Uchenna Dance deliver a dance workshop at Trinity in 2018. Photo @Khali Ackford

Trinity is pleased to announce that, as part of the Bristol Dance Futures ‘Dance Connect’ programme, five Bristol-based dance practitioners will be funded to undertake year-long residencies in organisations across the city.

The residencies are an opportunity for practitioners, organisations and communities to collaboratively develop a programme of dance activity. Artists will explore and develop ways that dance can be enjoyed and experienced by new and existing audiences and participants across the city.

'It was great to see such high-quality applications and be part of the selection process with a different perspective from the health sector'

Karen Lloyd, Active Ageing Bristol

To ensure a wide range of voices and perspectives helped select the Dance Connect Residencies, the project's Producer Deborah Baddoo invited Karen Lloyd from Active Ageing Bristol and Zannah Chisolm, Artistic Director and CEO Pavilion Dance South West to sit on the selection panels, alongside members of the Dance Futures steering group including independent artist Deepraj Singh.

With the COVID-19 pandemic likely to exacerbate impacts of pre-existing health conditions, two projects will look at the importance of using dance to improve and support good emotional wellbeing and health:

Lerato Dunn will work will work with Southmead Development Trust and Sirona Care to explore how dance can contribute to the physical and emotional health, with the aim to develop a ‘Dance on Prescription’ model that can support vulnerable people.

Rachel James, who leads Dance For Parkinson's at Trinity, will be working with Fresh Arts to create a high-quality dance programme supporting the recovery of elderly and frail patients, designed to help them to get home quicker.

Trinity will be working with both Lerato and Rachel to programme activity in our role as the Arts & Health Dance Hub for the project.

The following collaborations will see artists connecting with new communities strengthening dance participation beyond the city centre:

Penny Caffrey and Helen Wilson will be collaborating with Filwood Community Centre to create a number of different ‘dance happenings’ to promote a positive sense of place within communities.

Katy Noakes will be working with Knowle West Media Centre explore ways to bridge the gap between street and contemporary dance in Bristol.

Dance Connect is an initiative by Bristol Dance Futures - a consortia of Bristol arts organisations and independent artists, that aims to create a vibrant dance ecology across the city, so people of all ages can engage with high-quality dance.

Dance Connect is supported by funding from Arts Council England

Lady Like by Ella Mesma, programmed as part of IGNiTE at Trinity.  Photo @Jessica Bartolini

Bristol Dance Futures are offering £8,000 for four Dance Connect Artist residencies. The residencies will see artists work in collaboration with Bristol based organisations, with the aim to see how dance practise could enrich a working environment and to exchange learning.

Dance Connect is an initiative by Bristol Dance Futures and aims to nurture talent, provide continuing professional development opportunities for dancers, and create a vibrant dance ecology so people of all ages can engage with high quality dance.

The Dance Connect initiative will embed four dance artists in Bristol’s arts, cultural and community organisations for 40 days, over a period of up to 11 months from November 2020

To apply now* please complete the Full Partnership Application form addressing the aims and the assessment criteria below.

(*Please note applications will only be accepted from those who have completed an Expression of Interest form. You can also download the Full Partnership Application form as a PDF here and the Guidelines and Assessment criteria here)

For more info please contact Deborah Baddoo - dancefutures@theatrebristol.net

Dance Connect Aims:

• Raise the profile of dance within individual organisations and more broadly within the cultural sector
• Embed the value of dance and the contribution dance artists can make within and across organisations - strengthen Bristol’s dance ecology and lever more support for dance
• Better equip organisations to work with dance artists
• Create opportunities for critical dialogue between organisations, dance artists and audiences
• Provide opportunities to test, grow and change the practice of individual dance artists, people working within organisations and the wider sector
• Create models of working which can be sustained beyond the period of this initiative

Criteria for Assessment:

• Experience in working within their chosen field of activity
• Imaginative and ambitious nature of the application
• Specificity of ideas
• Potential for impact of the residency
• What difference the residency will make to the artists' and organisations' practice
• Potential for legacy after the residency has ended
• Ideas on how they might share the impact of the Dance Connect residency

Full Partnership Application deadline 5pm 13th November 2020

-Written by Toshiki Okada

Adapted by the company

Having presented FellSwoop Theatre’s fantastic Belleville Rendez-vous and Ablutions in the last few years, we’re delighted to present their brilliantly successful Current Location at Trinity, Bristol this season.

Three women stand on a cliff-edge overlooking their village; a village which is soon to disappear.  “Sometimes we need to do things like this; we need to step away from our daily lives, and look at them from a distance.”

Current Location was originally written by Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada in the direct aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Set in the intimacy of a choir rehearsal room, an all-female cast presents this immersive piece of theatre with live music by Ben Osborn, which explores how rumour and the fears associated with climate change disrupts families, friends and communities.

Returning from its UK tour and sell-out run at Edinburgh Festival 2014, the award-winning FellSwoop Theatre (Ablutions, Belleville Rendez-vous) present Current Location; an allegorical response to the ongoing and ever-increasing number of ecological disasters. A site specific production, developed specifically for Trinity Centre, Current Location will immerse and enlighten audiences in the significant issues and questions surrounding climate change.

