What it takes to get into ProTrack, NECCA’s professional circus program

Program Director Elena Day and Curriculum Head Aimée Hancock explain what New England Center for Circus Arts ProTrack auditions look for, how to prepare and why potential counts for so much.

For circus students weighing a move from recreational classes to professional training, ProTrack is a big step. The three-year program at the New England Center for Circus Arts, or NECCA, in Brattleboro, Vt., is billed by the school as the longest-running professional circus training program in the U.S. Students study two disciplines, commit 26 to 35 hours a week to training and finish with a tour.

Elena Day, ProTrack program director, and Aimée Hancock, head of curriculum and student development, spoke with Roustabout School of Circus and Performing Arts about what the program is like, how applications and auditions work and what NECCA’s coaches look for in an applicant. They also talked about how to prepare, including the cross-training gaps they see most often.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What sets NECCA ProTrack apart

Q: What sets NECCA’s ProTrack program apart from other professional circus training programs?

Day: We’re a three-year program. It’s like a conservatory of circus. It’s fully immersive, with highly committed students and highly committed coaches. Many of our coaches are career coaches. They’ve already had a performance career and want to dive into coaching and teaching as the next level of their artistic expression. Our building is really beautiful: Trapezium (a custom-built space with 40-foot ceilings), heated floors, a foam pit — just the building itself sets us apart.

The other thing is that at the very end of our three-year program is our tour. We’re the only circus school in the U.S. that does a tour at the end of the program, and it really helps bridge the educational experience into the professional experience. Students learn how to rig in different venues, perform for different audiences and get that real-world experience.

Hancock: Our students do a major that fully develops into an act they film and are ready to use for all their promotional materials. They have a tech rider when they graduate, and depending on their discipline, we make sure they have the equipment they’ll need.

Our program also requires you to study a second discipline. Most of our students graduate with two acts that are ready to work, which isn’t across the board in the U.S.

The tour also comes with a creation experience with an outside director, so they get a taste of what it’s like to step outside their own vision and rethink their act for a company. Over 20-some-odd years as a coach, I’ve polled hundreds of friends in the professional world: How many of you actually performed your act as you made it in school? About 10% were like, “I did it twice.” The rest were like, “I never did it again, as it was designed.” So we try to make sure the students know how to advocate for their work, but also how to work with a professional director and adapt.

Other than that, we spend a lot of energy on our culture. That feeling of a safety net, that togetherness, is a really big piece of our whole experience. In order to push our students really hard, they need to feel that support system, and we make sure it’s there before they need it.

Who can apply to ProTrack

Q: Is there an age limit?

Day: We don’t have an age limit.

Hancock: We don’t say you have to be under 26 years old. We’ll take you as long as you’re physically capable, ready to commit and able to do the work.

Day: We generally have a low-end age limit, but not an upper one. Generally it’s 17 and up, and you must have either a GED or a high school diploma, simply because trying to finish school and do ProTrack would just crack any normal human being.

Q: How old do students tend to be?

Hancock: I think the oldest was maybe 40. That was in our one-year program, which involved less time at that level of intensity. But she did great. She’s still teaching here.

Day: I think early 20s tends to be the average, and there will be some in their early 30s. And then we have some 17-, 18- and 19-year-olds as well.

Applying and auditioning for pro circus school

Q: What should applicants expect from the audition process?

Day: It’s two days long. People generally leave the auditions feeling good about the whole vibe and the connection they make with new people, including our students, who we ask to be on the floor as representatives of NECCA.

We do assessments in strength, handstands, acrobatics and flexibility. There are theater and dance portions. There’s a time to try new things, like Chinese pole or Cyr wheel, because we really want to see how coachable they are, and what they might be drawn to.

They will show an act that they have prepared, generally two to three minutes, on the apparatus of their choice, which I’d say 80% to 90% of the time is the apparatus we accept them on.

And then we also do an interview, to get to know them, to hear their maturity level, to find out whether this is a student who has never lived away from home.

Q: How does the application process work, from start to final decision?

Hancock: We ask about your long-term goals and what kind of performances you like, any accomplishments you’re really proud of and any injuries that might affect your ability to audition. If they have an injury that won’t prevent them from doing everything, we still invite them to audition, because meeting them is such a big piece of the puzzle. Then there is some video footage that we ask for.

Day: There’s an introduction video and a full or partial act video. Then there’s skill and technique in your main discipline, a strength section and a flexibility section, as well as ground acrobatics and handstands. If you have trained a secondary discipline, you’re welcome to share footage of that, but that is optional.

Q: Do you cut applicants before the live auditions?

