Molly O’Brien is 21 years old. She has been a member of Cloughjordan Circus Club since the very first workshop. She loves pairs acro and hula hoop, but she also has a really good competency in all skill areas. Initially helping out with young groups as a junior leader, Molly has since taken part in the CTF Programme: Training for Youth and Social Circus and gained her certificate, she has also just completed a 3 month Development Programme for Circus Artists with Circus Factory, Cork. Molly now works as an Assistant Tutor on all of Cloughjordan Circus Club programmes.

It wasn’t something I had ever seen before. It was fun, my main memory is that it was fun.

Everyone was nervous the first time we performed, but after, when everyone is coming up to you smiling and congratulating you it makes it all worth it. The costumes and the set really add to the feeling of it being a show and the spectacle of it all. Putting on our costumes you really see peoples characters come out, it gave them the ability to make their personality different or show their personality off more.

It was social and nice meeting up with everyone. At the time I wouldn’t have known everyone who was coming so it was good meeting new people. I enjoyed learning new tricks and each week I would be looking forward to trying a new thing – like trying to take my hand off the bench while unicycling.

Looking back, I’d say the show where Lucy and I worked really hard on our acro and had our own solo act for the first time and we worked on some big moves. It really felt like it was our part of the show, my time to shine. Also working on Elephant and the fact we have brought it to lots more things than it’s original purpose. It kept me in the circus.

I remember knowing it was sometimes difficult to get our attention, but when you are leading yourself you really realise!

It’s great seeing the progress of participants and thinking I helped with that.

It’s been great doing the different courses and being in a circus group with different people and seeing circus from different perspectives. I was aware but not to the full extent of all the thinking and ideas behind social circus. I knew the benefits were happening but the CTF course put it into words for me. I was nervous doing the course in Cork in lots of ways, its helped me adapt to different situations and to see that my own skills are actually comparable and in some areas more developed that others and to realise I am “good enough.”

I know I want to stick with circus in some way. I am applying for my first Arts Council Agility Award to develop my performance skills. I really enjoy putting together shows with the kids and the teaching side I really enjoy. I definitely want to do more of that. I’d like to work towards a performance myself but I’m still figuring that out – that’ll be part of my agility award.

I definitely have more confidence speaking to the whole group, at the beginning I helped out on a more 1-1 basis. When I start explaining (a trick) to someone else it helps me figure out exactly how I’m doing that trick myself and so it helps me with my own skills too. I’ve also learned how you use games and exercises consciously to involve people.