About

We are part of the Cultural Olympiad!

The aim of the Five Ring Circus project when it was set up in 2010 by the North East Circus Development Trust (NECDT) was to create opportunities for young people to do circus activities regularly.

YOUTH CIRCUS CLUBS AND TROUPE

The youth circus clubs are focused on social circus, where you can learn circus and make friends. Young people from Five Ring Circus are also becoming connected to other national and international youth circuses as well as local, regional and national events, and through contacts made with visiting artists and tutors. We are sharing circus with the world, and sharing the world through circus! Clubs are open to new members – You can find out about your local youth circus by going to the youth circus pages on this site. We are also on Facebook – so you can follow us there on our Five Ring Circus page and on our Youtube channel: circuscentral.

The performance troupe will be a bit more serious, and is for young people who have talent or potential who are really committed to advancing their skills and developing acts of high quality. The Youth Circus Troupe will be formed after open auditions around Winter 2011/12 and it will be located in Newcastle, at the venue known as Circus Central – the building which will become the hub for circus in the North East. We hope that by 2012 the performance troupe which will be a flag flyer for the NE.

The Five Ring Circus project will run until summer 2012, but we don’t want the youth circus clubs to stop after that. To keep the momentum going the clubs need to become less dependent upon the NECDT’s facilitation. The Clubs we hope will become independent organisations which will contribute to building up a stable circus community in the North East. So we are looking towards the community of young people and local adults from each club to support the Five Ring Circus project managers to help achieve this. To get involved as a teaching assistant, a club supporter or helping hand – Please get in touch! If we can achieve this full independence for all clubs for 2012 it will be a fantastic project legacy.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This project has been developed by the North East Circus Development Trust because in the North East there has been considerably less circus than in the rest of the country. This has been frustrating for many professional and young people who have been involved in circus. The project will help fill the gap in the circus map, which currently exists between South Yorkshire and Scotland.

The Five Ring Circus is part of the NE Generation project, which is funded by Legacy Trust UK  creating a lasting impact from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by funding ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK. The NE Generation project was commissioned by a panel of young people from the region who initially chose nine different projects which will span the two years running up to the Olympics. The Five Ring Circus project was lucky enough to be chosen as one of these nine, and some of our Ring Leaders are now working alongside young people from the other projects to create the ‘Show Case’ Event which will be 1 and 2 September, others were involved in the commissioning of the Cultural Innovation projects. We are also part of the Cultural Olympiad.