Hancock: There are certain deadlines: If you apply by the deadline, which is sometime in January, we can invite you to auditions, because we have enough time to plan ahead and you have enough time to book a ticket and lodging. If you’re not ready for live auditions, we let the applicant know in a rejection email. But it also usually has some sort of feedback: We love this, work on this more.

We encourage people to ask for feedback, whatever phase they get to, because we gather feedback through the audition process that we’re ready to ship out.

If you apply after that deadline, then you’re part of our rolling applications. We probably will ask for more footage, then we do an online interview. But every applicant gets some sort of response: a rejection, a waitlist, a deferment or an acceptance.

Editor’s note: For the 2027-28 school year, NECCA’s website lists a first-round application deadline of Dec. 16. The full schedule is viewable on its website.

Q: What if a student isn’t quite ready for ProTrack?

Day: We have a really thriving intensive program, which is kind of like a mini-ProTrack: a shorter number of weeks and fewer hours, but with similar coaches. This year, out of 13 students in our first-year class, about five or six have done an intensive in the past. It was a way for them to get to know NECCA and Brattleboro and make a very informed decision about whether to take the next step.

Hancock: The intensive tends to be about five to eight weeks long, depending on the season, and it’s a really lovely leveling up if you’ve only been part of a youth troupe or a session class. You have your main focus, just like in ProTrack, but only one discipline, not two. So it’s a nice stepping stone.

Day: One very practical element: Let’s say a student decides to live here for a year and do multiple intensives back to back. They would then be eligible to apply for VSAC [the Vermont Student Assistance Corp.], a state-sponsored granting and scholarship program. It’s been really a lifesaver. It takes off almost half of the tuition, if you get the full amount.

How to prepare for a circus school audition

Q: How should students prepare for the audition?

Hancock: A lot of students have access to good coaching for their main focus, and they don’t have a lot of cross-training experience. So if you picture an artist on one end and an athlete on the other end, we want you to have both ends more under your belt.

If you’re an avid silks class taker doing local recitals or gigs, we would want that person to add a more athletic mindset. On top of those silks, they would also do a lot of full-body conditioning.

Cardio is a big one. A lot of people don’t love cardio on their own. But cardio and conditioning are huge, because the stronger you are, the easier it is to survive the amount of work you need to do to get where you want to get.

Flexibility also comes in as a very close second, so actually training flexibility multiple times a week. Whatever helps you gain while also giving you strength in your end ranges is a big priority.

And then I would say acrobatics: knowing how to dance and acro on the floor to some level, to be comfortable learning choreography that you don’t know already. As circus evolves in the industry, knowing how to move on the floor is really, really key to getting a good job.

Q: When you talk about acro, do you mean tumbling, acro dance or something broader?

Hancock: I would pinpoint some level of movement on the ground that is fully topsy-turvy. Tumbling on a spring floor or tumble track is great for your proprioception and body control, but it’s not going to translate to the stage as easily. Acro dance does. Things that are happy on a hard floor are something that we think everybody should be training to some degree.

Q: Is there anything outside of the physical that students should prepare?

Day: Even something like contact improv, just to get used to that kind of roly-poly, upside-down, flowy landing. Taking theatrical improvisation is great. And honestly, seeing live performance, going to galleries and just immersing yourself in real-world artistic expression. Sometimes students come and they’ve literally never seen a circus.

Hancock: The artistic realm is knowing how to watch art, to feel how it feels, to talk about what you saw and to lightly analyze it. It’s not going to make or break their acceptance, but when students do come in with that, it sure makes it a lot easier.

What coaches look for in a pro circus school audition

Q: What makes an audition stand out?

Day: If we’re assuming there’s some level of body awareness and artistic ability, I think the other things have to do with the interpersonal. Is this person present? Are they helpful? Are they pleasant? Many artistic directors want someone they can be around for nine hours in a van. It doesn’t mean that you have to be super outgoing. I am an introvert myself. But it does mean good stewardship of the space and professionalism, a sort of community-minded element. Are they hopping up to help someone move a mat? Are they willing to try something they don’t really know how to do, even if they think they’re going to be super goofy?

Hancock: I think there’s also a maturity and a professionalism that comes through when I see the students show up, do their best and let us make the assessment. Come, be fully present, bring your best to every moment and then trust that we saw you.

Ask the questions that you want to ask in the interview. This is actually one of the maturity things: Do they know how to ask questions about the program or how the audition went? I want them to be comfortable asking questions of us and not be shy to ask for feedback. Talk to us.

Q: What are the common signs that a student isn’t ready?

Hancock: Sometimes it’s just the amount of time they’ve spent training, period. There’s an amount of time they need to have spent training with passion and focus. When things haven’t landed deeply in their movement qualities, or when training in a new space joggles them a lot, sometimes that is a sign that they’re maybe too green for our program.

