Flipside’s 2009 Main Production

In the June/July holidays Flipside Circus produced their major show for the year Roll up!... or Run Away? The show explored the travelling circus — something many children, young people and adults never get to see any more these days as the era of the travelling circus are numbered. Flipside was determined to change that and bring back the traditional circus into the comfort of Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre.
The show was a huge success with over 2500 people attending in a four-day season. The show is now all wrapped up but will come out of the cupboard in early 2010 to go to the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival’s ‘Garden of Unearthly Delights!’


Annual Fundraiser

Flipside’ annual fundraiser Minus the Monkey 3 will be hitting the stage again in October 2009. On the day of the event, all of Flipside’s wonderful trainers and local Brisbane performers will be coming together to put on an amazing circus show with the proceeds going towards Flipside Circus, Queensland’s only circus company entirely dedicated to children and young people. This will be a great family night out with heaps of fun. For only $20, everyone can buy drinks and dinner and be entertained.

Minus the Monkey 3 will kick-off at 6pm on Saturday, October 17 at Loretto Hall, All Hallows School, Ivory Street Brisbane. To book your ticket, call the office on (07) 3852 5292.


Flipside Children from a Refugee Background Program

Throughout the world, circus is used as a social tool to help develop better relationships between people from religious, cultural and social backgrounds. Inspired by a very successful social circus program in Belfast, Ireland, where Catholic and Protestant children come together and work harmoniously in order to learn circus skills, Flipside Circus and the Queensland Program of Assistance for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (QPASTT) have joined forces to work in Brisbane in areas with a large refugee population.

Teachers who were involved in the program claimed the circus activities made a remarkable difference in helping young people settling into their new community and establish relationships between the refugee children themselves who often come from many different ethnic backgrounds.

At one of the workshops Flipside ran last year, there was a small child who had not spoken a word for many years. By the end of the workshop, his carers were all in tears, because for the first time, they had heard him actually laughing out loud. Another child suffered rickets and yet managed to join in the skipping!

This year, Flipside and QPASTT have offered 20 children from Brisbane primary schools the opportunity to participate in a 10-week circus workshop not just teaching them circus skills, but improving self-esteem, teamwork, strength and fitness coordination, and providing them with positive skills which benefit them socially while having fun.

The workshop will culminate in a community performance for their school, parents, local politicians and sponsors to showcase their skills.

The program has being funded through the financial support of the Flipside Circus community. Over $9000 have been raised so far with Flipside families getting behind the program and supporting the refugee children.

If you would like to find out more on how to sponsor a refugee child, please contact Debbie at Flipside Circus on (07) 3852 5292.