Skylight Circus Arts

04/11/2024

Living Wage Week is here and we're proud to be a Living Wage Employer!🎉

We're standing with thousands of employers across the UK committed to going a step beyond and paying employees a real Living Wage. Doing right by our people matters

https://livingwage.org.uk/

28/10/2024

🌟 We're thrilled to introduce our two new board members at Skylight Circus Arts! 🌟

Welcome, Adele Navesey-Hall and Bushra Sultana!

🎪 Adele Navesey-Hall has been a dedicated member of Skylight for many years, participating in classes and performances herself and alongside her now grown up children. She works locally in education, specializing in SEND, and brings her passion for inclusive learning to our board.

🎨 Bushra Sultana is a talented visual artist rooted in Rochdale, with experience working creatively in schools, colleges and community settings. She has collaborated with Your Trust Rochdale, HOME Mcr, and Factory International and currently serves as Creative Engagement with Culture Coop.

We’re delighted to have their expertise, creativity, and commitment to the arts and our circus community on board. ✨

25/10/2024

🌟 Little reminder that some of our regular classes aren't running next week due to half term. 🌟 The only classes we have running next week starting 28th October are:

Monday
Fireflies

Tuesday
Rope for adults with disabilities

Saturday
Side By Side for Families

Sunday
Adult Aerial (extra session)

All classes back to normal the following week!

In the meantime, why not sign up to our brand new newsletter to have occasional updates of what we've been up to and have coming up! We promise there won't be lots and lots. We'll be sending out one newsletter every 4 - 6 weeks.

Sign up here:
https://mailchi.mp/skylightcircusarts/skylight-circus-arts-newsletter-sign-up

18/10/2024

🔴 Unfortunatly there will be NO Side By Side Session tomorrow Saturday 19th October.

There will also be NO ADULT AERIAL this coming Sunday 20th October. 🔴

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you, The Skylight Team ❤️

18/10/2024

🤩 We've two exciting things happening today... 🤩
The first is that we'd love to share our 2023 - 2024 impact video with you, a short snippet of all the amazing circus work we've done over the year! ❤️
https://youtu.be/d2tWbD6gTeY?si=W5lssGzm5dL6mjeW

The next exciting one is that we've just launched our brand new newsletter! Sharing all things circus, from upcoming events with us, what our members are up to, projects that we're working on, outreach work and performances... If you'd like to stay in the loop and have a lovely email drop in your inbox each month or so then we'd love for you to subscribe, please sign up using the link below and feel free to share with anyone who may be interested!❤️
https://mailchi.mp/skylightcircusarts/skylight-circus-arts-newsletter-sign-up

The Skylight Team

Video by Dawn PiersonMusic by Steve BroomheadTeam Wellbeing & Show photographs by Ian HodgsonAdditional Media by Charma ForceDiscover how Skylight Circus Art...

15/10/2024

🌟 A Huge Thank You! 🌟

We want to say a HUGE thank you to The National Lottery Community Fund for their incredible support over the years. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to create the amazing community circus performances that bring us all together!

Our most recent production, Sparrow Hill, took us on a journey through the rich history of our local area. It was a true collaboration, featuring our talented youth, adult, and silver circus members, as well as professional performers from our staff and freelance circus team, and children from Broadfield Community Primary School. The performance took place in the stunning St. Chad's Church right across the road. 🎪✨

With over 70 community and professional cast members aged between 7 to 82, we brought tales and imagery to life. The talented Gil Burns held us all together directing the show with support in directing from Grania Pickard from Oddly Moving, Steve Broomhead for composing the music which echoed the chambers of the church beautifully, and our live musicians from Cords And Fiddles for their amazing performances. Thank you to the wonderful Ian Hodgson for capturing the performance through photographs and Dawn Pierson for filming.

We also had the pleasure of working with students and tutor from The University of Salford, who helped ensure everything ran smoothly behind the scenes.

Thank you again to everyone involved and of course the players of The National Lottery Community Fund - we can't wait for our next big show! 🎉❤️

If you'd like to watch a short film capturing some of the performance, check it out here: https://youtu.be/KqTPt7w0ZVI?si=nYKJKVmsXHvFIqds

'Sparrow Hill' was a large scale community circus show performed at St Chad's Parish Church in Rochdale. Funded by Arts Council England, the show explored t...

14/10/2024

🌟✨ A big thank you to the Rochdale Development Agency ! Your support helps us to continue working with local children and young people within the borough of Rochdale, improving their lives and wellbeing through circus and continuing to make circus accessible for all! 🎪❤️

11/10/2024

Good Morning! It’s the FINAL DAY to get your nominations in if you’ve not already had chance. We’ve got until midnight tonight ❤️
We’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed!
A huge huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to nominate us already ❤️

🎪✨ We Need Your Help! ✨🎪

There's a chance we could win some much-needed funds, and as a charity, we rely on the amazing support of our members, friends, funders, and donors to keep our classes and circus workshops running! Every bit of extra money helps, and right now, YOU can help us be in the running to win £5,000!

It’s super quick and easy to nominate Skylight – just click this link 👉 https://culture.movementforgood.com/ , search for Skylight Circus, and you’ll see us listed under Skylight Circus In Education. Simply select the 'Heritage and Arts' category and fill in a couple of quick details. It takes less than a minute!

