Roll up, roll up: University of Limerick offers students chance at the ’big top’

Circus skills are about to explode in Ireland writes Nuala Woulfe

IF you wanted to run away and join the circus, it’s not too late — the University of Limerick (UL) has the course for you.

While traditionally circus has been ‘big top’, contemporary circuses, such as Cirque du Soleil, take their influence from street arts. Circus has moved onto the streets as festival and into youth venues as social inclusion.

Today, the world’s only (Master of Arts) MA in festive arts is based at the Irish World Academy at UL. Circus skills and aerial dance are part of the course.

“What we’re doing here in UL is very new. We wanted to create an MA where disciplines worked together holistically. People on this MA share modules with community and traditional musicians and dancers, and work with any artists, such as clowns, jugglers or any mentors that we bring in,” says course director, Dr Niamh NicGhabhann.

Well Done to the First Ever Graduates of UL's MA in Festive Arts @MAFestiveArts @Niamh_NicGhabh #ULGraduations pic.twitter.com/gHl21S6LE9

— University Of Limerick (@UL) January 22, 2015

Dr NicGhabhann says the MA is not all about performance. Some students may be more suited to event management or research and will not opt to take ‘circus’ modules, but everybody benefits from the performance element. “There’s so many festivals in Ireland alone — this is a growing area for employability, whether you’re an artist, a producer or an event manager,” says Dr NicGhabhann.

Internationally renowned aerial artists, Fidget Feet, (www.fidgetfeet.com) have also been brought to Limerick as artists-in-residence and the company has also opened the Irish Aerial Creative Centre, just off campus.

“At the moment, the aerial centre’s there for us to work on our own performance and to teach UL students, but the intention is to bring aerial skills to everyone and to open up classes for adults and children in 2015,” says general manager of Fidget Feet, Adam O’Keeffe.

It is the physical activity of the course, combined with the event management classes, that sparked Corkonian Rose Procter’s interest in Limerick’s innovative degree. Procter says the festive arts MA has pulled together her interests in people, dance and gymnastics.

“I did a degree in UCC in sociology and psychology but I’ve always loved dance and did street dance in London. I also did gymnastics for 16 years and was a coach, and I’ve always been big into organising events, so when I heard about this course I was very excited. This course has also been great for contacts — I’ve met people here that I’d never have met otherwise,” she says.

Tara Wray, from Limerick, who is also taking circus arts as one of her modules this year, says the festive arts MA is an “exciting mix of practical and artistic.”

While studying for an arts degree in Galway, Wray became interested in hula hoop and poi and then her ‘hobbies’ became her main interest.

“This course really is unique in the world and it’s very student-orientated — if you have a particular interest, they will even find you a specialist tutor,” she says.

After college, Wray is hoping to start a community circus project, in Limerick, for 18-25-year-olds, and combine it with research.

“There’s a lot of scope for community circus in Ireland; it’s a way of connecting with young people and people of all ages. Doing this course has exposed me to more opportunities and allowed me to grow creatively. It’s also helped me with business, marketing and promotion. This course has given me so much confidence,” she says.

Circus is alsand o on the curriculum at Carrigaline Community School, in Cork — performance education has been available to transition-year students there since September. Teacher, Daire Shaw says circus performance could be the basis for a short course on the reformed junior cycle, for which schools will design programmes to teach skills that meet key learning requirements. “The pupils work in groups throughout the module. They design a show together and learn about what goes into making a production, and we also touch on characterisation and humour,” Shaw says.

To research and share knowledge about Irish circus performance needs and training, University of Limerick has just partnered with ISACs, the Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network (www.isacs.ie).

Looking fwd to the launch of the ISACS partnership with @IWorldAcademy MA in Festive Arts @UniofLimerick tomorrow: http://t.co/2izcWjqyGp

— ISACS (@ISACSIreland) February 10, 2015

“The role of ISACS is to raise the profile of circus and get support for our members, and make the public and festival organisers more aware, too,” says coordinator of ISACS, Lucy Medlycott. “We’ve over 40 members, but there’s a lot more out there involved in circus skills, some as a career, others as amateurs and hobbyists.

“Funding for circus is poor in Ireland, compared to other art forms, but there’s beginning to be an understanding of the importance of circus skills. Street theatre, as performance, goes back to the Greeks, but in Ireland it’s an emerging art form. Circus is very democratic, as people of different ages and abilities can participate — it’s an excellent way to promote social inclusion,”Medlycott says.

Partnering with ISACS is also helping UL as the university becomes involved, for the first time, in an EU-funded project, Circus Plus, which is researching and developing youth circus and training across Europe. Youth and social circuses use skills such as juggling, clowning and acrobatics to working with young people, especially marginalised youth.

Two years ago, the former governor of Mountjoy, John Lonergan, took a group of disadvantaged Dublin teens and trained them in circus skills in Belfast, and the result was the amazing TV programme, John Lonergan’s Circus.

In the next few years, says Dr NicGhabhann, more such social projects will happen nationwide, as circus develops. “Contemporary circus is very much in its early years in Ireland. It’s much more developed in the UK and it’s huge in Canada, Scandinavia and France. With circus, we’ve a long way to go, but I’ve no doubt we’ll get there,” Dr NicGhabhann says.

Tip Top MA in UL will be very beneficial to youth

Dubliner Joanna Wiliams, who founded her circus www.littlebigtop.info in, Cloughjordan, Tipperary four years ago, says the new MA at the University of Limerick (UL) will be hugely beneficial for Irish circus as a whole and youth and social circus in particular.

Joanna, whose rural circus has over 40 young people, juggling, unicycling and acrobatting every week, trained in the UK and says Irish circus is on the cusp of a growth spurt.

“I went to the UK to do a maths degree and started juggling in university. Later I worked with Belfast Circus for 10 years, where I was the Youth Circus Director. Belfast was well known for youth and cross community work and I always had in my head that I was going to come back to the South and do something similar” says Williams.

Williams hopes that developments out of UL will not only make circus more professional but better regarded. “Youth Circus is non-competitive; everybody takes part regardless of skill level. We do pyramid building which promotes team work and skills are shared and passed down amongst peers and we’ve seen kids blossom in confidence.

“Especially rurally, if you’re not involved in sport, it can be very isolating for young people but our circus is a place where young people can develop skills and be accepted. At the moment I’ve to be self-financing but if we’d more funding we could do more.”

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