A circus, rain and a bicycle

It made me feel at home in the very first week in school. The teachers are true professionals in their fields, they are all very friendly and they care about the artistic leanings of each individual student. The school has a total of 60 students, from virtually every corner of the world. Since we spend most of our time together, sharing our passion for circus arts, we are in fact like a big international family -- a family where everybody motivates, helps, encourages and catches each other when we fall.

I especially enjoy the access to the school’s circus library. This is a new resource that I never would have dreamed of in the Czech Republic. I can read detailed accounts of the lives and work of the artists who invented the various disciplines, study the differences in various cultures’ creativity and read about the people who helped shape circus arts to become the Contemporary Circus as we know it today.

I live in the south of Rotterdam (in a sort of local Harlem, affordable but not so safe). My room is just a little bit bigger than my bed in Prague. I don’t mind in the least. I am in school morning to evening, and when I come back home I am happy when I can make some food and go to bed ‘early’. Never before did I realize how important relaxation and sleep was. When I cannot sleep for at least nine hours a day I feel my body cannot deliver the required performance, much less learn new tricks.

I spend most of my weekends with three schoolmates – a Brit, an American, and an Irishman. They are all native speakers of English, which helps my spoken English improve at a rapid pace. I am learning phrases that people actually use, the British accent, and a little bit of American slang.

Studying at a circus school is demanding both physically and mentally, but I feel that I am becoming a better performer, and a better person in general, with every minute spent at this school in this beautiful city.

I would like to thank The Kellner Family Foundation for supporting my journey towards my dream, as I could not be here without it.