Learning & Participation and Training

Upswing runs a Learning and Participation programme for professionals and non professionals.  The company are committed to increasing access for everyone to circus, regardless of age and physical ability and to broadening the vision of how people can engage with the artform. With each project we focus on tailoring the activity to the needs of the group to give a high quality, creative engagement with circus.  

Participants can learn skills through a range of informal projects that run in parallel with the development of new work in the company’s repertoire, as in the examples below, or as self contained programmes.

Love Bites: Following a pilot project in April 2009, Love Bites will be developed through a series of residencies in autumn 2009 where the company will explore the notion of young love with young people some of whom will have the opportunity to be involved in the final production.

Cafe Carte Blanche: A two week residency in Clonmel, Eire where Upswing also worked with a group of local young people to decorate and furnish a derelict shop to create the Breakstation: a place for young people to gather during the 10 days of the festival. The group supported by the company managed the space, whilst the dancers from Loved Up staged a series of classes and master-classes in a variety or street dance styles, DJing and Poetry.

Homebringing: working in partnership with Hampton Community College on a cross-curricular project to create a site-specific outdoor performance to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The final performance was based on West Africa funeral ceremony called Home-Bringing. The ceremony was used at as starting point to inspire participants to create their own cultural ceremony as a memorial. It also allowed participants to learn about ritual and traditions in West Africa and physically explore themes of slavery and abolition through contemporary dance forms.