It’s that time of year again! The winter holidays are coming and Paisley is ready for them.

Check out our Advent Calendar on Instagram or Facebook – we’ll be posting a picture of our fabulous staff and students in all their festive glory on our social media for each day in December so you can have a peek the mischief that goes on here behind the scenes.

We have regular workshops with Kibble, Scotland’s charity for working with youth at risk. To watch a video of some of the amazing work Kibble do, check out their website.
We have piloted a pioneering research project, partnering with Glasgow Science Festival, British Science Festival Network, and Glasgow University with support from UKRI, exploring the mental health benefits of circus for children aged eleven to fourteen.
We’ve sponsored places in both our youth and adult classes for local residents with support from Renfrewshire Council’s Local Partnership Award
Countless workshops with community groups such as Young Carers, Scouts, Brownies, Girl Guides, nurseries, and theatre groups.
We partnered with All Or Nothing Aerial Dance to create a fabulous display for the Paisley Halloween Festival, featuring some of our students
We’re in the process of developing spaces and events for the local community as part of Renfrewshire Council’s Community Health and Wellbeing Fund
We work in partnership with Cumbernauld Theatre at Lanternhouse to offer subsidised classes each week.
Professional open training sessions for performers to train and develop work in a multi-functional, heated space (a rarity in Scotland!) for more information contact us here.
We also offer specialist one-to-one sessions and workshops with specially trained staff members for children and adults with additional support needs. For more info, click here.

Circus workshop for children with additional needs at community circus paisley near glasgow in scotland. A child in a wheelchair had a spinning plate on a stick

New term dates and Winter showings!

Winter/Spring Youth Term

9th Jan - 2nd April

Next term is open for booking here:

This is our last week of classes for the year

The last fifteen minutes of all classes this week will be open to friends and family– want to show off the latest trick you’ve learned or get a photo of your mum sitting on an aerial hoop? This is your chance!

For our kids and teens classes, the last 15 minutes will be a more structured showing, so they can really wow you with what they’ve learned.

Ad for gift vouchers at community circus paisley near glasgow in scotland. The headline says give the gift of circus and below that it says gift vouchers available online. The image has a woman on an aerial hoop wearing a black shirt and blue legging

NEW PRESCHOOL CLASS

Sundays at 12.30pm

BOOK HERE

A woman sits on a chair suspended in the air while the audience who are wearing yellow vests watch. The show is in a former church at community circus paisley near glasgow in scotland — *Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn* Photo by Brian Hutchison (who was also the lighting designer!)

Behind the scenes

Ever wondered what goes on here during the daytime outside of classes? Community Circus Paisley is a social enterprise, a rehearsal space for shows and a hub for circus professionals in Scotland to do the rigorous training for all those cool tricks, drops and dangles.

Some of the shows that have been rehearsed and developed here over the last few months are:

Stuntman by Superfan
Egg by Paper Doll Milita
Selkie Soul by Sonder Circus
Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn directed by Melanie Jordan and Alice Langley

If you are interesting in hiring the hall for rehearsal space, feel free to get in touch!

inside the former church in ferguslie park that is now community circus paisley near glasgow in scotland. There is a large window and aerial silks, trapezes and a tightwire

Venue Development

We’ve already hosted some phenomenal shows in our beautiful space and there’s so much potential to keep developing into a top-notch, accessible venue. We’ve been fortunate to receive blackout drapes donated by Platform and Scottish Opera and one of the next jobs is to install LED show lighting (as well as replacing our current lights in the main hall - if you or anyone you know is able to help out, please get in touch.

Some other things we’re on the lookout for:

Foam jigsaw mats
Secure garden shed/lockbox
Dancefloor (marley/vinyl)
Mirrors
Lighting desk
Sound equipment

What’s to come in 2023?

Flying Trapeze - once planning permission is granted, we’ll be installing Scotland’s only full-size flying rig and one of only two indoor rigs in the UK. We’ve been really fortunate to receive support for the project from The Hugh Fraser Foundation
Renfrewshire Council’s Community Organisation Development Fund will be helping us to reorganise all of our admin processes. Currently, the ever-growing mountain of admin tasks is done by volunteers and we have a long-term goal of creating sustainable jobs to carry us forward.
New Adult classes, including Aerial Dance, Acrobatics and Trampoline. You can have your say about what classes you’d like to see and help shape our timetable here (anonymous survey)
Workshop Weekends featuring skills that don’t typically appear in our regular timetable - we’re always up for requests!
Preschool classes - we’ll be trialing a class on Sundays 12.30pm BOOK HERE

Let us know what you’d like to see in 2023

Fill out an anonymous survey here

A woman being helped to hold a handstand by a coach at community circus paisley near glasgow in scotland

December Newsletter