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A need to belong
When people ask me ‘why’ I feel resistance to talk about the why, but I can tell that I never felt at home or worthwhile until I discovered acrobatics. The total acceptance of me by this community and the feeling of doing something I enjoy and am somewhat good at, is maybe deep inside what I want to communicate.
To transfer the feeling of interdependence.
I learned that interdependence is a great gift. In our society we are forced to do things on our own, we need to be independent and able to safe yourself. Interdependence (being able to trust each other, carry some one and being carried by some one) is a feeling that many people do not experience any more. If you are able to experience this you are able to trust more and create deeper connections. From my research about learning through and from circus I looked deeper into the effect of creating together and in close contact. See text from my previous research on the right side
In order to be accessible for all (audience and performers)
Art being accessible is one of my main values and the reason to work on the street. This accessibility is not only about the audience but also about who I want to create performances with. This summer I will create a performance with def youngsters, we want to create a silent parade, where our movements make the ‘noise’.
Making soft, but big impact without shouting it out loud!
My aim is to create impact by being visible and accessible, I wrote a manifesto about it for my audience, see image on the right
My values are now more clear to me, and to make clear what drives me and why, it is important to communicate them (visually and in words)
Accessibility for all, both performers and audience, transfer to the audience a need to belong, to be part of this play. Transfer a feeling of interdependence and trust and making a soft but big impact.
The circus methodology
A specific form of (collaborative) physical experiential learning.
What makes the circus methodology a specific variant of
physical experiential learning?
Everyone knows the term circus. Usually own experiences and adventures form a
personal image of circus. And yet it is not easy to define what is distinctive about it,
What makes it special and, above all, what makes it art. The Russian circus historian Yevgeny
Kuznetsov, (Vermeylen, R. 2000) described it as a "unity of diversity" This concise
definition captures the essence of what circus is all about. Different artistic genres are merged into a common art form, circus. The circus, together with
elements from other arts such as dance, music and theatre to form a show that is more than the sum of its individual elements.
What can we learn from circus, and what then is circus methodology? For my research I asked several colleagues in the field the question of what one understands by circus methodology and I looked for books and articles with information on why circus (as an educational tool) works. Bolton wrote about it in his dissertation "on why circus works" (Bolton R. 2004). In the years that I have participated in the development of several international curricula for circus teachers, I have found that the power of circus consists of many different parts. Bolton uses his own hand, as the connecting factor to explain the five main factors, active within circus namely: collaboration, individuality, identity, daring to dream and hard work. In the book Circus Works, Circus Elleboog (2010), the methodology is explained as a circular model in which play, training and presentation all play a role within all activities and that this role differs in terms of intention depending on the type of activity offered. In Camilla Löf's (2021) article. 'Interrupting the other childhood, on social circus in Asylum accomodations' about her research in Sweden in which she followed a group of circus artists for 1.5 years who gave performances and workshops in asylum seekers' centers, she writes that these encounters bring about a substantial change in all involved. She speaks of "otherness" and a complex understanding of "us" that everyone embraces. The ever-changing roles in the interaction between all participants made new social positions possible for performers, residents and staff alike. Coupled with my experiences in teaching highly diverse groups, I discovered that diversity can contribute significantly to deep and sustainable learning. In short the essence of what you can learn extra from circus lies in the concepts of otherness, diversity, connectedness, unity in diversity, autonomy, competence and finally the courage to dare to dream. All these words together form the foundation on which the three pillars: physical, social and artistic learning of my own model of circus methodology can build.
The three pillars are the physical, the social and the artistic that circus has to offer, interconnected by the arena. The circular playing field, which not only has the function of being seen by the audience, but has the function of seeing everyone and being seen by everyone. It is like the knights of the round table. One can look each other equally in the eyes, and at the same time be open to the audience, to the other who is not an outsider but is part of the experience by looking at it. The feeling this evokes is similar to the feeling of sitting together around a campfire. The fire is fed from outside and at the same time warms to the outward.
'The circle is the archetype that resolves the paradox of limitation
and unlimitedness in its perfect form', Roland Vermeylen