Clowntown: Brussels is a mecca for the circus arts

Did you know that all street performers in Brussels must pass an audition with the city to qualify to occupy a piece of pavement and entertain us?

The competition is fierce as Belgium is home to more than 50 circus arts schools which attract aspiring circus artists from around the world. The heavyweight is ESAC (Ecole Superieure des Arts du Cirque) in Brussels. It is considered one of the top three schools in the world along with the Ecole du Cirque du Québec and the CNAC (Centre National des Arts du Cirque) in France. ESAC consecrated its position by winning the prestigious Gold Medal at the World Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow.

Another major player is the Ecole du Cirque de Bruxelles located in one of the hangars at Tour et Taxis, which has built a solid international reputation since 1983.

In Ghent, the Circuscentrum is tasked with supporting and promoting the over 20 schools and 90 circuses in Flanders and the Ghent museum La Maison d'Alijn houses a prime collection of circus memorabilia.

In Wallonia the support is provided by Fédécirque. And, of course, Franco Dragone, the Belgian director and developer of the Cirque du Soleil has his headquarters in Belgium.

Circus performer Laila from Spain explains why she came to Belgium: "I live here because I want to study clowning and juggling and here there is a lot of opportunity, a lot of good schools and a lot of performance possibilities. The people really appreciate our work; the culture is better than in Spain, people appreciate it more than in Spain."

The result for us living in Brussels is that we not only get great street theatre but also a number of free festivals featuring outstanding talent. This weekend is the 10th edition of Hopla! - a circus festival which takes over the old port area of Brussels - Sainte-Catherine, the Fishmarket and Beguinage.

Chloé Van Driessche of the department of culture at the City of Brussels told The Bulletin: "We do have a lot of circus artists in Brussels but also in Belgium and I think that that's the main reason we have a circus festival in the capital.

"All these people want to show their talents, their different skills - we have tightrope walkers, Cyr wheels, acrobats, singers, dancers, all kinds of performances here in Brussels. A festival is the best way to show it all to the public, a free festival that also enters the city and shows the city in a way we are not used to."

Other circus arts festivals in Brussels include Festival Up! and Festival Zonder Handen.

One of the reasons for the high virtuosity and originality of the circus arts offerings is that the circus artist of today is not limited to one discipline and is often a clown, acrobat, magician, trapeze artist, storyteller, athlete, musician, singer, dancer and more.

Juan and Ricardo, originally from Argentina, illustrate this with Theatre Che. "(Ricardo) is crazy for music and I'm crazy for bicycles so we put our two passions together," says Juan.

"We are tamers, I am taming bicycles and he is using bicycles to make musical instruments, we have a bass, cello, guitar, harp and percussion handmade with parts of bicycles. We replace tigers and lions with wheels and bikes."

The result is a genre-defying act in which Ricardo plays music on his handmade instruments while Juan does truly perilous stunts taming his bicycles.

Belgium is also home to one of the largest, oldest and most-respected street theatre festivals: the Festival International des Arts de la rue Chassepierre which will be holding its 43rd edition this August. The very pretty village of Chassepierre, in the Gaume, south of the Ardennes becomes a giant outdoor theatre for two days when the whole village is closed to traffic and the best street and circus performers from around the world enthusiastically show up and give it their all. A truly magical experience.

Brussels also has a very active chapter of Clowns and Magicians Without Borders (one of twelve in the world), volunteers who bring laughter to displaced children in refugee camps around the world.

Kevin Brooking, founder of the Brussels chapter, came to Belgium from Kansas City 30 years ago and never left.

"I guess I'm a sort of Belgian cowboy now," he says. "I ended up teaching at a circus school here. I was teaching clowning and circus theatre, I came for a summer and 30 years later I'm still here.

"Brussels and Belgium have always been a crossroads and that's true for the theatre arts, this is the place. I call it Clowntown, because we've got clowns all over the place."

Hopla! festival, until Sunday 10 April.
www.hopla.brussels