The Trainers:

Jeff Young - Advanced Gymnastics Coach, BCircA - NICA (AUS)

Jeff underwent formal training in competitive gymnastics, theatre and music as a youngster before finding his home in circus arts. Jeff has shared the joy of circus with audiences across Australia as a founding member of Poncho Circus, and performed in myriad festivals and productions, including: Barber of Seville (Opera Australia), Infamous Cabaret Cirque, Cabaret Vertigo and No Frills Cabaret.
As a coach, Jeff’s technical prowess and enthusiasm for gymnastics have led him to roles developing gymnasts and coaches throughout Australia. Currently the
ACT Head Coach for Men’s gymnastics, Jeff has a proven record of leading gymnasts to success at the National and International level.

Sessions:
Session 1: Breaking Down Skills - Learn how to identify key actions and shapes
within skills to perfect the step-by-step coaching process.
Session 2: Acrobatic Elements - A gymnastics coach’
s method for developing
basic acrobatics, from forward rolls to backsaults!
Session 3: Pre-training and Conditioning - How to select and incorporate
specific strength & conditioning exercises for specialty artists into your program.
Session 4: Managing Mental Blocks - Methods used at the elite level for
approaching and working with mental blocks

Annabel Carberry - No Fit State (Europe) | Lost in Translation Circus (UK)

Annabel has been in circus since she was 12 years old. Starting in the world renowned Flying Fruit Fly Circus, she has had a career spanning several decades that has taken her to work in all sorts of corners of the world with a huge variety of people. Over the last 15 years she has built and run a touring company based in the UK which has toured all over Europe and further afield, creating circus theatre shows using dynamic aerial and acrobatic apparatus and fitting them into all sorts of venues and contexts. Since 2016 she has co-founded a circus school in a 1000 year old Church in the UK and has become more and more interested in circus pedogogy and the effectiveness of circus as a tool for physical, artistic and personal expression, and personal growth.
One of the greatest joys of her life has been learning how to work with her body to do amazing things and she loves to help other people to do the same. During her time running the circus school in the UK she was also heavily involved in the UK Youth Circus Network including attending events and conferences in the UK and with the European Youth Circus Organisation (EYCO), and has become fascinated with the recent explosion of circus research and how this can inform pedagogical and artistic practice.

2 Case Studies - 1. Physical Literacy, Circus in Schools | 2. Injury Prevention at Warehouse Circus

1. Canadian schools research comparison between circus in schools v. regular PE on Physical Literacy outcomes; how effective circus is at engaging and motivating students in physical learning.
   2. Implementation and outcomes of the injury prevention program at Warehouse Circus (designed and implemented by our head of Training Ashley Cox); use of targeted exercises in warm up drills to build foundations for key strength areas and correct movement patterns.

Annabel will present each case study with discussion time about how these and other research points can help inform and improve youth circus practice.

AERIAL DRILLS AND PREPARATION - 1 - Beginners and initial struggles, 2 - Building towards advanced skills - preparation for dynamics

This session will be split into looking at the two ends of the scale for aerial levels.

 In the first part - Annabel will break down the physical movement and drills for those first starting out in aerials - particiularly looking at prep and drills for inversion, breaking down key movement patterns, body awareness and strengths and how to help beginners or people who struggle with the strength, flexibility or body awareness.

The second session will dig into the detail of foundational technique and drills for dynamics across different aerial apparatus, particularly looking at beats and pops, form, drills and how to build up to these skills.

Massimiliano Rosetti - Lost in Translation Circus (UK)

Massi is a career performer touring extensively with other companies, building his own with Annabel, and producing all sorts of great stuff.

He's going to take us through Class design for great flow and engagement, and a workshop in teaching Hand-toHand techniques. It's going to be great!

Daniel Gunthorpe, Circoarts (NZ)

Dan is an autistic circus educator with ADHD and a PDA profile, and currently serves as Head of Social Circus at Warehouse Circus. Over 14+ years he has taught disability programs and performance troupes across three youth circuses; collaborated with psychologists and OTs to deliver CBT-with-circus groups for anxious children; and studied psychology, occupational therapy, learning science, Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS), somatic approaches and polyvagal theory. His practice is neurodiversity-affirming, evidence-informed and unapologetically playful. After 39 years of learning “the different way,” Dan’s mission is simple: be the adult he needed—so every student experiences safety, belonging and genuine success.

Sessions: Engaging Every Brain - A Three-Talk Series for Circus Trainers

A practical, neurodiversity-affirming series to help coaches understand behaviour, regulate before they teach, and design classes where every student belongs.

Session 1: Barriers to Engagement — From deficits to dignity: why diagnosis-first teaching misses the human. We’ll cover the neuroscience behind common labels, limits of the medical/pathology model, autistic-led theories, the double empathy problem, rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD), and pathological demand avoidance (PDA)— and how to not worry about them on the training floor.

Session 2: Tools for Engagement — Nervous-system regulation and polyvagal-informed coaching; re-attuning to what matters instead of copying how we were taught; asking better questions using Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS); and using honesty, meta-communication and vulnerability as strengths in the room.

Session 3: Schools of Engagement — How to run inclusive classes with differential rules (what’s fixed for safety, what flexes for access); have the hard conversations that keep cohesion, and what we’ve learned from demand-free, play-led Youth Spinout sessions. Flexibility here is creative—make offers, read responses, and adjust. In short: play.

Takeaways: language you can borrow, structures you can copy, and permission to teach with radical dignity.

Tom Davis - Artistic Director, Warehouse Circus; BCircA (NICA, 2010)

Tom has been coaching circus for a bunch of years and knows a few cute games that are great for classes. He's going to play his versions that he cribbed wholesale from other trainers he has worked with, and then talk with you about why he thinks they're great.

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Topics covered in 2025:

1. Class structure, preparation and planning. Class design for maximal flow and engagement from students:
2. BREAKING DOWN SKILLS - Learn how to identify key actions and shapes within skills to perfect the step-by-step coaching process.
3. PRE-TRAINING AND CONDITIONING - How to select and incorporate specific strength & conditioning exercises for specialty artists into your program.
4. MANAGING MENTAL BLOCKS - Methods used at the elite level for approaching and working with mental blocks.
5. ACROBATIC ELEMENTS - A gymnastics coach’s method for developing basic acrobatics, from forward rolls to backsaults!

  6. new approaches for engagement and inclusion:

   - Proactive and Collaborative solutions to behaviours of concern - ways to connect with young people to help them self-regulate.

   - How to have a positive interaction.

   - Youth Spin Out (Circus-as-therapy program at Warehouse Circus): How it's working as a program - talk/roundtable.

1. Efficient warm-up and conditioning for minimising injury and maximising training outcomes
2. Teaching Aerial: safe progressions for early and mid-level students
3. Teaching Hand-To-Hand: Approaches and techniques
4. A handful of curated games and why we play them!

ALSO:  For an add-on, we offer a circus training session (ground-based only - our aerial classes are chockers!) across all 5 days!

Classes available: Partner acro/hula hoop/group acro with toss/pitch/pass juggling/contact juggling/devil sticks/hats/contortion/tumbling/foot juggling/solo juggling/partner acro/group acro.

The where/when

It’s at Warehouse Circus in Canberra, from the 29th September - 5th October 2025.

Enrol here:

You can click here to enrol and pay a $50 deposit to reserve your place. Once that’s done, feel free to get in touch and we can talk payment plans, issues, logistical stuff, and more, and we will do our best to help troubleshoot options and opportunities.

Thanks for your interest, and we hope to see you at the festival!