Address:
Unit 12, Edmiston Trade Park, 240 Edmiston Drive, Glasgow, G51 2YU, UK
Email:
info@ contact.aerialedge.co.uk
Phone:
(+44) 07414 438 501 (Text messages only before 5pm)
Glasgow's circus school
Professional Development Programme
Want to create a smoking solo that's uniquely yours? Our six-month Professional Development Programme gives you the full Foundation Course journey, then continues for two months dedicated to redefining your solo work, with all kinds of skills to build a professional showreel that can get you places. Runs 10am–5pm, Monday to Friday.
Professional Development Programme
Your programme
What could be more you than a solo act? This course brings out the best in you.
You can learn tricks in lots of places. What takes longer is discovering what you want to say with them.
The Professional Development Programme is a six-month full-time circus course for people who want to go beyond technical training and develop themselves as creators and performers.
You'll be on the same journey as the Foundation Course, starting at the same time twice a year. That means you learn a broad range of arts, then decide which will become your solo performance around six to seven weeks in. From there the focus moves to an ensemble production with a professional director. That ensemble show is the graduation point for the Foundation Course, and it's where your solo work gets really deep and interesting.
You'll reach into yourself to discover how to transform your solo act from a work in progress into a polished piece, through tuition that goes beyond act creation, choreography and characterisation. You'll learn how to use tech such as lighting and projection, and how to perform for a camera as well as a crowd. It all gets captured in a glorious showreel, the circus artist's calling card, which you can use to get work or to get into university courses.
What disciplines will you learn on the course?
- Static Trapeze
- Rope
- Silks
- Aerial hoop
- Flying Trapeze
- Straps
- Acrobatics
- Acrobatic balancing
- Handstands
- Dance Acro
- Trampoline
- Flow arts
- Teeterboard
- Acro & Aerial Conditioning
- Flexibility
- Self-physiotherapy
- Circus Performance practice
- Rigging & Safety
- Act Creation
Your progress
After the ensemble, it's all about you
The Foundation Course curriculum gives you a solid grounding in circus arts, and it's very much a group experience. Everyone comes with a different level of experience, and no one is good at everything, so you lean into each other's strengths and help each other through the hard parts.
After that segment of the programme, it's all about you.
You'll return to your own solo work with new experience and a different perspective, having been wrapped up in the ensemble show. As you step into the next two months, this is when you begin to discover not just what you can do, but who you are as a performer.
Working with experienced tutors, you'll develop choreography, character, musicality, stagecraft and performance skills for both live audiences and film. It all builds to a professionally filmed showreel designed to show your work at its very best.
A great showreel is more than a record of what you can do. It's a statement of who you are, so it deserves your full attention.
Yours is shot by Gabriel Stella, whose degree in cinematography, dedication to circus and creative artistry will make your showreel something to treasure as well as to use.
Photo credit: Max Crawford
Who is the course for?
You, if you already have some circus skills and you want to develop as a creator and a performer, not only as a technician.
This programme is for you if you want to build a signature solo act and leave with a professional showreel, if you're looking for a bridge towards a degree or a performing career, or if you've done our Foundation Course or a Four-Week Intensive and you want to go deeper.
You'll need to be a little further along than beginner level. If you're not there yet, you can gain the entry requirements on one of our other programmes, and we'll help you work out the route.
You'll leave with a sharper solo act, new performance skills, new confidence, new friends, and a showreel you can use to find work and funding.
How does it work?
You start alongside the Foundation Course students, and you all train together until they leave. The shape is like this:
- First segment: Learn a broad skillset across a wide variety of acrobatic skills for ground and aerial arts, to work out where your interests and talents lie. You may well discover a new passion.
- Second segment: Start to specialise in the specific skills and arts that will form the basis of your individual performance.
- Third segment: Build creativity and skills through ensemble show creation and performance.
- Fourth segment: Now you dive into the detail of where you've reached with your solo work and make it more incredible. Alongside all the tuition in performance skills, you keep training your technique in your chosen arts.
We run two programmes a year, starting in March and August.
Why Aerial Edge
We are the largest circus school in Scotland, established in 2007. As a non-profit Community Interest Company, our core principle is: circus for all regardless of age, size, shape, ability and other factors.
If you're just starting your circus journey, or if you've already got years of aerial or acrobatics behind you, we'll make sure you see great progress, and you'll gain strong foundational abilities in other arts too.
You'll discover how our passion and speciality is developing people through circus. Your gains go deeper than learning the arts. We'll support you through the physical challenges as you grapple with the techniques, and through the other pieces of your progression puzzle that come up along the way.
We have specialist knowledge to help you make breakthroughs that have a positive impact on other parts of your life.
Our Facilities
Aerial Edge has its own warehouse building for training and performance. We’re well known for our flying trapeze and cradle rig, but there are other dedicated areas for ground-based and aerial disciplines. Our space is highly adaptable and able to accommodate nearly any circus discipline, and convert to a fantastic performance stage with a superb sound and lighting set-up.
You can discover, learn and hone just about any aerial discipline on our rig, and we have safety lines for acrobatic training, teeterboard and tightwire.
Our matted floor and tumble track give you the ability to safely train anything from handstands to acrobatic dance and parkour.
As well as trampoline which can be used for anything from warm-up to wall-running, there’s an act creation and rehearsal space which can be rigged in multiple ways.
And as if all of that isn’t enough, there’s a café reception area, we’re big into coffee at Aerial Edge so we take great delight in choosing speciality roasts for that fresh bean-to-cup buzz!
There are also numerous cafés, restaurants and shops within just a few minutes’ walk.
What does it cost?
As a non-profit, we price everything as low as we can. You also get real added value with your professional showreel. We put great care and expertise into planning the programme so you get the best, most personal experience and outcome.
Course Fees
£4,499 for the six-month programme. You can pay in full, or in three instalments: a £250 deposit, then £2,200 eight weeks before the programme begins, and the £2,049 balance before you start. Monthly payment plans are available on request.
Logistics
Location
Aerial Edge is conveniently close to Glasgow city centre, with two Subway stations nearby and on several bus routes.
Glasgow is a vibrant, busy city which a has a thriving art scene, and many multi-disciplinary collaborations and exhibitions to be found.
During August, you can take a short train ride to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: the biggest arts festival in the world. As well as numerous small venues hosting circus acts, the festival has a dedicated Circus Hub where world-famous companies come to perform.
Accommodation
Accommodation is not part of the course package, visiting students typically find a place to stay through spareroom.com or AirBnB
If you would like any further advice on Glasgow or relocating to the city, please get in touch to arrange a chat with our friendly team.
What our students say
People love training at Aerial Edge – but don’t take our word for that. Watch the video below to see what other Foundation Course students got from their experiences with us.
Watch the video below to learn more about our student's experiences
Apply nowapply
Apply Here
The application to the Professional Development Programme is quick and easy. Fill in the form and sign up online. The form takes your details and the £250 deposit.
Feel free to contact us with any questions in advance
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Directions
Our front door is accessed via the Ibrox roundabout (walk up the ramp and open the door). Access to the carpark is available before 6pm from Edmiston Drive. Street parking is available in the area. Check out the video guide below.
