Circus Residency 2027

Dust Palace Charitable Trust supports the development of the circus industry in Aotearoa. Growing circus as an art form, and increasing accessibility to the benefits of circus through resdiencies, scholarships and subsidised shows, rehearsal and training space for professional artists. It also delivers Te Kura Maninirau, Aotearoa’s first kaupapa Māori circus school. Te Kura Maninirau exists to make circus arts approachable for tangata whenua through a kaupapa Māori pedagogy. 

Ellerslie Arts is the Dust Palace's home and community event hub, smack bang in the middle of Ellerslie. It presents an amazing opportunity for us to grow our support for circus arts in Tāmaki Makaurau by providing space and time for practitioners to develop work and for collaborations between circus arts and other art forms to emerge.

If you wish to know more about Dust Palace Charitable Trust have a look at our history on our website, wikipedia, or kōrero mai! We welcome conversations of all natures!

The Ellerslie Arts Residency programme supports the creation of both new works and the development of existing works over a 10 week part-time residency supported by the core Dust Palace team of directors.

Three x 10 week residencies are available across 2027.

Residents are offered use of Te Whare Maninirau, membership and support across the 10 weeks, with the residency culminating in a relaxed showing of the work in development. 

The Residency is designed to boost the amount of content being generated in the art form, as well as to facilitate the development of the tools required to shape circus skill into performance and therefore the residency(ies) does not focus on technique acquisition. Instead it focuses on areas such as movement generation, artistry, theatricality, and the creative process. Applicant can be of any career stage.

It is our intention that the fostering and facilitation of these practices within the residency will transfer into the culture of the wider collective circus community, creating a healthy and supportive environment for sustainable production of works.

Apply here; https://form.jotform.com/thedustpalace/residency