TAKE CARE | Circus Dance Festival

TAKE CARE - Circus Life in a Swing

2024 - 2027

Take Care is a Creative Europe project aimed at promoting mental health in the circus sector.

The project addresses the prevention of mental health issues through:

Awareness raising,
Training, Workshops and conferences for artists, students, staff, and professionals,
Facilitating the exchange of best practices for supporting young artists,
Monitoring the mental health of students

Partners:

Take Care is co-financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission and is led by the International Network for Professional Circus Education FEDEC, implemented with the following partners:

Codarts (NLD)
Circus Dance Festival (GER)
Filip Jacobson (GER)
Miikkael Kukkula (FIN)
Around about circus (GER)

Events

Check out the page of Around About Circus for details on the project, session content, speakers, workshops and final panel.

Have a look!

See here the panel of the TAKE CARE Conferene at CircusDanceFestival 2025.

From the individual to the collective care - knowledge and practices

Moderation: Valentina Barone - Around About Circus

Panel Guests:

Nicole A’Court Stuart – Contra Productions / Circus City Festival, Bristol (UK), Heather O’Donnell – The Greenroom, (DE), Benze C Werner – Choreograf:in und Tänzer:in (DE), Amanda Homer - Initiative Feministischer Circus (DE)

Take Care - Circus life in a swing.
European Conference on Mental Health and Well-being in the Circus and Performing Arts Sector

The CircusDanceFestival hosts the kick-off event of the first-ever Creative Europe project dedicated to mental health and well-being in the circus arts sector, Take Care. The conference focuses on mental health, covering topics from working conditions and health habits to queerness. In terms of exploring the relationship between the individual and the collective, the goal is to connect physical, psychological, and ethical aspects, while creating an intergenerational dialogue. Come and learn together with us!

Profssional programme with registartion.

In this first activity of the European project Take Care - an initiative led by FEDEC and dedicated to mental health in the circus arts - we will address the issue of burnout: what proactive measures can be implemented to take care of your team and yourself?

Take Care is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission.

Thursday, April 17 2025, 9:00-15:30
ENC Châtellerault (FRA), during the Spring Talks
The event will be held in English.

Progamme download

Overall TAKE CARE Activities

Conferences

As part of the project, two international conferences are planned. The first will take place on June 7, 2025, during the CircusDanceFestival in Cologne. The second conference will be held in November 2026 in the context of the On the Edge Festival in Vienna.

Monitoring Mental Health
In 2025, a call will be made to introduce an online self-assessment form for students on mental health issues in some FEDEC schools. By the end of the project, tools will be provided to introduce a methodology for better monitoring of mental health in circus schools.

Workshops
Various workshops for artists, students, staff, professionals, and directors of circus schools will be organised.

Network exchange for Festivals
The CircusDanceFestival will organize online meetings to exchange best practices among peers and develop new methods for better mental health.

Films
Two artists (Filip Jacobson and Miikkael Kukkula) will create 4 Take Care films to raise awareness of mental health issues in professional circus practice, to be presented live and online.

Resources

Films, tools, and resources will be shared on the FEDEC website.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.