to promote this exceptional event and get people to know us. So please, share this with your family and friends, tweet and facebook about it, spread the word about us!

See you in Wonderland…

CircusWest and SilverBirch Resorts are very proud of their combined efforts over the weekend to create a 3800 can and 450 water/Gatorade bottle CANstruction Sculpture. After 13 hours, the Madagascar Penguin Vacation display was done after meticulous placing of foodstuffs for a competition aimed at raising food and awareness for the Vancouver Food Bank.

In 2012, CircusWest and Concert Properties won the Vancouver Sun’s Readers Choice Award and Best School with our CANvouver Public Library and we can repeat this year — with the help of all of you. Please vote for us at the link below!

http://www.thevancouversuncontests.com/canstruction2013/

PLEASE VOTE ASAP and send the link along for others to vote  CIRCUSWEST/SILVERBIRCH’S ENTRY in the Vancouver Sun Peoples Choice Award.  You can vote once per email, so if you have three email addresses, you can vote three times!

By voting, you will be eligible to WIN an $800 Night on the Town including

• A room at the Four Seasons hotel
• Dinner for two at YU Restaurant
• Two tickets to Ballet BC’s Giselle
• Lunch at the Copper Chimney Restaurant.

You can also visit all 22 CANstruction sculptures downtown in the Pacific Centre Rotunda, Four Seasons Hotel Lobby and at the HSBC Pendulum Gallery Lobby at Georgia and Hornby.

CircusWest and SilverBirch Resorts thank you in advance for supporting our community efforts for your vote!

CircusWest coach (and student) Martha Talbot helps with CircusWest’s and SilverBirch Resorts’ Canstruction preparations — it will be constructed at the Pacific Centre Rotunda today and tomorrow and will be on display for two weeks. Come down and see all of the amazing canstructions. And remember to vote for ours!

Get ready to vote on line for our fabulous creation – we’re after the People’ Choice Award for the second year in a row!

CircusWest is so proud of all the young folks who performed today in our first week of Spring Break camps.

For the first time, we offered a week-long circus camp in Surrey, where 24 children learned to juggle, unicycle, make
pyramids, and jump on a trampoline. Their show was wonderful! We’re looking forward to doing more camps in Surrey this summer.

The Vancouver CircusWest Spring camp culminated in a performance of the Awesome Museum at the PNE Gardens. We were all relieved that the tumbling, trampoline jumping, aerial-silk riding, pyramid building thieves didn’t get away with the fabulous golden crown!

Join the fun at the half-day camps next week or at our many Summer Camps throughout the Lower Mainland. Registration for some of the camps is already open: Click HERE to check the schedule.

The 47th annual Variety Show of Hearts Telethon that helps children with special needs all over B.C. took place on Feb. 16-17th. We are proud of our Ensemble CirKid, Susan Oliver who perched high in the air on an aerial hoop and revealed the total amount of money- $7,124,264 that was raised this year at the telethon!

Susan received excellent help from the Vancouver Children’s Hospital after she suffered from some severe injuries in an ATV accident in 2011. Susan believes that helping out with this telethon is an excellent way to thank the B.C. Children’s Hospital for all their help!

This is the 5th year CircusWest has brought the magic of circus to this very special charity event. We look forward to helping out at the Variety Show of Hearts Telethon for many more years!

Here are some ways you can help Variety the Children’s Charity: http://www.variety.bc.ca/volunteer.htm!

Valentine’s Day may be the most controversial holiday in our calendars, however we believe cupid has a special station right here at CircusWest! Colleen and Ian met here, coach here, and even got married here! I spoke to Colleen about how they met, how they keep their marriage strong and what advice she gives to singles that are still looking for “the one.” If you are single, married or just having fun, we promise this story has something compelling for everyone!

How did you meet?
We met at CircusWest at one of the informal training sessions. Ian walked in with his cloud swing and was asking whoever was in charge if he could set it up. My training buddy, Jamie introduced herself and everyone else to him.

Was it love at first sight?
It wasn’t love at first sight, but we did joke about getting married that night because he wanted to move to Canada and I wanted an EU passport!

How long have you been married?
We got married here on was Jan. 3, 2009 in a snowstorm! We’ve now been married for four years.

Why did you choose to get married at CircusWest?
We wanted a circus wedding! We chose to get married at CircusWest because we wanted to be married in the air and to put on a show for our friends and family. Jay had a heart shaped trapeze, so we were married on that and did a little act on it. Then we had our friends performing on lyra, rope, tissu, trapeze. Oh, and Tami did an awesome diabolo act! Before the ceremony we had our guests try out juggling, hula hooping, diabolo, etc.

What qualities do you think are necessary to make successful marriage?
Don’t take everything so seriously! Always remember you don’t always have to do everything together.

Do you have any advice for single people who are trying to find “the one”?
Take a class at Circus West. You never know who you’ll meet!

CircusWest is hosting a Single’s night with Events and Adventures on March 22, 2013. What are you waiting for? Register today at http://www.eventsandadventures.ca/ and you may find that special someone at CircusWest!

We are proud to announce that The National Circus School (ENC) will be holding their closed auditions for the 10th consecutive year here at CircusWest! The National Circus School is located in Montreal and is the largest school in North America devoted to teaching advanced circus arts.

This school offers a variety of different circus programs including a 3-year program designed specifically for those who want to become professional circus artists! This diploma focuses on theory and five major circus arts disciplines: acrobatics, aerials, balancing, juggling and clowning art.

The National Circus School is home to over 150 students from all over the world that are taught by 80 experienced professionals. In November, they embarked on a quest across Canada to find talented young kids with big dreams! CircusWest is very proud that they chose us as the Western location for their audition process.

A variety of our CirKids have gone on to attend full time programs at the National Circus School. We wish all our current CircusWest participants good luck today as they make their dreams of becoming a professional circus artist a reality! For more information on the National Circus School, check out their website at http://www.nationalcircusschool.ca/en/home!

We are inviting our talented students from our Ensemble, Centre Stage, Performance, CATS, Informal Training and Adult & Teen sessional classes to perform in a cabaret style show!

This is your opportunity to pick a song, create an act, and then show off your skills you have learned at CircusWest for your friends and family!

Registration: Performers must register by Monday, Feb. 11. What are you waiting for? Sign up today!

Dates to remember: The rehearsal will take place on Saturday, Feb. 16 from 6pm-9pm. The show will be on Sunday, Feb. 17 from 7pm-9pm

Costs: It only costs $5 to perform! These fees help cover technical and coaching fees. Attendance at the show itself is by donation!

We look forward to seeing you perform for your friends and family!