Scotland's first full-time dedicated circus centre, Full Cirqle: Edinburgh’s Centre for Circus Arts will be opening its doors in Edinburgh’s seaside town, Portobello. Formed by a collective of performers, teachers and producers Full Cirqle, will be a space dedicated to classes, training, creation and play across the huge range of arts and sports that make up contemporary circus. The building includes a studio, two rehearsal areas, offices and a barn for aerial training such as trapeze, rope, hoop and silks. Full Cirqle members include acrobats, aerialists, parkour traceurs, actors, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, yoga teachers and physiotherapists.
Full Cirqle will be home to seven companies and up to 50 individual members who will have 24/7 access to training space, facilities to run public classes and rehearsal space for shows. The creation of a dedicated circus space in Scotland has been the ambition of the core team members for several years.
The new space was secured just days before dozens of circus artists lost their home at the Portobello-based Arts Factory to a demolition order to make way for a supermarket. The short timescale means there was no time to secure funding and the team were left with only two weeks to find the money to pay for specialists rigging and safety equipment. The £5000 needed to install their safety equipment was raised in just 7 days as crowdfunding support poured in from all across the world.
Phyllis Martin business manager and producer of The Commonwealth Youth Circus project for last year's Games says, “It's one of those overnight successes that takes years of work. Everyone in the community is always looking for space and this opportunity was just too good to pass up."
Edinburgh is already home to professional companies touring shows like All Or Nothing Aerial Dance, regular circus clubs such as Tollcross State Circus and recreational classes for adults and young in Circus Alba but Full Cirqle hopes to offer a space for the circus community to call home.
Building manager and founder of PyroCeltica Celtic Fire Theatre troupe, Ron Oliviera says, “We are in there building night and day to get the place ready but there are a few basic things we don't have and can't build ourselves. Edinburgh has a brilliantly supportive creative community which is what makes a project like this possible in the first place, but we need structural engineers and riggers to make it safe and get it ready.”
The centre adds Edinburgh to the other large UK cities with a dedicated space for circus. There may be no big top in Portobello yet but this group with its holistic philosophy will soon no doubt be creating a circus environment where individuals and companies can flourish.