Day: A major one is if they don’t seem self-aware about safety. If they’re throwing some big thing because they think it’s going to impress us, we would rather see you be self-aware that safety is very important, and we want to see what you’ve practiced.

There’s a basic level of courtesy and politeness and humbleness, not negatively humble, but just humble. To not have that is a big red flag.

Students need to be mentally prepared for this level of training. We’re not a therapeutic institution. We do have an athletic trainer on site, but we ask our students to prepare their team outside of NECCA. If we see someone who seems to have needs that are greater than what we can support, whether physical or mental, that would be a reason why we would not accept someone into the program.

Q: How do you weigh an applicant’s current skill level against their growth potential?

Hancock: Growth potential, 100%. That definitely trumps skill level, to a degree. That said, we’ve taken people who have a huge skill background but have never pushed themselves to be more artistically daring, so we make it clear that that’s our hope for them.

We also tell students in the application process to show us only what they can do safely. That’s not just not falling on their head, but also not pulling a hamstring, because we don’t know their flexibility.

We say our coaches have “potential-seeing eyes.” That’s why everybody has to do dance, even if they have no dance training at all, because we want to see how ready you are to put yourself out there.

Day: We need to see a certain level of physical self-awareness. Even if they’ve never done Chinese pole or contortion, if they seem to have the awareness that could fit with such a thing, then we try them out in that realm. Coachability is so important. That’s one of the secrets.

Hancock: One of the things that is hard to teach is the love of being onstage. When we see a student apply who clearly loves being onstage and also has that sense of humility and internal awareness and safety, but maybe their skills are not very strong, we’re like, we can work with that.

Day: We’ve definitely accepted students like that. We want to create the next generation of circus performers, and that hopefully comes with a joy, or at least a light.

We really want people who want to perform on the world stage. The three pillars of our program are technique, creativity and professionalism. Some people are off the charts with technique, but their creativity is kind of weak. Other people answer every email early and are so reliable, but their technique is a little low. By the end, it won’t be even, but we try to expand out the sides of the triangle that were a little cramped before.

Advice if you’re not sure you’re ready for circus school

Q: If you had one piece of advice for someone who’s interested in ProTrack but unsure if they’re ready, what would you tell them?

Day: For me, it’s trying. Put yourself out there. Just try it.

Hancock: I imagine some communities out there might be conflating applying for a company versus applying for a school. When we look at applicants for this school, we have our eyes set on, OK, what’s their potential? Not what do they already have. So yes, put yourself out there. Try, apply, send in the application.

We might be like, “You’re so close, but you still need a lot of this, so we’re going to say intensive.” So still come to NECCA, work with the same coaches and get to know our town and our community.

Day: We’ve also had students who didn’t make it the first time but did make it the second time. They went off and kept working, and now they’re really excelling in the program.

I acknowledge that auditions are stressful and scary and intimidating. We understand that it’s a financial and time expense just to come, and we really try as much as we can to make it worth their while.

Also, for those people who can’t come, that doesn’t mean that’s the end of the road. We’ve definitely accepted people who were not able to come to auditions. That’s part of why we ask for a fair amount in our application.

About the speakers

Elena Day is director of people and culture and ProTrack program director. A graduate of L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, she created and performed her signature character, The Green Bird, for Cirque du Soleil’s “La Nouba” in Orlando, Fla., appearing more than 2,500 times.

Day has performed with Cirque du Soleil’s special events department in more than 15 countries and developed and performed clown numbers for two seasons with Cirque Mechanics.

In her native Washington, D.C., Day directed or movement-directed 26 shows, earning seven Helen Hayes Award nominations and two wins.

She has taught master classes worldwide for Cirque du Soleil, Disney and the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, among others. Learn more at elenaday.com.

Aimée Hancock is head of curriculum and student development. She went through the gamut of physical theater, competitive gymnastics and contemporary dance before dropping into an exciting circus career. Beginning as a purely technical performer, Hancock found her wings through improvisation and theatrical expression.

Hancock has taught acrobatics and aerials in five languages to people from all over the globe. Through theatrical training with greats such as Philippe Decouflé and Daniele Finzi Pasca, she brings a natural and liberating approach to performance, as demonstrated in her tour with Cirque Eloize’s “Rain.”

Take the next step

Build your cross-training foundation. Cardio, conditioning, flexibility and floor acrobatics matter as much as apparatus skill, Day and Hancock said. Roustabout Denver is built around that idea, with a curriculum that lets students train skills such as aerial, acro, dance and handstands in one place. Explore Roustabout’s adult circus classes.

Aim for the pros. Applications to ProTrack for the 2027-28 school year open in November, according to NECCA. Learn more about the ProTrack program at NECCA.