Stretching and Strengthening Circus Teaching in Iceland

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Stretching and Strengthening Circus Teaching in Iceland Arts Education Department Stretching and Strengthening Circus Teaching in Iceland The dance against gravity Thesis M.A. in Art Teaching Nicholas Candy Spring 2017 Arts Education Department Stretching and Strengthening Circus Teaching in Iceland The dance against gravity Thesis M.A. in Art Teaching 30 Units Nicholas Candy Kt.: 0210813299 Supervisor: Bjarni Snæbjörnsson Spring 2017 Abstract Circus education in Iceland is very new. After the foundation of Sirkus Íslands in 2007, the training and teaching became regular and the Æskusirkus youth circus was established. A rough curriculum for the school has been formed and the young school is in constant development. In order to ensure the consistent development of the school into the future, a solid grounding in educational theory pertaining to circus needs to support its growth. The research compiled in this paper is an ad hoc collection of developmental and psychological theory that connects the core elements of circus training with our youth. By connecting to flow theory, recent research in motivation, character, and success, Æskusirkus can stretch and strengthen the teaching methods that it already has. The curriculum growth can also be strengthened by examining how other international schools and networks have been developing and by the experience of past circus academics. The result of this paper is a compilation of history, theory and experience. It is essentially a roadmap for the future stretching and strengthening of circus teaching in Iceland. Úrdráttur Sirkúskennsla á Íslandi er tiltögulega ný. Eftir að Sirkús Íslands var stofnaður árið 2007 varð þjálfun og kennsla í sirkús að veruleika hér á landi. Fljótlega var Æskusirkúsinn stofnaður og sérhæfir hann sig í sirkúsþjálfun fyrir börn. Gróf námskrá fyrir skólann hefur verið sett upp og er Æskusirkúsinn í stöðugri þróun. Til að tryggja áframhaldandi þróun skólans og styðja við vöxt hans hefur verið nauðsynlegt að byggja á sterkri undirstöðu kennslufræðinnar. Kjarnann í sirkúsþjálfun fyrir yngstu kynslóðina er að finna í kenningum þroska- og sálfræði. Hér er þeim kenningum safnað saman og þær tengdar við nýlegar rannsóknir um hvatningu, persónuleika og velgengni. Á þennan hátt er hægt að þenja út og bæta við þær kennsluaðferðir sem Æskusirkús býr nú þegar yfir. Ennig er námsskrá skólans styrkt enn frekar með því að sækja í alþjóðlegt tengslanet og akademískan reynsluheim sirkússins og sirkúskennslu. Þetta er gert með því að varpa ljósi á hvernig alþjóðlegir sirkússkólar og stofnanir bera sig að í faginu. Niðurstaða þessar ritgerðar er samansafn af sagnfræði, sögum, kenningum og reynslu. Hún er vegakort til þess að þenja út og styrkja sirkúskennslu á Ísland til framtíðar. 4 Foreword This is a 30 credit/unit Master of the Arts thesis in art teaching submitted to the Icelandic Academy of the Arts through the Art Teaching department. It draws from personal experience teaching practice, research conducted online and through interviews, informal conversations and a survey with current Icelandic circus students and their parents. The main purpose of this paper is to publish information, researched and extrapolated through discussion that can benefit circus education in Iceland into the future. The curriculum for circus teaching in Iceland is still in development, and this thesis does not intend to produce any definitive document that can be used for this purpose. Instead I intend to open up a discussion, using many different and varied input sources to analyse circus training in Iceland and abroad, to analyse the students themselves and discuss a path for the future development of ‘Æskusirkus’, the circus school in Reykjavík. The writing of this thesis took place over the winter of 2016/17 alongside the continual development and teaching at Æskusirkus. I am thankful to the whole team who manage and teach at there and also the management of our home at ‘Íþróttaheimili Ármanns’ where we have taught since the beginning of the school. I thank the team for listening to new ideas, being brave enough to try them and for their persistence and collective desire to create a truly great circus school in Reykjavík. I thank Katla Þórarinsdóttir for her honest and generous input and Felicity Hested and the Circus Center in San Francisco for their help in my brief visit. I wish to thank Lee Nelson for his generosity and courage in building Sirkus Íslands and Daniel Hauksson and Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir for their contributions to Æskusirkus. I also wish to thank the late Reg Bolton for ‘writing it all down’ and the Bolton family for their commitment to keeping his published material alive and accessible. The supervisor for this thesis was Bjarni Snæbjörnsson, theatre education teacher at the Arts Academy and at Garðabær College, Iceland. I am indebted to his experience in creating curricula, his persistence in understanding, his clarity and generosity. I thank my family for their understanding and support in my period of ‘absence from the real world’. I would finally like to thank my wife Erna for her unquestioning understanding and support during this process. Thank you. 5 Contents Figures ....................................................................................................................................... 7 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Establishing the territory ............................................................................................ 8 1.1.2 Goals .......................................................................................................................... 8 1.1.3 Iceland ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.1.4 Curriculum ............................................................................................................... 9 1.1.5 Limitations .............................................................................................................. 10 1.2 What is circus? .............................................................................................................. 11 1.3 What is circus education? ............................................................................................ 12 1.4 Definitions of circus training and social circus. ......................................................... 13 1.5 Personal history: Who am I? Why am I doing this? ................................................. 14 1.6 Circus in Iceland ........................................................................................................... 16 1.7 Sirkus Íslands ................................................................................................................ 16 1.8 Circus teaching in Iceland ........................................................................................... 17 1.9 Æskusirkus .................................................................................................................... 18 2. Circus Pedagogy Research ............................................................................................. 20 2.1 Circus pedagogy history............................................................................................... 20 2.2 Key players around the world ..................................................................................... 22 2.2.1 Cirque Du Monde .................................................................................................. 22 2.2.2 Europe ..................................................................................................................... 23 2.2.3 U.S.A ....................................................................................................................... 24 2.2.4 Australia ................................................................................................................. 25 2.2.5 The Middle East ..................................................................................................... 26 2.3 Lessons learned ............................................................................................................. 27 3. Childhood growth and developmental theory .............................................................. 30 3.1 Popular educational theory applied to circus teaching. ............................................ 30 3.2 Reg Bolton ..................................................................................................................... 31 3.3 Modern theory from the U.S.A ................................................................................... 35 4. Studies in psychological development ........................................................................... 38 4.1 Flow ................................................................................................................................ 38 4.2 Motivation ..................................................................................................................... 42 4.3 Practice .......................................................................................................................... 44 6 4.4 Risk ................................................................................................................................ 45 5. Æskusirkus Curriculum ................................................................................................. 48 5.1 Organisational growth ................................................................................................
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