Over the past six months Extraordinary Bodies, led by Cirque Bijou and Diverse City,
have been collaborating with Galway Community Circus (GCC) on a project called Circus for Every Body.
The team worked closely with GCC’s fantastic circus training team to deliver two week long residencies. These included young people from Enable Ireland, Galway Autism Partnership and Scoil Chaitriona. It was such a joyous project. The young people took to the circus skills with huge enthusiasm, learning aerial work, juggling, clown, and equilibristics.
The whole project ran from October 2025 to Fenruary 2026 and we were able to support GCC remotely with access consultation.
Throughout this time GCC’s circus team ran weekly circus sessions. So that when the Extraordinary Bodies team returned in 2026, the young people had really developed their skills.
Taking Up Space
The residency periods were also a chance for the young people to meet Extraordinary Bodies’ disabled and non-disabled professional artists and develop new ideas for the final performance. The creative theme that we used for the inspiration for the show was Take Up Space. Take Up Space is a running theme throughout our work with Extraordinary Bodies you can learn more here.
This project was truly co-creative, with creative ideas coming from the young people. So many different people contributed to bring this to life. This included professional artists in Ireland and the UK, three different Galway communities, GCC, Extraordinary Bodies and the young people and their support workers.
It was a joy to see this new company come together, with new friendships and partnerships made, which made the new show a truly collaborative effort. A big thank you to all the GCC team and support workers. We also would like to thank our artists, Jonathan Leitch, Charlotte Evans, Tilly Lee Kronick, Saskia Collyns, Maia Ayling and Ryan Murphy.
Billy, Jamie and Eilis from Extraordinary Bodies are due to return to Galway in May for a cinema screening of a full-length documentary about the project. They are so excited to be reunited with the team, the young people and their friends and family on the red carpet in Galway to join in with celebrations. We hope this is the only the start of the journey with GCC and this special group of young people.
Photos by Bruno Pierucci