Aotearoa New Zealand
A Guide to Circus in New Zealand: Shows, Classes and Companies
Who performs, where to watch them, and where to learn the skills yourself.
Circus in New Zealand runs on a much wider base than the touring tent most people picture. Alongside the travelling big tops there is a settled network of permanent schools, community trusts and professional companies, spread from Whangārei down to Christchurch, and the great majority of them teach the public every week as well as perform.
That split matters more than it first appears when you are deciding what you actually want from circus in New Zealand. Watching circus shows and learning circus skills are two quite different errands, served by different organisations, in different buildings, on different calendars. This guide separates them so you can go straight to whichever one brought you here.
Where to see circus shows in New Zealand
Two traditions run in parallel here, and they rarely intersect. Touring companies pitch a big top on a showground for a week or two and then move on, working through the warmer months. Contemporary companies instead stage seasons in theatres and at arts festivals, closer in shape to dance or physical theatre than to anything found at a fairground.
Neither tradition is more authentic than the other, and audiences almost never choose between them on principle. The tent shows are built for families and lean hard on spectacle, comedy and the sheer novelty of the venue. The theatre work tends to be longer, often carries a narrative, and is usually programmed with adults in mind.
- Circus Aotearoa A travelling big-top circus that tours towns and cities the length of the country through the season. Touring nationally
- Zirka Circus A long-running touring big-top show that pitches in centres across both islands. Touring nationally
Because seasons are short and routes change every single year, no fixed list of dates stays accurate for long enough to be worth publishing. The practical approach is to follow the companies themselves and watch for a pitch somewhere near you, rather than trusting any third-party schedule to still be right by the time you read it.
Circus classes for adults, teenagers and children
The teaching side of circus has grown considerably faster than the touring side over the past decade. Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch each hold several schools between them, and smaller centres such as Napier, Raglan and Dargaville support their own. Together they cover aerial apparatus, ground acrobatics, object manipulation and the various balance disciplines.
Adult beginner streams are now the busiest part of most timetables, which surprises people who assume circus is a children's activity. Schools generally sell a casual rate for a single session alongside a cheaper block booking for a full term, which lets you try circus classes once before committing yourself to anything longer.
Find a school near youEvery organisation on this site is listed by region and by discipline in the circus directory, with city breakdowns for Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
What this guide covers
The directory behind this guide runs to fifteen established organisations across six regions, covering nine separate disciplines between them. That spread is the reason circus in New Zealand looks larger from the inside than it does from the outside, and the figures below are simply a count of what is currently listed here.
- 15Organisations
- 6Regions
- 9Disciplines
- 3Main centres
A guide to the disciplines under the big top
Circus is really a container for several unrelated skills that happen to share a name. Aerial work covers silks, hoop, trapeze and straps, and is by some distance the most common entry point for adults. Object manipulation covers juggling, clubs, diabolo and hoop, while balance covers unicycle, tightwire, stilts and handbalancing.
Most people arrive wanting one of these specifically and then discover the others sideways, through a school that teaches several in rotation. Because strength and coordination transfer so unevenly between the families, it is genuinely worth reading a short guide to each before booking a term, rather than assuming that one class will suit you.
- Aerial silksClimbing, wrapping and controlled drops on suspended fabric.Aerial
- Hula hoopOn-body spinning, isolations and off-body hoop manipulation.Manipulation
- JugglingCascade and column patterns with balls, clubs and rings.Manipulation
- UnicycleRiding, idling and mounting on a single wheel.Balance
Who performs circus in New Zealand
The organisations working here fall into four rough groups: touring tent companies, professional contemporary companies, commercial schools, and community trusts that use circus as a form of social work. Several of them sit in more than one group at once, teaching classes through the morning and performing their own production at night.
The community strand is the one that outsiders consistently miss, because it produces almost no public output. Several trusts run all-abilities and low-cost programmes that treat circus as a route to confidence and physical participation rather than as training aimed at performance. That work is covered separately under social circus.
Between them, these four groups explain why circus in New Zealand looks so much larger from the inside than it does from the outside. A great deal of the activity happens in weekly classes and borrowed community halls rather than under canvas, which is precisely the part that a passing audience never gets to see.
Circuses are really popular in New Zealand — if you want to get entertained and feel the atmosphere from the comfort of your own home though, you can have a look at the review of the Wicked Circus Pokie, a game that was released fairly recently and leans on exactly the imagery this site is otherwise about.
Reading on from here
If you want the background rather than a booking, the history of circus shows in this country runs from colonial-era touring troupes through to the contemporary companies working now. If instead you want the international frame that most readers arrive with, the Cirque du Soleil material sets the modern style in its proper context.
- New Zealand’s circus historyHow the art form arrived and what it became here.Background
- Homegrown circus companiesThe companies that are based here rather than visiting.Companies
- Facts about Cirque du SoleilThe scale, the training and the money behind the largest company.International
- Circus glossaryApparatus and technique terms, defined plainly.Reference
Questions people ask
Is circus in New Zealand only for children?
No, and the assumption puts a lot of adults off unnecessarily. Most schools run entirely separate adult streams, and a large share of their students start in their twenties, thirties or considerably later. Circus classes are built around progression from a standing start, so a complete beginner with no gymnastics background whatsoever is the normal case here.
How much does it cost to try circus classes?
Most schools sell both a casual single-class rate and a discounted block covering a full term, with the casual rate usually landing somewhere near what a studio fitness class costs in the same city. Because pricing changes from term to term and varies between providers, the only reliable move is to check the school’s own page before you book anything.
Do I need to be fit or flexible before starting?
Not to begin, and no reputable school expects it. Introductory circus classes assume no prior strength and no existing flexibility, and they build both gradually as you go. Instructors scale every exercise to the person in front of them, and the first few weeks are usually spent learning safe grip, body position and how to fall well.
Where can I watch circus shows rather than take part?
Touring big-top companies pitch in towns and cities right through the warmer months, while the professional contemporary companies stage seasons in theatres and at arts festivals instead. Both routes are covered in the directory on this site, which lists who performs, what sort of work they make, and which region each of them is based in.
What is the difference between circus and Cirque du Soleil?
Cirque du Soleil is one very large Canadian company working in a narrative, theatrical style without any performing animals. It is a single producer operating within a far broader art form that also takes in traditional touring tent shows, community and social circus programmes, and a great many independent contemporary companies around the world.