Reds and blacks, fabrics and smoke ... to announce the Gala where the 15th anniversary of the MSB Circus School will be celebrated. The gold lettering on the poster invites celebration.
Gisele Chaulet (director) and Octavio Falcón (teacher), both co-founders of the school, tell us about its beginnings.
In Argentina, the homeland of Gisele, the existence of Circus schools is something normal:
When I got here I was very surprised that there were no circus schools, I mean the Canary Islands, because in the rest of Spain there were. So I wanted to start a school and I came with my fabrics in my suitcase. I met Octavio, who had the same concern and also juggled with his association.
This space -adds Octavio- , the Canarian wrestling field granted by the Santa Lucía de Tirajana City Council, had been closed for some time and was used for two weeks in a school year period. In 1999 we came to train a small group with juggling and then Gisele appeared, with other ideas and disciplines, so we thought about becoming a circus group.
They tell us that while they were training the girls and boys in the neighborhood became interested in what they were doing.
At first they would gossip and ask with a desire to learn. We began to teach them daily until we organize schedules where we can combine training and school hours. That was the beginning of the MSB Circus School, by popular demand of the little people.
Currently, from what ages can you learn at school?
We accept students from the age of five. The youngest student we have had and who has made a career started at the age of eleven and has spent almost the entire school journey with us. We have students who started with five years and have been dedicated to this for seven years. It is exciting to see them already preparing their own number. It may be that tomorrow they decide to go abroad and attend a college of higher education.
Are there no higher schools in the Canary Islands?
None. In the rest of Spain there are four that give a qualification equivalent to vocational training and are in Barcelona, Madrid, Granada and a new one in Valencia.
Above this are the universities. In Madrid, a higher degree in acrobatic dance is taught and as a university degree it is given in several countries. We have former students in the diploma course of the London and Lisbon Circus School. There is a canary who was not our student, but we know that he graduated from the Swedish Circus School.
When is a high school on the islands for?
Any school with a school project could be on the islands. It is not because there is a lack of teaching resources but because there is a lack of space. Here you cannot give the second cycle of circus school. We have the idea and we would like to, but we must find a place where we can do it.
What other locations does the MSB school have in Gran Canaria?
In the Gran Canaria Sports City we have a shared court, rented for two hours a week. We teach advanced level fabric classes. The project does not grow there due to lack of space.
We have also opened our own headquarters, for rent, in the port area of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
If someone wants to start MSB school, what is the first thing they are going to learn?
The first years of training you learn a little about everything: aerial, balances, jumps ... all disciplines are played and they also have to do dance, choreography, theater, body expression ... because what is complementary to the artist helps to be better as professional. One thing is an exercise on the hoop and another thing is knowing how to communicate while you are performing.
At what point can you opt for one specialty or another?
When you reach the third or fourth year of studies is when you choose a discipline to specialize. Students who go to higher or international schools focus on a discipline. Some also go to private schools or even self-taught to learn and continue specializing.
How do you train on a day-to-day basis at MSB?
For example: if you do fabrics you have to be strong, so "aerial fitness" is practiced, which is what we properly call training. And then there is creativity with fabrics. In this part, routines and choreographies are created with what is already known; dance, expression, hand placement and how to combine it is practiced.
Is the circus sport and art?
Practicing circus means training the artistic part and the sports part. There is some discipline that might not include the physical part such as the clown, the clown. A clown exercise is ideal to warm up, it makes you laugh and then other things are put in the class such as Chinese dishes, juggling ...
Is that the routine?
Not always. You come to another class and what is done is a balance ball and then we tell them to do stilts… and so every day something different. In the classes everything is tested. During the school year, starting in January, we ask them what they want to do to put together a number. And a number of fabrics are prepared, another of balls and in this way, in the course, they have a general and a specific part.
Why specialize?
Because it takes a lot of dedication. It's a wide world where you can't be a juggler and also a fabric artist. It is to dedicate yourself daily to a discipline.
How many hours do you have to dedicate to get far?
At least you have to train three hours a day to be able to do something and it also depends on the physical conditions of that person. Although we want to tell you that we want to create the concept of a circus for everyone.
What is the "Circus for all"?
Focus on anyone who wants to do a circus. That they can come here to train seriously and also to do it as a sport, as leisure, to reinforce family ties by doing a family circus or that a school can do a different activity. MSB is an open circus school and we do activities for all types of audiences. We offer the possibility of enjoying your body, its expressiveness, sharing with the family or as therapy for those who need it.
Apart from the regular course, specific classes can be booked on the web, without any requirements.
What does the circus contribute, in general?
It provides sports benefits such as strength and speed in addition to those of art. The circus is not made for competition but for self-improvement. You work a lot as a team and there must be liberation and removal of shame. It is also unlimited because no matter how good you are, there is always one more challenge. The children run, jump and you can see their happiness. With six years they climb seven meters high and several times in each training.
Is there a Canarian circus?
Well, we are trying to create it - the eyes light up with illusion -. We try to be pioneers in the theme of the show. We have done many things and now we are more focused on education than on entertainment.
The circus as a show, is it still a family legacy?
Traditionally, circus knowledge has been passed from family to family and it happened that rarities were the most spectacular. Over time the circus has changed and has become a sporting artistic discipline. Now it is practiced professionally, regardless of whether your family has bequeathed it to you, and that is why circus schools were formed.
What differentiates the classical circus from the contemporary circus?
The contemporary circus does not remain in the typical discipline of acrobatics but integrates the movement composed of dance, body language and theatricality. Instead of being based on the ornaments of the costume, the music, the lights, it is based on the expression of the artist, on the body of the artist.
The classical circus defends a style, generally, disciplinary monkey. If you are a juggler you are not a trapeze artist and if you are a verticalist you do not do anything else; the contemporary circus performer juggles the same as an instrument and then an element of balance. Today a contemporary artist does not aspire to be hired by a circus but to mount his own show and move it through different festivals.
In other words, the circus does not live exclusively under a tent ...
The circus is still alive even if it is not in a tent. This fighting ground is also a tent. We welcome circus students from various municipalities and even people from Europe come. When we thought of setting up a headquarters in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, it occurred to us, but a tent, even a used one, is very expensive and would hardly last a year.
We see circus performances outside of school, do you feel like a circus?
Each of the members of the company has their shows. Yes, we have made small productions of twelve people and we have taken them around the islands and to various schools or large theaters. We always try to add a more theatrical or musical component to complement it because we like the circus and we also like to mix it with other artistic disciplines.
Sometimes they ask us to be in shopping centers and hotels with our numbers. The circus falls in love.
After founding the school and reaping so many achievements, are there any dreams left as circus professionals?
I have been able to make my dreams come true -Gisele comments-, to go on tours, to be in shows big and small… My big dream was to set up this school and it is not only set up but it grows every year. Professionally I feel happy and to continue growing and contributing is the only thing I want.
I have also been all over the world -Now it is Octavio who speaks-but I do not rule out returning, if a good company signs me up, and I'm not just talking about the "Circo del Sol", which I would love of course. I am also happy with my current job, but if it is about dreaming, I tell you that I would spend some time with a circus like "The 7 doix of the maine", that they are a brutal contemporary circus.
