NICA's 25th anniversary show will fund a full scholarship for a circus student
All ticket proceeds for Coming Home, 19 to 21 November in Melbourne, go to a new fund. NICA's circus degree costs domestic students A$22,660 a year.
The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), Australia's national circus school, marks its 25th anniversary with a show called Coming Home. It runs from 19 to 21 November at NICA's building in Prahran, Melbourne. All proceeds from tickets and donations go to a new NICA Excellence Scholarship Fund, which will pay Bachelor of Circus Arts fees.
In 2024, NICA took no new students into the degree, while it was still under Swinburne University of Technology. Applications and auditions reopened that July, and in November NICA moved to the Australian College of the Arts, with a new constitution and an independent board. NICA says it opened the fund "to conclude our 25th year as a newly independent organisation".
Concretely, domestic students currently pay A$22,660 a year for a three-year degree, and NICA hasn't said whether international students can get the scholarship. NICA says more than half of its students relocate to study there. The first full scholarship goes to a high-scoring auditionee entering in 2027.
So can you apply? Not as such. NICA's fund page says scholarships will go to top-scoring auditionees, and it doesn't describe a separate application. The next auditions it lists are for 2028 entry, in late September 2027 at NICA, with video auditions for people who can't come in person.
The show is inspired by NICA's archives. It puts generations of students, graduates and teachers on one stage, with aerials, wheels, hoops, bikes and foot juggling. Students from Shanghai Circus School join for the last edition of the Beyond Our Boundaries project.
Tickets are A$49, or A$36 for under-30s and concessions. NICA hasn't said how much the fund has raised.
