Trauma-informed circus practice

Trauma-informed circus practice

Over March-July 2024, Dr Lou Harvey and Dr Kim Petersen have been running a pilot project on The affordances of trauma-informed circus practice to support children's connection and communication, with researcher Hannah Wainwright and academic colleagues from PCI, Psychology, Medicine and LCS. This has run in partnership with Circus Leeds and a Leeds Primary School, and has examined how circus, as an accessible, inclusive, non-competitive and playful activity, has been able to support children with, or at risk of, adverse experiences. We carried out observations, interviews and focus groups with circus teachers and learners at Circus Leeds, and ran a six-week suite of circus skills sessions with three year groups at the primary school.

We are still generating findings, but so far we are finding that circus encourages autonomy, builds community, encourages failure for success, promotes future thinking, and encourages physical playfulness. Our data so far also indicates that the children taking part are gaining in confidence and self-efficacy, a sense of belonging, increased concentration, intrinsic motivation and perseverance, and verbal and nonverbal communication skills.

We are also finding that the teaching, learning and practice of circus works with and through both mind and body in ways which do not rely on traditional forms of expression and narration (e.g. through language), and which support the inclusion of different forms of voice and self-expression. We are therefore suggesting that circus pedagogy is transrational (following Harvey et al. 2021), working across the mind and the body in ways which integrate these and enable us to see them as more than binary opposites.