CREATION LAB & ACT CREATION
WORKSHOP SERIES

CREATION LAB with Emily Hughes
Interested in developing your own personal aesthetic, movement language and choreography? Then this course is for you. Going beyond set skills and tricks, this course is designed to delve into your own creative power and give you a variety of tools to develop your own vocabulary, style, sequencing and choreographic storytelling.

Over 4 sessions, we’ll explore a variety of approaches to circus creation through creative exercises that develop personal choreography. You can build towards a specific act, idea or project or simply take the course as an opportunity to investigate each approach and add to your creative toolkit.

SUNDAYS Sept 14, 21, 28 & Oct 5
5:30-7:30pm at UV Pole & Cirque
Max 6 students
$250 +HST (sliding scale available upon request)
Register through UV

ACT CREATION with Emily Hughes & Kirsten Edwards
Looking for guidance and feedback in developing a circus act or creative piece? Whether this is your first time developing your own choreography or you have previous experience, this course will guide you through step by step over a 6 week period - from initial ideas to choosing moves and sequences, practicing, adding nuance and refining your piece. The course will culminate in an invited showing and filming of our finished or works-in-progress pieces.

SUNDAYS Nov 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 & Dec 7
2:20-4:20pm at UV Pole & Cirque
Max 6 students
$400 +HST (sliding scale available upon request)
Register through UV
Also available as an asynchronous online course (access included with in-person course).

Both courses are open to any circus discipline, ground or aerial based. If you are working in a unique discipline/apparatus you may need to provide your own equipment. All levels welcome, but participants should have at least a basic understanding of their discipline as no technical skills or tricks will be taught.
DISCOUNT: Register for both courses (Creation Lab & Art Creation) for $550 +HST (save 15%) - contact UV Pole for discount code

Asynchronous Online Act Creation course: $100+HST, add virtual check-ins for $30 (30 min) or in-person (GTA only) for $50
or sliding scale
Additional financial support is also available to BIPOC artists through our training bursary program.

HOW TO REGISTER FOR ONLINE COURSE:
Fill out the form above or send an email to hello@herciniarts.com to express interest. We’ll be in touch within 48 hours to confirm receipt and send you payment information to secure your spot in the course.

COVID-19:
Although masks are no longer required for indoor activities, participants are welcome to wear a mask or face covering throughout the class.
Work spaces will be distanced from each other by at least 6 ft and participants are encouraged to maintain physical distance when possible.

Hercinia Arts recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and requirements and best practices will continue to fluctuate. We will be in compliance with government regulations at the time of this workshop, and reserve the right to make additional changes to requirements based on recommended best practice from health professionals. Updates will be sent to registered participants.

ACCESS:
This class will be taught in English and the instructor will demonstrate skills/movements as necessary for additional visual aid. Participants are encouraged to move at their own pace and to take breaks as needed.
Specific access information for studio space will be updated soon for UV Pole & Cirque. You can visit their website here.

For any additional questions, please feel free to contact us at hello@herciniarts.com.

About the Instructors:
Emily Hughes has been creating in the circus arts since she did her first tightrope routine at HarbourKids Circus Camp at age 8. Over the past 20 years she has created solo and collaborative circus pieces using aerial hoop, silks, hammock, static and dance trapeze, loop straps, harness work, aerial ladder, clown, playground equipment and rocks, and has dabbled in basic partner balancing, hand balancing and juggling. She’s guided others working with hula hoops, acrobatic dance, poi, BMX flatland and Cyr wheel in addition to a variety of aerial apparatus. She has been teaching circus for over 20 years, with a focus on foundational aerial technique and encouraging creative pathways in students ranging from beginner to professional. She has a teaching certification in Intro to Aerials and Aerial Hoop Foundations through Nimble Arts and has taken circus pedagogy workshops with Angola Murdoch, Sarah Poole and Erin Ball, building on her foundational teaching mentorship through Marsha Kennington & Harbourfront Circus Camp begun as a teenager.  She also holds a BFA in Theatre Performance: Acting from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) and is a passionate student of Pochinko Clown, having studied with John Turner at The Clown Farm on Manitoulin Island.

Kirsten Edwards is a Toronto based multi-disciplinary artist who has been creating, coaching, and performing professionally since 2009. She made her way to the world of circus arts by a somewhat circuitous route with stops in the worlds of competitive dressage, equestrian vaulting and trick riding, literary academia, and the legal profession. She creates and performs on a wide variety of aerial apparatus while specializing in partner aerials and static trapeze. Her recent creative focus has been on collectively created, larger scale works that strive to use aerial circus in conjunction with other art forms to develop a unique, accessible physical performance language.  Her career has taken her around the globe having lived and worked across Canada, the UK, the UAE, Germany and across Europe.  Kirsten has been sharing her aerial, flexibility, and creation skills as a coach for almost 10 years, most recently at IVA- Pole and Aerial Arts, Berlin and is now excited to be back in Toronto to continue sharing with the community here in her hometown.  As a coach she is strongly focussed on preparing students to engage with the challenges and opportunities of circus safely, efficiently, and creatively through proper foundations and progressions.