In the framework of Tendenza Clown international festival, a series of lessons on the foreign contemporary circus context took place for the young under35s of CirkAround. The international Masterclass, for the first time entirely in person also for the non-European window, was divided into two moments for the artists, one of physical work and the other one made of live meetings.
From 21th to 24th September 2023, the participants (plus the two CirkAround special mentioned auditors) attended, in particular:

1. The workshop ‘Comic Body Identity - Relational Comic Education. A study on the clown starting from the identification of being a comedian in relation to one's everyday gestures' created and directed by André Casaca (Brazil/Italy, artistic and pedagogical director of Teatro C'art, collaborates with various academies and professional theatre schools). Six hours of physical work focusing on the search for the clown that resides inside every artist and on the comic side to be brought on stage to reach the audience.
2. The masterclass ‘Circus as education. The psychiatric link between juggling and attention, concentration and hyperactivity disorders' by Shahar Kamay (Israel/France, director of the Tel Aviv-based Move to Circus Academy, an interesting example of circus in social work).
3. The masterclass ‘Theatre and Society - Αn independent theatre practitioner's perspective from a decade of community theatre work in Greece during a decade of economic, political and social crisis’ by Angeliki Kasola (Greece, director and director of the Restart Theatre Athens company).
4. The masterclass ‘An introduction to the French outdoor arts market: Cratère Surfaces, a human size international festival in Alès’ by Paco Bialek (France, programmer and promoter of international companies and festivals).
5. A series of close meetings with the international artists hosted by the festival, only open to the CirkAround class. The companies involved, who were very willing to share their experience with the students, talked about the motivations and origins of the shows, the context they trained into, the evolution of the performance, and the reactions of the audience and institutions in each country. They then left room for questions, contributing to making the CirkAround experience even more enriching.

The under35s selected for CirkAround were able to benefit from the project's training offer in the Tendenza Clown stage:

1. They were connected to an international context, given by the presence of companies from all over the world, by teachers from abroad, by professionals from all over Italy, in a 4-day full immersion.
2. Besides watching the festival performances, they were able to interact with their ‘favourite’ artists, learning about their beginnings, careers and life anecdotes.
3. They participated in masterclasses created exclusively for them and tailored to their needs to learn new organisational and artistic elements for the development of their careers in contemporary circus.
4. They lived together for almost a week, in close contact during the hours in the theatre, forming a cohesive group, thus made up of different individuals and experiences.