Once you’ve done it, please share with everyone you know! The more nominations we get, the better chance we have! 🙌

If we win, it’ll make a HUGE difference to us. Thank you so much for your support! 💙🎪

07/10/2024

🎪✨ We Need Your Help! ✨🎪

There's a chance we could win some much-needed funds, and as a charity, we rely on the amazing support of our members, friends, funders, and donors to keep our classes and circus workshops running! Every bit of extra money helps, and right now, YOU can help us be in the running to win £5,000!

It’s super quick and easy to nominate Skylight – just click this link 👉 https://culture.movementforgood.com/ , search for Skylight Circus, and you’ll see us listed under Skylight Circus In Education. Simply select the 'Heritage and Arts' category and fill in a couple of quick details. It takes less than a minute!

Once you’ve done it, please share with everyone you know! The more nominations we get, the better chance we have! 🙌

If we win, it’ll make a HUGE difference to us. Thank you so much for your support! 💙🎪

06/10/2024

We’re over in at Gorton Festival this afternoon running circus workshops for the local community!

01/10/2024

🔥🔥🔥A super duper exciting opportunity to take part in FREE fire spinning workshops that start NEXT MONDAY! 🔥🔥🔥 See info below!

It's 7 Monday evenings of fun, no experience needed! Held at Skylight Circus Arts, ran by the wonderful Travelling Light Circus with thanks to Culture Coop! For ages 18+, to request a place pop us an email at [email protected]!

24/09/2024

We're working with Culture Coop on this unique event!

Rag n Bone- A travelling show by the Northern Lands Collective

A horse-drawn micro festival of live performances- music, dance, spoken word and visual arts.

A micro festival is coming to Milnrow, Smallbridge, Littleborough, and Wardle on the weekend of 28th and 29th September on the back of a beautifully restored vintage horse-drawn cart.

Come and witness this unique extravaganza of traditional and contemporary arts- music, dance, spoken word and visual arts as our travelling troupe of entertainers pitches up at parks, playgrounds and shopping areas on your doorstep.

Over the weekend Rag n Bone’s horse-drawn cart will slowly make its way around Rochdale with four whistlestop events along the route. Each day will feature different performers. You are welcome to join us for free in more than one location. No need to book, just look out for our arrival in your area.

Rag n Bone will feature performances from both new and renowned artists such as dialect poet and balladeer, Jennifer Reid, rapper and dancer, Micah Stalgic, local poet, Seamus Kelly and contemporary dance troupe, Company Chameleon and more.

This unique event is brought to your doorstep by the Northern Lands Collective. We are bringing Rag n Bone directly into your community, showcasing the joy creativity can bring.

*Please note horses are sensitive and need to be left alone to rest during the events and while they are working. We hope you enjoy what we, the humans, have created for you, an insight into creative opportunities in your local area in the coming months thanks to the Northern Lands Collective.*

Rag n Bone is free and will be visiting the following locations:

SATURDAY 28th September

11:30am
Milnrow Memorial Park
115 Newhey Rd, Newhey, Rochdale OL16 4JF

3:30pm
Stevenson Square
Smallbridge, Rochdale OL12 9SA

SUNDAY 29th September

12:00pm
Public Pavement,
The Wheatsheaf
37 Church St, Littleborough OL15 8AB

3:30pm
Clough Street Play Area (Wardle Recreation Ground
Wardle, OL12 9NL

Each stop on the tour lasts around one hour.

12/09/2024

Sharing stories of the past? That's what we were up to last Saturday over at St Chads Church, sharing the stories of Sparrow Hill from our stunning artist and community made Pop Up Book.

The book was part of our Sparrow Hill Project where our imaginations grew and minds were stunned by learning all about the history of our local area.

We worked with professional artist Kerith Ogden and our community members to create the book and then produced the most wonderful performance, directed by Gilly Milly Bobs, which took place at St Chads Church earlier in the year!
https://skylightcircusarts.com/sparrow-hill-circus-show/

12/09/2024

🎪 Throwback to 2018! 🎪

Throwback to Awards! Two of our talented youth circus members wowed the audience with their stunning silks performance. We ended the night on a high, taking home the award for Cultural Event of the Year 2018! The award was for our multi generational performance sharing the stories of GENERATIONS 🏆✨ What a fab night it was!

09/09/2024

🎪 We’re excited to share that our regular classes are back this week, and we can’t wait to see all our amazing members again, we’ve missed you! ❤️

Interested in joining our youth or adult circus/aerial classes? Drop us a message, we’d love to have you! 🤸‍♀️✨

06/09/2024

Our friends over at The Lowry have a special family friendly comedy performance and we've managed to get some discounted tickets for any of you that might want them! See info below!

The show had a brilliant sold out and award-winning show at Edinburgh Fringe and is coming to The Lowry for two performances on Saturday 21st September at 2pm and Sunday 22nd September at 11am.
We've got a special discount price of only £5 using the promo code MONKEYS - or by following this link -

Join award-winning performer Damien Warren-Smith as he tries to find a calmer place to be amongst the madness of the monkey business that fills his mind.Monkeys Everywhere follows Damien Warren-Smith’s mischievous, acclaimed alter ego Garry Starr as he endeavours to write, but is continually distr...

06/09/2024

05/09/2024

We’re thrilled to announce that the Pop-Up Book of Sparrow Hill is making a return! Join us this Saturday from 12:00 to 1:30 PM at St. Chad's Church as part of Rochdale's Heritage Open Days and Trail. Our very own Professor Bradford and Professor Chapman will be there to share some of the historic tails of Sparrow Hill!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8IFO56kfEw

There’s plenty to explore throughout the day, whether you want to visit your favourite locations from the programme or take on the entire trail. Don’t miss out on this chance to dive into the rich history of Rochdale!