Next Door Circus Magazine Next Door Circus Magazine No.1 | Page 15

Aims and focus points
During the next few years the Baltic Nordic
circus network will hopefully bring together
circus professionals working in different roles to develop the circus art field in the Baltic
and Nordic countries. We are optimistic about
creating a touring system which will help the
artists and performances tour in the Baltic and
Nordic countries. The touring system will also
hopefully create strong collaborative relationships between the venues in the region and
makes it easier and cheaper to invite international circus groups outside the Baltic Sea
region.
tried to take into account on the one hand
the specialties that every country has and, on
the other hand, all professional groups working with circus. The overall improvement of
circus art and its supportive structures being
the objective of network activities, it is important to not only focus on artists but also other
aspects, such as critics.
One important goal is to make future collaboration in the region easier and make it a
natural part of programming the festivals and
forming the working groups of productions.
The main aim for more active regional collaboration is for professionals of each country
to know each other. Knowing other people’s
working habits makes collaboration more predictable and stable, which creates a perfect
opportunity for everyone to learn from the
others.
However, learning through sharing is just one
of the objectives. It is beneficial to create an
open atmosphere where everyone could feel
free to share good practices as well as the
mistakes or failed attempts; an atmosphere
where everyone could learn and teach. We
think this could be the key in the overall development of the circus art field in Baltic and
Nordic countries. On one hand, Nordic circus
organisations have experience of similar issues with which the Baltic circus professionals
are wrestling now; twenty years ago, Nordic
contemporary circus was as young an art discipline as it is now in the Baltics. On the other
hand, new organisations and now collaborative partners always bring fresh thinking along
and new partnerships can lead to the Baltic-Nordic circus community to think together
in new ways and develop the field towards a
new direction.
It is indeed the best thing when structuring a
new network and seeding new collaborations.
We will never know where it is going to lead
us and what it will create!
An agile circus network
Building Baltic-Nordic collaborations and
networks appears to be in the air right now.
Because of this, it was necessary at the beginning to consider why to build a new network.
Is there not already enough structures that
support and facilitate the collaboration in the
field? It was quickly evident that circus organisations would need a network focused
particularly on circus art. Before the
fences between different art disciplines can
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be crossed and the limits blurred, contemporary circus must have its own developers,
structures, networks and perhaps an identity,
too.
It is important to work near other arts and
their networks, to have the information moving and to share good practices between
the networks. When talking about contemporary performing arts, it is never clear which
actor or organization goes in to which box.
The network can have its special focus and
objectives that are limited to circus art, even
if the organisations are multidiscipline or can
act in different roles over multiple networks.
The Baltic-Nordic circus network will be open
and flexible. No one will be left on the outside.
There can be m ain partners and associative
partners in the network. The main partners
will form a coordinating group that will formulate the funding applications and commit to
the key functions of the network e.g. residence activities, touring system, workshops and
the network meeting. It is also important to
have associated partners so the whole circus
art field of the region could have the maximum benefit of the network. Additionally, the
collected information and the shared good
practices will be available for every actor in
the field.
The vision is that all the functions of the Baltic-Nordic Circus networks would be need-based. This network should be more like a tool
for operating in the circus art field in different
roles than an empty structure. The aim is to
form an up-to-date network, which would be
agile and reactive and also democratic. These
ideals can be difficult to combine, but to get
the network work, it is most important to build
the network from grass roots level and from
real needs, otherwise it could not have a long
and fruitful life.
Now we are at the point where all the needs
and professional actors in the field must be
mapped. The mapping will be published after
three years, but the collected information will
be available on the network’s website before
that. The website will be launched this August,
after the present network partners will meet in
Helsinki and continue the planning and developing.
The network is coordinated by CircusInfo
Finland. CircusInfo is an information centre of
Finnish Circus, funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. CircusInfo has international collaborative partnerships, and has been
one of the main actors in New Nordic Circus
Network (NNCN).
by Jonna Leppänen
Project Coordinator, CircusInfo Finland
Nordic New Circus Network www.nordic-circus.org
Circusinfo Finland www.sirkusinfo.fi

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