Professional Development
Professional Development Opportunities
Creative Performance Lab with Mish Weaver
Friday 17th February 2023
10am – 4:00pm
£30 or £25 for members
- Professional and aspiring performers of circus and physical performance
- Any discipline – ground based, aerial, acro, dance, manipulation, physical theatre*
- Age 16+
Mish Weaver is one of the UK’s most dynamic circus directors with 30 years’ experience of working with movement, performance, voice, circus vocabularies and objects.
Mish has directed and conceived her own shows, as Stumble, using movement and structures to investigate mental ill-health and climate communication. She directs for others; supports productions as circus director, choreographer or outside eye – and discovered a particular joy in directing one person shows. Mish also designs sets and weight-bearing props for physical performance, often working the design and choreographic development alongside each other.
Spend the day with her exploring your physicality and performance through fresh eyes, have fun and invigorate your practice. The results will be unexpected and rich.
Additional info
Everyone will be expected to be self-reliant and work to their own capabilities. The workshop is open to all body types and is aimed at those working with physical movement and strength/fluidity skills. It is a performance workshop, so you will be occasionally watched and called upon to improvise.
*We may work on equipment, depending on space and what is rigged and accessible, and there may be time for individuals to move into their discipline/equipment towards the end of the day. However, this will be a group experience rather than a thorough investigation of your specific discipline.
Turning, swings, and rolling fundamentals for vertical aerial with Leo Hedman
Sunday 19th February 2023
Professional: £10 limited number of free spaces to current Greentop teachers.
Intermediate and student: £30 or £25 members
We’ll be running 2 rope workshops in the February half-term
10:00am – 1:00pm for professionals
2:00pm – 4:30pm for intermediate+ students
Workshop in controlling your center of gravity for balance and power on vertical aerial equipment. As well as learning some new ascents and some climbs from the infamous 100+ Climb list, you will be exploring how to start creating suspension and lift for small and big release tricks.
Also, you will learn how banana theory (a.k.a. C-shaping) can be useful for almost everything. If you wish to receive feedback on your current aerial trick, and how it relates to the bananas, please discuss this in advance with Leo. This can be done directly, or via leadteacher@greentop.org. He will take suggestions into consideration when finalizing the workshop content (the extent to which this is possible will be determined by the skill set of the participant group) and we will have a limited amount of time.
Pre-reqs: the ideal pre-requisite is that you can invert comfortably with straight arms. But he does a lot of theory, so you might be able to get quite a lot out of the workshop even if you won’t be able to nail everything we do during the workshop
It would be very useful for Leo to see a little video of participants swinging and rolling before the workshop, would help guide me on what level to expect but he can assess on the day as well.
Participants can share any specific moves or tricks they are particularly interested in looking at through the eye of center of gravity, and I will try to see if we can cover them. Ideally you could send a video link to the move.
Finally, Leo has provided an array of learning documents that you will receive once you’ve signed up to the workshop. This includes information of what may be included in the workshop – very useful for you to remember afterwards!
THIS SPACE IS FOR YOU
Friday 3rd March 2023
1 day course (6 hours, including 1 hour break)
Price: £40 (discount thanks to Arts Council England)
Description
Young people in youth circuses today are the circus artists of the future. If we want our sector to reflect a range of backgrounds and experiences, we need to ensure that people feel welcome, comfortable and celebrated, from their first steps into the circus world.
This Space is For You is a 1 day course that brings the best international practice in circus-specific inclusivity and diversity training to England, for the first time. Aimed at professional circus trainers, it will develop your ability and confidence teaching circus inclusively. The course uses practical exercises and games to encourage personal growth and attitudinal change in a fun, safe environment.
Thanks to our partnership with Stiklings, This Space is For You will also include an introduction to using adaptive equipment, such as juggle boards and tight-wire trainers. Adaptive equipment and inclusion manifestos will be on sale at discount prices.
Learning Outcomes
- Improve your confidence teaching circus to a wide range of people; including people with different physical abilities
- Introduction to using adaptive circus equipment
- Increase your awareness and understanding of cognitive bias (unconscious bias training)
- Develop your mindset: cultivate your ability to empathise, understand, and adapt
- Learn appropriate language/terminology
- Learn from international best practice in teaching circus inclusively
- Learn to identify and overcome barriers to participation
- Ensure that you have the tools and training you need to support every young person in their creative journey.
Course Background
CircusWorks is the only support, advocacy and networking organisation for the 100+ youth and community circuses in the UK. We have produced 5 CircusWorks festivals (the largest youth circus festival in the UK), 19 conferences, 7 international research and training projects, and 4 national surveys.
In 2021, we launched ‘Ideas of Inclusion’: an 18 month Erasmus+ project we ran in partnership with the European Youth Circus Organization (EYCO). The project brought together experts in circus, pedagogy, and inclusivity and diversity training, from across 8 different European countries, to develop a one day course in inclusion and diversity training for professional circus trainers. This course has been further refined and subsidised by Arts Council England.
Latest Residency Opportunity
Greentop Community Circus Centre Residency Awards Open Call
Deadline for submission: 12 noon of 15th February 2023
Greentop Community Circus Centre is a dedicated centre for circus arts , serving the North of England with classes and courses for over 100 adults and young people each week, professional circus artist development and tailored programmes and events for schools, communities and businesses.
With support from Arts Council England, Greentop is developing opportunities for emerging and experienced artists and teachers to develop themselves and their work. As part of this programme and in partnership with The Civic Barnsley and University of Sheffield Enable US project, we are delighted to offer Residency Awards that aims to:
- Provide a supportive environment for artists to take risks and explore their process
- Support artists to realise their artistic ideas
- Support artists working in South Yorkshire
- Support artists from communities that are under-represented in the UK arts sector
- Develop our understanding of effective Creative Development programming
Residency Award:
- 60 hours of studio time at Greentop Circus Centre, Sheffield
- 40 Hours of studio time at The Civic, Barnsley
- £1000 in project development support
- Access to professional producer advice
- Access to related creative development programmes including Scratch and showcase performance opportunities, masterclass programme and creative classes and Artist Practice Time.
Mini residency award:
- 15 hours of Greentop studio time.
- Access to professional producer advice
Access to related creative development programmes including Scratch and showcase performance opportunities, masterclass programme and creative classes and Artist Practice Time.
Greentop is developing opportunities for emerging and experienced artists and teachers to develop themselves and their work.
Working with Lead Artists we will be offering a programme of professional development support including:
- Masterclass programme in a range of technical, performance and adapting skills.
- Play/ Lab sessions promoting creative development/ play with aspiring and professional physical performers
- Provide artistic support for act development working towards Scratch and showcase events
- Residency Awards and commissions in partnership with Enable Us and The Civic
- If you are interested in one to one training please email leadteacher@greentop.org
For most up-to-date details of call outs please join our mailing list
Climb the City by Kapow, a previous co-commission with The Civic Barnsley.
Supported using public funding
by the National Lottery through Arts Council England