I have spent the last week trying to condense four intensive days of immersion within the circus universe down to 2000 words, following the Unpack The Arts residency at Humorologie festival in Belgium.  I have unpacked the ideas offered around contemporary circus arts and, as with the suitcase I took with me, strewn the contents around my previously tidy life!

In a group comprised of writers and journalists from 8 countries, we saw 8 performances, from companies based in 5 different nations, and made up of goodness knows how many nationalities.  We spent time in discussion with many of them - Bram Dobbelaere, co-founder of Company Pol & Freddy; Jiří Kohout and Andrej Rády, who perform with Cirk La Putyka; performer-turned director Juliana Neves, who produced Jump or Fall; esteemed director Aurélien Bory of Company 111 - and with other professionals working within the circus sphere (festival co-ordinator Koen Allary, circus critic Liv Laveyne, Belgian MP and festival founder Bart Caron, dramaturg Bauke Lievens), all facilitated by Yohann Floch, co-ordinator of the Circostrada network for circus and street arts.

Whew.  Just seeing it written down is tiring!  The astute among you may have noticed that, to ease said tiredness, I have lifted these first paragraphs from my purpose built blog The Circus Diaries.  The next bit is new, I promise!

And it’s about interrogation.  As writers, when we delve into new subjects (and, even more so, when the new subjects become old acquaintances) we spend so much time interrogating them, that we can forget to turn the spotlight on ourselves.  Our cultural backgrounds and educational experiences affect our views on everything, and to forget that - or ignore it - would be doing only half a job.

I’ve interrogated artists, writers, and unexpectant audiences before and after shows (with a reputation amongst my colleagues as always having ‘just one more question?’), but I’ve also been drilling myself on my own opinions and pre-conceptions.  Now they’ve been unpacked as well, I can decide where to put them; some I’ll throw away, some I’ll wear with pride, and others I’ll store until the time is right to bring them out again.

My article will appear here soon but, in the meantime, enjoy what participants of the previous residencies have had to say! 

(And yes, I pinched that bit too; writer’s economy!)