Canberra's Warehouse Circus engages for over 20 years

Originally launched in Belconnen as a three-month trial, Canberra's Warehouse Circus has endured for 24 years, with 500 Canberra children aged three and above training in youth circus every week.

Featured on the ABC’s 7.30 ACT program, Warehouse Circus operates training centres at Chifley and Kaleen, as well as a Canberra-wide school outreach program.

The team's latest show Refract tells the story of a sailor who attracts the attention of a sea siren who is determined to rock the boat and features acrobatics, juggling, trapeze artistry and more.

Nathan Anderson is trainer with the organisation, who literally "ran away to join the circus" as a teenager. Now, he shares the skills he learned there with Canberra's children.

Anderson explained "I did. I ran away to the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. I left my family here in Canberra and boarded in Albury Wodonga.

"I must have been 15. It was quite a normal progression for me. I had done dancing and gymnastics and circus was just the best combination of things you could get."

Now Anderson would love to see Canberra develop into a circus centre of excellence.

He told the ABC "I think it would be really great to start bringing people to Canberra, rather than having people develop in Canberra and have to move to elsewhere to further their skills.

"I'd really like that. Maybe one day with a bit of focus we can get people attracted to Canberra because of what we have to offer."

Refract is playing at the Belconnen Community Arts Centre on 7th and 8th August.