Galway Community Circus

‘LifeLine: Achieving the Impossible’ was a large-scale participatory project focused on the art of funambulism - wirewalking using a balancing pole – as a powerful tool for improving mental health.
People of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities from across Europe learned the dynamic art of funambulism as a way to improve physical and mental wellbeing. The project culminated in a spectacular highwire event over the River Corrib and Claddagh Basin in Galway City (IE) on 16th July 2022 - a cast of 130 community participants and professional highwire artists came together to perform a stunning display of hope, strength and resilience over one of Ireland’s most iconic waterways.
Funambulism is both a spectacular circus art and a surprisingly accessible participatory activity for people of all ages and abilities. It is also a powerful mindfulness tool that promotes mental wellbeing; walking on a wire conveys a sense of ease and simplicity, yet it requires focus, self-belief and courage. Crossing a tightwire is symbolic of overcoming challenges, facing fears, and taking control of your own body and mind. We use funambulism as a tool to teach techniques for managing fear and self-doubt, and help participants discover their inner-strength and resilience.
The site of the highwire spectacle was chosen due to its significance in the lives of the Galwegian community. To Galwegians, the River Corrib is iconic in the personality of the city, but also represents great loss having been a site of suicide. LifeLine came from the desire to reinfuse life, hope and courage into a landscape carrying great sadness and beauty, drawing on the transformative power of circus arts to deliver wellbeing impact and provoke discourse on mental health across the island of Ireland.
The LifeLine Spectacle featured performances by professional highwire artists Oliver Zimmermann, Andrea Loreni and Ellis Grover, a 42-person European Youth Ensemble, the premiere of the Creative Europe funded show 'BassAlto,' and highwire walks by community participants from across Ireland and Europe.
The foundations for LifeLine were created during a previous project, ‘Wired Crossed,’ produced by Galway Community Circus in partnership with the European Centre of Funambulism and École de Cirque de Bruxelles as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture programme. Between 2016 – 2020, they led a major capacity-building programme for funambulism participation in Europe, working with 10 European Youth and Social Circus schools across 10 different countries. ‘Wires Crossed’ led to creation of the world’s first methodology for funambulism participation and 2 accompanying training-for-trainers programmes in applying this methodology with community participants. Wires Crossed was funded by Erasmus+, Creative Europe, and the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

It brings together two existing projects: Educircation - a network of seven countries organising trainings for social circus; and Wires Crossed - a large scale funambulism project coordinated by Galway Community Circus (GCC). The Educircation project gives circus facilitators from the participating organisations an opportunity to develop their professional skills and competences through workshops in circus practice (including juggling, percussion, parkour). These skills will then be passed to thousands of students attending classes of the partner organisations.
Through the Wires Crossed project, GCC have been involved in the production of the world's first methodologies for using funambulism (wire-waling using a balancing pole) and FunLine (a more accessible practice that combines funambulism and slackline) as innovative techniques to promote positive wellbeing in people of all ages and abilities. Funambulism is an activity that is surprisingly accessible, while also a powerful mindfulness tool that supports the development of focus, self-belief and courage. GCC have been working with the European Funambulism Network and Europe's leading experts in funambulism and pedagogy to create an innovative training-for-trainers programme and teaching methodology in this technique. 'GCC meets Educircation' will allow youth and social circus tutors from the Partner Organisations to learn about this powerful new methodology, and how to use it within the future work of both themselves and their partner organisations,

‘Wires Crossed – Mind Your Balance’ is the 3rd phase in the development of an innovative educational programme designed to promote positive physical and mental well-being and social inclusion through the art of funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole). This inclusive programme aims to empower young people from all walks of life to improve their wellbeing; support them to build social, personal and life skills; increase empathy for themselves and others; become active members of society; feel more connected to their peers both locally and across Europe; and promote inter-cultural dialogue, tolerance and diversity. ‘Wires Crossed – Mind Your Balance’ is a training-for-trainers programme in using funambulism to reach, engage and support young people with mental health difficulties. The project came from the need to address the youth mental health crisis across Europe by providing an inclusive, safe and engaging outlet for young people to take part in physical and creative activities that enhance their wellbeing.
The project aimed to:
• address the need to increase the number of youth educators equipped to work with vulnerable young people
• develop skills and competences of youth circus educators in the field of youth mental health
• promote funambulism and circus arts as innovative educational tools to support the personal and social development of vulnerable young people
• develop high-quality methodologies for using funambulism as a way to support and increase wellbeing in young people, and for these to be widely-used across the European youth and social circus sector and beyond

Wires Crossed - Level 2 was the second step of an innovative education programme to promote positive physical and mental well-being, safe risk-taking, self-control and social inclusion among young people through the art of funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole). The project developed competences for youth circus educators and promoted high-quality youth work that is inclusive and reaches young people with fewer opportunities.
This project was a continuation of cooperation leading to a large-scale European project led by Galway Community Circus and their partners École de Cirque de Bruxelles and CABUWAZI in 2017-2021 as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture programme. The objectives of the project were to develop skills and competences of youth circus educators; help youth circus organisations increase their capacity; improve health and wellbeing and social, personal and life skills of young people; develop and share effective methods in reaching out to marginalized youth; promote social inclusion, solidarity and intercultural dialogue; help young people with fewer opportunities become more engaged and involved in society; help young refugees become more integrated in their local community and connected to young people in other parts of Europe; and to make funambulism a widely used innovative educational method in youth and social circus sector and beyond.

Wires Crossed - Balancing Act for Europe project came about from the desire to provide an inclusive, safe and engaging outlet for young people to take part in physical and creative activities which enhance their sense of well-being. The project reacted to the hidden crisis on youth mental health in Europe by preparing a training for youth circus trainers in funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole) - an activity that combines physical activity, mental well-being techniques and circus arts.
All three areas help young people by providing opportunities for self-expression, building self-confidence, social interaction and integration as well as improving their control over symptoms of anxiety and depression. They also increase positive risk taking both physically and emotionally, they promote physical health and body awareness, increase self-confidence and self-efficacy, improves social connectedness, teamwork, and leadership skills within the group and enables participants to acquire a broadened skill base relating to circus as well as more generic 'life skills'.
One of the project objectives was to improve the health & wellbeing and social, personal & life skills of participants. This project was the first European project of a multi-annual programme, 'Wires Crossed', delivered by Galway Community Circus as one of the anchor projects of Galway European Capital of Culture 2020. Wires Crossed are leading to a large-scale Galway 2020 project culminating in big community gathering in Galway in June 2020 where 400 people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds from all around Europe cross the River Corrib on tightwires to celebrate diversity and highlight the importance of physical and mental well-being.