The Valencian Circus Association was born by the need to create a space for contemporary circus in Valencia.
As a non profit organisation, its aim was, and still is, to give circus a more important part in the cultural life in Valencia. L’ESPAI DE CIRC, our Circus Space, was opened to develop Contemporary Circus, the place has 1000 square meters for professional and hobby training, courses and shows.
Today there are over four hundred members, students and performers that participate in different ways in our activities. The AVC has also created and presented Cabarets 4 times a year and it’s imparting many workshops and regular courses with some recognized professionals from all of Europe.
Since October 2006 the Association Valenciana de Circ has taught a number of courses, regular and intensive, and currently, VCA is focusing on being the first CIRCUS SCHOOL in the Valencian city where circus training in various disciplines is being taught with already 20 groups in regular courses. The organisation regularly manages training events both for professional and non-professional circus workers. Of course this training is not an official preparation, since formal education in circus arts is still a pending issue in our territory. In seeking to fill this lack in training AVC participates in European projects for the exchange of experience and training since 2008. This resulted in developing projects in the Grundtvig Partnership, Youth in Action, Leonardo and Leonardo Mobility Partnership. These projects have tangible results, both for the Association on a global level as for the participants in the project. Many of them developed their activities in different European countries where they had participated in workshops and practices covered by these grants.
Next to the direct education offered, AVC develops different activities with the help of volunteers, all members of AVC. They help with the organisation of performances, meetings and festivals.
We have previously worked in social circus, at a local level and in previous European partnerships. On a local level, we have collaborated with groups of vulnerable people such as people with funcional diversity, youth from youth centres, gypsy women,.. who have participated in courses in our school of circus and then been integrated after such projects into our space. The Association is also an official collaborator of the local governmental administration in the areas of social care and family.
The people who are involved in this project are teachers and staff of the association.
Our space, the ESPAI DE CIRC, is also opened to many valencian organizations to develop Social circus work. (Mongran, Avapace, Circolío, La Finestra Inclusiva…). We set apart some places in our regular circus courses for people in risk of social exclusion.
Our main Social Circus project is called DiverCircArt and we work in a parallel way with youngsters in risk of social exclusion and with a group of people without risk of social exclusion who use to come every week to our regular circus courses. There is a collective creation phase and a final show to give visibility to the project.
Through this way of working we achieve our main objectives, which are: be really integrated , motivate the youngsters to participate in our circus activities and develop a possible future profession and train in social circus with the group of people who don’t have the risk of social exclusion.
MISSION
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Disseminate and promote culture through the performing arts and especially the circus techniques.
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To disseminate, deepen and train in the performing arts and especially in circus techniques.
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Provide a space for the development of the two previous purposes.
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Promote interprofessional support networks.
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Serve as the representative organ of the partners, ensuring their rights and interests.
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Encourage the use of the circus as an instrument of social transformation.
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Promote cohesion and social inclusion through the use of the performing arts and especially circus techniques.
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Undertake awareness and volunteering as a means to social change.
For more information see the website of Associacio Valenciana de Circ.