Original Circus & Performance Team: Bob Burton, Stephen Burton, Mathew Daniels, Sergei Druzhina, Arturo Gomez, Kate Kantor, Guang Rong Lu, Kathryn Niesche, Earl Shatford, Jing Jing (James) Xue and Zhong De Jong.

Forty members of Flying Fruit Fly circus visit from Albury-Wodonga in March.

Awesome.

Students attend Alegria, Cirque du Soleil and enjoy an industry day backstage.

In May, the first NICA students graduate with a Diploma of Circus Arts.

NICAmites from NICA's community classes stage Acromania in December.

Students participate in the raising of the Circus Joseph Ashton tent for its return season at Burnley Oval.

NICA Short Courses: NICAMites (Prahran) and Ringside Circus (Ringwood) join forces to stage Creature Feature, four individual interpretations of The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, under the guidance of Simone O'Brien. 

Serious Circus is born, part of NICA Short Courses, and aimed at young people interested in circus as a serious career pursuit. Four students from Serious Circus successfully audition for the 2004 intake of the Bachelor of Circus Arts. 

NICA puts 18 of Australia's finest young circus talents with a multi-ethnic training team and you've got the start of a new breed of performers. Lee Christofis, The Australian, 22 April 2003 On Edge, directed by guest director Gail Kelly is the opening performance for the launch of BMW Edge at Federation Square.

NICA enters into the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence (later to become Arts8). 

NICA receives $6 ,000,000 from the Federal Government for the building of the National Circus Centre (NCC).

CircaNICA Roadshow—the third-year ensemble show directed by Neil Gladwin goes on a Victorian regional tour.

Connections grow with Cirque de Soleil’s outreach program. NICA will go on to become the Australian partner for the delivery of Social Circus Instructor Training in conjunction with Cirque du Soleil. 

The National Indigenous Peer Educators program is established, supported by Cirque du Soleil and Rio Tinto. One outcome is the creation of the Indigenous Circus Arts Network (ICAN) .

Mr Lu created and directed the Aerial aspects of the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. Mr Lu and Holly Rollins created and directed the circus aspect of the Closing Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. 

Commonwealth Games Cultural Program (Melbourne Festival): Love Happens graduate show, directed by Rodrigo Matheus & Carla Condiotto. 

Circus V, a tapestry designed by Ken Whisson in 2006, was woven to celebrate the contribution to the arts made by Sir Rupert Hamer, former Premier of Victoria and Minister for the Arts. 

DiVino is presented as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, starring third-year NICA students, graduates and industry professionals, supported by live musicians and directed by Valeria Campo from Italy. 

Visiting international master teacher Mr Lu Yi from San Francisco Circus School provides specialist training. 

Andrea Ousley joined two international trainers from Cirque du Soleil’s Cirque du Monde to run a week long Train the Trainer program following the international conference. Andrea is also invited by Cirque du Soleil to join two master trainers to deliver the Train the Trainer program to participants from the American Youth Association. In combination with Cirque du Soleil, NICA hosts the sixth meeting of the International Network for Social Circus Training (INSCT). Participants from South Africa, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Canada and Mexico spend a week at NICA. 

As part of MIAF, NICA hosts a workshop with international dance legend Merce Cunningham

NICA trainer Vasily Ivanov and students Jessica Ward & Caroline Walsh participate in a pedagogical exchange workshop at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque in Chalons-en-Champagne, France.

NICA hosts four students and a teacher from the Ecole National de Cirque de Montreal for two weeks, in addition to 12 students and their teacher from the New Caledonia Circus school visiting NICA for two weeks. 

CircaNICA Manager Kate Priddle is invited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make a presentation to eight Japanese event companies in Osaka. Kate visits graduates working in Macau, Universal Studios Osaka and Disney Tokyo.

Third-year students Billie Wilson-Coffey and Julian Aldag are awarded the Bronze trophy at the Moscow World Festival of Circus Arts in September. 

NICA is invited to attend the first International Circus School Forum in China to make a presentation about circus education and training in Australia. NICA partners with Cirque du Soleil to develop social circus projects in Durban and Singapore.

NICA attends the Wuhan International Acrobatic Art Festival, China. NICA participates in Heads Up—the Indigenous and Social Circus Conference in Sydney, July.

