Circus Arts Training: Struggling with the 'problem' of attracting talent

For a long time, recruiting students to study Circus has been very difficult, because the number of students studying is small, and after a rigorous screening and elimination period, the number of students remaining is even smaller...

Performance in the program "Dream of Fairy Age". Photo: Provided by Circus Federation

According to Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang, Principal of the Vietnam Circus and Variety Arts College, circus training today requires sympathy, sharing and understanding from the whole society.

Circus training concerns

At the recent 2024 National Circus Talent Competition, the Vietnam Circus and Variety Arts College won 7 prestigious awards, including 1 First Prize, 2 Second Prizes for performances, 1 Best Director Award for Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang, 2 Promising Actor and Excellent Young Actor Awards presented by the Vietnam Circus Association, and 1 Award presented by the Vietnam Stage Artists Association. To achieve such remarkable achievements, teachers and students of the Vietnam Circus and Variety Arts College had to make great efforts.

Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang, Principal of the Vietnam Circus and Variety Arts College, said that the school is the only unit in Vietnam that trains circus and variety performers, and more than 90% of the current circus performers are trained at the school. Previously, the school had a hard time selecting students due to the nature of the circus profession: it is difficult to study, hard to learn, and takes a long time to study, but the career is short, and the benefits are not high... Therefore, for a long time, the recruitment and training of the circus industry has not been easy, and requires sympathy, sharing, and understanding from the whole society.

According to Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang, one of the biggest obstacles is that the students are still young. The students are only 11 years old, so the school must have a 24/7 nanny system, and the teacher in charge of the students must sleep at night in the dormitory. For many years, the school has had to recruit students in many different regions. Many students are interested but still have to ask for their parents' opinions. Understanding the parents' fear of the dangerous circus profession and the harsh training process, the school has also consulted, persuaded, and invited the parents to visit the school, thoroughly learn about the training process, facilities and the State's policies for circus students.

Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang said that in the 2024 enrollment season, the Vietnam Circus and Variety Arts College selected 48 students for admission (the average quota was about 35 students). To get this number, about 10,000 candidates participated in the Preliminary round, then about 400 students were selected and screened through the Secondary and Final rounds, the number of students admitted was 48.

“For a long time, the recruitment process only attracted candidates from remote areas, but this year, the number of students coming from the inner city has increased, including many students from families of officials and civil servants. This is a good sign, showing that the community's view of the circus profession is gradually becoming more open,” said Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang.

However, the Principal of the Vietnam Circus and Variety Arts College is concerned that, in reality, after the admission stage, the shortcomings related to circus training have been mentioned many times in professional seminars and conferences. That is, candidates are trained for a long time (5 years compared to 18 months like many colleges) but have a short career.

“A normal teacher in a vocational training institution must have at least 30-40 students per class. However, due to special requirements, in circus, sometimes one teacher teaches one student for the entire 5-year period for one type of performance. Moreover, the current intermediate diploma only makes graduates considered as 4th-class actors, which is a huge disadvantage when to become a circus actor, one must have talent and ability…”, Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang shared.

Need better treatment

Based on the shortcomings in circus training, Meritorious Artist Ngo Le Thang expressed that art training facilities are looking forward to ministries, departments and branches joining with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to study and pay attention to the conditions of specialized training facilities in specific art fields to have appropriate regulations, creating conditions for facilities to ensure conditions for educational quality assessment and compliance with current regulations. In particular, there needs to be an assessment and review to amend and supplement a number of regulations suitable to the specificity of training in art fields.

Sharing the same view, People's Artist Tong Toan Thang, Director of the Vietnam Circus Federation, said that in order for Vietnamese circus art to develop strongly and sustainably, there needs to be a change in the remuneration system. According to People's Artist Tong Toan Thang, circus artists are typically very hard-working and work at high intensity, but the output after graduating from circus school is currently only intermediate level. The starting salary of circus artists is still level 4, too low compared to their talent and dedication. In addition, the compensation system has not been "unleashed" so that the circus industry can call for and attract young human resources; some artists who are formally trained, upon graduation, choose units with higher incomes, instead of sticking with the circus...

In addition, due to the nature of the circus artist's career being very short, sometimes at 35 - 40 years old they have to stop working, while the working age of artists is still long, so circus artists really need more attention from departments, ministries and branches, to have a special mechanism, a guaranteed basic salary so that circus artists can practice and contribute with peace of mind. "With circus art, if actors still have to worry about food, clothing, rice, money, have to share time to make a living, and do not focus their minds on practicing, it will be very difficult to have generations of talented artists", People's Artist Tong Toan Thang shared.

In fact, in the Q&A program at the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly in June 2024, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed to reduce the retirement age for officials in the arts sector, including circus performers. Accordingly, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed to review, amend, supplement and promulgate new legal documents related to the selection, training and policies for artists in the arts; solve employment for performing artists after their peak. At the same time, research and develop specific policies for officials in the performing arts sector in the "List of arduous, toxic, dangerous jobs and especially arduous, toxic, dangerous jobs"...

Recently, at the question and answer session in the 36th Session of the National Assembly Standing Committee, answering questions from delegates about investment in training, remuneration policies, and salary regimes for athletes and actors which are still very low, thus failing to attract talent, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the Ministry is proposing that the Government amend a number of related decrees, in order to improve the remuneration regime for athletes and artists, to attract talent to this field.

Hopefully, in the near future, the proposals of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will be accepted, the treatment of artists will be better, artists will be assured in their profession, and circus arts in particular, and Vietnamese arts in general, will have more talented artists.

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