Circus for everyone

ABOUT THE TRAINING COURSE
The goal of these training course is to teach the participants basics of various circus skills such as partner and group acrobatics, juggling, diabolo… and various methods of preparing and implementing circus workshops which they can use as a tool in their work with kids and youngsters.

We want to spread method of circus pedagogy in the Balkan area as we think it is a great method which teaches participants how to cooperate, trust each other, be creative and improves their self esteem. It is an inclusive method, which works well with different target groups.

The main idea of circus pedagogy is that circus is accessible to everybody regardless of their age, physical condition, social background, gender… It is appealing and fun for everybody, making it ideal as a tool for educational work with youngsters. The aim is to introduce youngsters to positive, healthy activities, encourage co-operation, and strengthen their confidence, while developing co-ordination and persistence. By practicing this activity, children and teenager develop physical skills, social skills and personal skills.

During the training, we give lessons about:
- Circus skills like juggling, diabolo, poi, Chinese plates, slack line, balloon modeling and group acrobatics. This part is composed of practical workshops where participants learn how to juggle, how to create human pyramids…
- How to organize a circus workshop. This part is composed of theoretical lectures and exercises about safety, equipment, and how to prepare and adapt a circus workshop to the participants, the space available and the duration of projects. There is also a practical exercise where youth worker organize and lead a circus workshop in a real situation.
- How to create simple circus performance with the participants. This part is composed of theoretical lectures about safety, practical and pedagogical aspect of creating a short performance. There is also a practical exercise where youth workers create their own short circus performance and present it in public.

DURATION & DATES: 7 working days + travel days, February 2020
PLACE: Slovenia
PARTICIPANT NUMBER: 2-3 per country
TARGET GROUP: Youth workers/ Youth leaders/ Educators/ Teachers/ Trainers who are over 18 years old. It is important to stress that no pre-existing knowledge of circus activities is needed as the level of workshops is completely adjusted for total beginners to join the course.

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
Our focus is to include all the countries from the Balkan area but other countries are welcome to apply as well. We are looking for organizations who work with young people and promote innovative educational methods and organizations who would like to enrich their own working portfolio with innovative methods and equip own staff/volunteers/local partners with skills of developing and facilitating circus pedagogy workshops.

PARTNER CONDITIONS:
From each organization chosen to be partner, we expect to have frequent COMMUNICATION, selection of RELEVANT PARTICIPANTS, PREPARATION of participants, and assistance in DISSEMINATION activities.

COSTS
We will reimburse travel costs according to Erasmus+ rules.
Accommodation, food, materials will be covered by E+ grant.
We ask every participant to contribute with a participation fee of 20 EUR which will be spent on the benefit of the activity. We want this project to be accessible to everyone so if that is an issue for you please do contact us and we will find a solution.