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, NICA works on a series of programs in Singapore, including assisting with the Singapore Youth Olympic Games and running Social Circus Instructor Training.

Students and Staff from the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe join NICA for the Nanjing Cultural Exchange project. They trained with us and the students performed in the 3rd year Ensemble Beautifully Imperfect directed by Rob Tannon. 

NICA presents the Melbourne Circus Festival as part of its 10th Anniversary celebrations. The Hon Ted Baillieu MP, Premier of Victoria & Minister for the Arts, officially launches NICA’s 10th Anniversary at the opening of Beautifully Imperfect. 

NICA is recipient of the inaugural Richard Pratt Creative Fellowship. Eighteen second-year students and three staff tour China for the International Study Tour supported by Arts Victoria. The tour concludes in Shanghai at the Second International Forum on Circus Education in China.  

NICA presents National Circus safety workshops to the Chinese circus industry at the invitation of the Chinese Acrobatics Association and the Shanghai Circus School.

Supported by Arts Victoria, four CircaNICA artists perform in The Exhibitionists at the Olympic Games in London. Social Circus program sponsored by the City of Stonnington. 

Hoopla Doopla! Produced by Beyond Screen Productions, this circus-themed children’s TV series, a collaboration between ABC and China TV, features three Chinese and three Australian circus performers, including two CircaNICA artists.

Eighteen second-year students participate in an international study tour supported by the Richard Pratt Creative Fellowship taking them to France where they participated in the FEDEC Circle forum, as well as travelling to Germany and the UK.

NICA celebrates the 10 year anniversary of its first Bachelor of Circus Arts degree graduates.

Funded by the Richard Pratt Creative Fellowship, NICA second-year students, two trainers and the NICA Program Manager take part in an international study tour to Montreal and Las Vegas.

TV Program Road Trip film a section of their show at NICA in August for the City of Stonnington’s Glow Winter Arts Festival. Presenters Damian Callinan and Gavin Baskerville take part in a clowning workshop with NICA trainers Earl Shatford and Ludwig Schukin.

A research project led by Academic Leader Dr Katrina Rank is formed to develop teaching practice using accessible technology 'Coach's Eye' instant video feedback.

NICA Executive Director Rose Stephens and First-year Coordinator Diana Zhang travel to China as distinguished guests of the Wuqiao International Circus Festival and visit “Dai Show” in Xishuangbanna, China, created and directed by Franco Dragone. NICA’s Lu Guang Rong was commissions as Casting Consultant and Acrobatics Creator. This major international production featured NICA graduates including Luke Simonds as a leading artist.

Five NICA students perform at White Night Melbourne in February.

The NICA Board approves Stage 1 of the Building Master Plan, seeing a refurbishment of staff offices and additional workshop and storage facilities applied
to the east end of the main building.

Swinburne University books CircaNICA’s Giant Love Bunnies to march in the Midsumma Pride Parade. The annual parade is held as part of the Midsumma Festival, Victoria's premier queer arts and cultural festival.

NICA reconnects with Red Dust Role Models to provide an outreach program for junior and senior children at Yirara College, Kintore Campus, an Indigenous School near Alice Springs, Northern Territory.

Supported by the City of Stonnington, NICA presents Empty Bodies featuring six NICA graduates, at Chapel Street Precinct’s Provocaré Festival.

Dr Jenny Game, Academic Leader at NICA presents her paper at the UNESCO conference in Bangkok on Music and Embodied Movement as Conveyors of Meaning in Contemporary Circus.

NICA graduates Liam Dummer and Jordan Twartz represented NICA and Australia at the International Circus Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Both Staff and students were forced to be creative with circus content and delivery, thus the Iso cabaret was born. In an effort to keep in good spirit and stay connected while in isolation, students filmed and submitted short acts to be showcased to a live audience during NICA’s first online cabaret. One of these acts was selected and submitted to the European Federation of Professional Circus Schools (FEDEC) to be played at the international CIRCA Festival 2021.

In December 2020 NICA partnered with Swinburne’s Physiotherapy Department and the Melbourne Shoulder Group to undertake a study examining the effects of a shoulder rehabilitation exercise-based program in circus artists who have atraumatic shoulder instability.