Salida Circus is headed off to Northern Ireland this July. The group of individuals that will be going on this trip will be leaving on July 3rd and will be back in Salida on July 19th. During their time there, the director, Laura Hart, has a lot planned for the individuals that are coming on this trip. They decided to go to Northern Ireland because the former owner and founder of the Salida Circus, Jennifer Dempsey, worked for 17 years with the Belfast Circus. 

Dempsey stayed in contact with the circus in Belfast and recently, new opportunities have opened up for both circuses. Last year, the Salida Circus met up with a new circus that is a social circus just like the Salida Circus. 

A social circus is a program that uses circus acts as a means of socially interacting with the audience. The goal of this is to foster personal growth in social inclusion and community building.  In Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, their circus is very similar to the Salida Circus. Their goal is to work with youth and adults to help them take their already learned skills and elevate those skills farther. 

“There’s kind of  a gap that needs to be filled with that continued education with their circus skills,” stated Hart. 

The Salida Circus is dedicated to bringing their skills over to Northern Ireland in the hopes of learning from the Belfast Circus. The Salida Circus will bring more aerial arts (silks, trapeze, and the aerial hoop known as the lyra) while they leave it up to the “In Your Space” Circus in northern Ireland to show off their amazing acrobatics and floor work. 

Hart has worked hard to put this trip together. She has designed a trip itinerary that equally balances business with pleasure. She will be bringing a small group of people on this amazing opportunity, including her two kids, Ashley and Adam Hart. The rest of the amazing team she will be taking includes: Jill and Adison Lewis, Hana and her daughter Joey Michaels, Taylor and Mary Ebuna, Joy Halverson and Amelie Patton. Hart will be responsible for events, timing, and locations. She also has to organize daily sight seeing events as well as places to stay every evening. 

Salida Circus’ biggest opportunity for learning will be rigging. They will be unable to bring their own rigs and will have to depend on the resources that the “In Your Space Circus” will provide. This means that much of the equipment may not be like the equipment that they are used to, but they believe they can adjust. Hart and her team are very excited to have this learning opportunity and get the chance to make more connections. 

Everyone is very excited to see what the Salida Circus will bring back with them to share with the Salida community. Their director mentioned that the “In Your Space Circus” has very creative and fun costumes. The Salida Circus has been working to prepare their own costumes for their trip in hopes of making them more creative and abundant, to show that we can put together something fun to see. The Salida Circus has chosen fairies as their costume and show theme. They are very excited to show their creativity and just have fun with the experience. We are very excited to find out what they will bring back to our community.