Circus partnership on equal footing
2010-06-21
“Eventually, I’d like to see the circus perform in Sweden and then tour Europe with its own shows – the artists could then fulfill their dream of earning a living from what interests them most ,” says Ulrich Hillebrand, director of Angereds Teater, a theater in Gothenburg.
For the past two years, the theater has been collaborating with Cirkus Debre Behran in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In mid-June, two instructors who have worked with Sweden’s Cirkus Cirkör, Py Huss-Wallin and Andreas Hautala -Andstedt, will be traveling to Ethiopia. They will spend two weeks working with the Cirkus Debre Behran company at a series of workshops.
“These artists already maintain very high standards but they want to learn more about sound, lighting and stage presentation,” says Ulrich Hillebrand.
The group performs mainly outdoors in streets and marketplaces, and the idea is for the workshop series to result in a show that is suitable for staging in the open air. That would mean the group being able to tour and earn a living from what they do, says Ulrich Hillerbrand.
“For us, this is a long-term partnership on an equal footing. At Angereds Teater we want to put more emphasis on dance and others forms of expression, and there we have a lot to learn from the circus troupe.”
In June, the director of Debre Behran and the Head of Culture and Tourism in Addis Ababa will be visiting Sweden. A new culture center is being planned in Addis Ababa, and the Ethiopian visitors want to see how Sweden goes about making cultural institutions accessible to people with disabilities.