Circus educators and professionals from around the United States gathered this past weekend, October 4th-7th, at the American Circus Educators EdCon in Decatur, Georgia. The EdCon takes place bi-annually, always in a different location within the U.S (or Montreal!). It brings together talented circus coaches, professionals of the physical form, and social change makers to attend keynotes, workshops on various pedagogical methods, and exercises in making circus arts more accessible.
The EdConâs organizing body, American Circus Educators (ACE), started in 2014 as a child of the American Youth Circus Organization (AYCO) to address the need to focus specifically on how circus educators, provide a meaningful and safe circus education to the youth in their communities, whereas AYCO specifically targets bringing together the youth participating in circus arts. A small, part-time staff, going through significant changes this year with the exit of Executive Director Amy Cohen, is shared between both organizations and wholly dedicated to making circus arts more accessible to youth in the United States. Together these two constitute the largest organizing bodies of circus professionals and youth in the United States. ...