Clowning around in search of a degree

Lifestyle –  Judy Murphy meets some of the people behind the success of Galway Community Circus

There was a time when the idea of a child running away with the circus would fill any parent with dread. Things change. These days it’s possible to study for a degree in circus training and two young men from Galway City are doing just that.

Liam Carmody, who is at the Rivel Circus School in Barcelona and Freddy Burrows who studies at Rotterdam’s Codarts University for the Arts, cut their teeth at Galway Community Circus, which currently has 300 members and more waiting to join, according to its director Ulla Hokkanen.

At the Circus’s headquarters in St Joseph’s Community Centre in the Westside of the City, people of all ages and backgrounds can learn skills from acrobatics and gymnastics to clowning and stilt-walking, with juggling and unicycling thrown in for good measure. There are animals involved – this is all about human skill and creativity.

The Community Circus caters for people from toddler-level up, and has drop-in classes for adults, but this is primarily about young people – 250 of them aged from five to 20.

“What we do is very valuable in the community,” Ulla says. “It’s about using circus as a tool to engage young people and it works. Studies in other countries have shown that.”

Ulla, who is in her early 30s, is a lifelong fan of this art form.  When she was seven, a circus company came to her home town to do a weekend of workshops. Her parents, who were teachers, loved the concept and teamed up with another couple to set up a circus school for young people locally.

Acrobatics, juggling, clowning and mime were a fixture in Ulla’s life for the next 10 years until she went away to university at the age of 17 to study social science. Theirs was a real community circus, she says, with parents being involved as well as children.

“For whatever mad, wild, creative ideas we had as children they worked to make it happen.”

And it’s the same with the Galway Community Circus, where parents play a central role.  Here, in a safe environment, young people can try out their skills, learn, fail sometimes and try again.

“Failure is good in a circus, once it’s done safely,” says Ulla. Young people to become more aware of themselves and the world around them by experimenting with different physical skills, she states.

“How can you use your own body to know your level of comfort without taking risks? You can do things in your own way in a circus, that’s what’s important. And there is always something you can do, whether it’s unicycling, juggling, hula-hoops, clowning or balancing on a globe.”

Ulla first came to Ireland from Finland as an Erasmus student in 2003, attending the University of Limerick. When she graduated from college with her social science degree, she returned and settled in Galway about eight years ago.

Seeking experience in youth and community work, Ulla was attracted by an advert from Galway Community Circus – Ireland’s first dedicated youth circus – seeking volunteers.

She went on to become a tutor and subsequently its director, “a bit of a dream job”. Under her stewardship the Circus has grown significantly and she is passionate about its value to its students and their families.

“I know what it means to be a child who doesn’t fit in with traditional team sport,” she says. “I wasn’t competitive and I was quite shy. The circus – a world where anything is possible and where it’s good to be mad – is a real confidence booster.”

That’s why the focus is primarily on young people, to give them skills and confidence for life.

“We have 25 classes a week in the Community Centre in Shantalla and we have summer camps too. And we travel and do outreach.”

Five years ago 20 children attended the classes, now there are 250 so the demand has grown hugely.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.