“Quietly gripping and thoroughly unsettling, this piece climbs inside you, like the best examples of sci-fi”.  Wildfire / Exeunt

“Will haunt you long after you leave the theatre” A Younger Theatre

“Current Location is that rarest of things: a bold and experimental play that manages to tell a complex and emotional story. It’s a must-see and one of the best plays of the festival” Fringe Madrid

Performance dates: 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th June / 11th, 12th 13th & 14th June

Doors 6pm

Show start 6.30pm:  Running time 1hr

Age Recommendation 14+

Cooking the books of genocide in Australia: food, feminism and colonisation - Shannon Woodcock

In this interactive history workshop, we time travel to meet colonial Australia’s first cook book writer - Mina Rawson. We will watch Mina arrive on the beautiful shores of Butchulla country, with her gun, her Pacific Islander slaves, her husband, and her dreams of making money in global capitalist networks through conquering the land and together analyse what our reactions to her actions can tell us about how we eat and live today. Are the margins of time, violence and the colonies at the dinner table with us still? What might it mean to kick colonisation out of the kitchen? A gentle and provocative engagement with how history can affect and inform us today.

Part of  Emergenc(i)es  Exhibition, 6th - 17th June: Control and Calculation : Inheriting Liberation : Improvised Publics

Intensive Contact Improvisation workshop with Nita Little

The informed Bodymind: Beyond dance/The invisible CI skills

This dance form invites us to have a self-sense that extends spatially to include our partners and our environment. Its skills ask for physical/mental states beyond our normative modes and modalities. And, it stretches our understanding of physicality and perception. The aim of this class is to increase our ability to act responsively through developing new physical and perceptual skills that enhance our peripheral intelligence. By discovering new forms of awareness we will learn to dance safely in a state that gives us an ability to read each ecological moment spatially and energetically. With the dance as our teacher, we will come to able to trust ourselves to meet each moment successfully whether we are falling or flying.

Roxana Vilk's Lullabies Celebration Day. Photo credit Khali Ackford

The past few years have been a testing time for our industry. Looking to the future, we want to change how we work together in Bristol and the South West — as a small group of venues, we have started thinking about how as a collective we might find moments in the year to link our pathways and programmes for artists, celebrating and sustaining them alongside platforming their work in the places they call home.

Throughout March, join us in exploring what a connected city offer for theatre-makers might look like. Co-delivered by Trinity, Bristol Old Vic, Tobacco Factory Theatres and The Wardrobe Theatre and with input from many others, Connecting the Dots is a joined-up initiative piloting how we can work together to present and cross-promote shows, free workshops, meetups, residencies and open forums for artists and audiences here in the South West.

This is a pilot – a work-in-progress, even. It’s the beginning of an idea pulled together at pace with a want from all of us to build for the future. The initiative will have events that take place in-person and a small digital programme. We want to know what you think of it and to hear your feedback and your ideas for what this could become.

With love, Trinity, Bristol Old Vic, The Wardrobe Theatre & Tobacco Factory Theatres.

Important information

We will gladly book interpreters and/or captioning for any events as needed. If you have booked for an event and require interpretation, captioning, or another access adjustment, please email and we will book it.If possible, please give us at least 5 day’s notice so we can ensure captioners/interpreters are available.

All rooms are wheelchair accessible via lift and have access to accessible and gender neutral toilets.

These workshops are offered for free but if there we have a limited number of stipends available for those that might experience financial barriers to attendance. This could go towards travel, your time, etc. To request one, drop us an - stipends will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Find out more

Head to Bristol Old Vic's website to find out more about the programme of activity by following this link.

We are excited to launch our Spring Theatre and Arts programme at Trinity that offers audiences an exciting exploration of themes around counterculture and alternative lifestyles, queer untold stories, creative play and the power of movement.

The programme kicks off with Igloo on 16 Feb. Igloo is a non-verbal, playful theatrical experience filled with warmth, sensation and gentle exploration, suitable for babes in arms and pre-schoolers aged 0-3 accompanied by their carers. As part of each performance there will be a facilitated play session. The performance is non-verbal, but the play session contains some words. Audience members will also be given an Igloo picture book and other creative ideas to enable families to continue with creative play at home. Igloo is originally a Travelling Light and Bristol Old Vic co-production. Spaces are very limited, click here to sign up.

Later in February, on 23 Feb, we have Kill The Cop Inside Your Head, a theatre piece from spoken word and performance artist Subira Joy, exploring their experiences of being targeted by the police as a Black, queer and trans person in the UK. Combining striking visual imagery with powerful language, this new work examines the impact of the police in our communities and how we internalise their role to repress and suppress ourselves into submission. This is a rescheduled event, originally scheduled for November 2023. Click here to get your tickets.

Full Bloom Festival of dance for and by older people returns to Trinity on 16-17 Mar. Throughout the day, participants can take part in artistic workshops and dance performances including matinee and evening performances showcasing the work of Gerry's Attic Dance Company, a resident dance company who run weekly sessions at The Trinity Centre. Click here to get your tickets.

Closing out our Spring Theatre and Arts season, we have Roadside on 05 April, a solo theatre show inspired by interviews with roadside dwellers across the South West and drawing on the musical history of this new traveller community, from festivals to free parties, to songs around the fire. Click here to get your tickets for Roadside.

Darren Pritchard’s Rent Party was programmed as part of our IGNiTE theatre and dance Spring Season.

Maya Ilogu, aspiring actor and Bristol resident has been blogging about coming along to our IGNiTE performances and workshops this Spring. Read her latest instalment on Darren Pritchard’s Rent Party, that we like to call ‘come dance at Rent Party, even though you’ve not done this type of thing before’.

Over to Maya:

On the 16th March I attended both the workshop and performance of Rent Party. When I arrived I went straight into the main theatre; which was where the workshop was being held.

"As a person of colour living in the UK the show was relatable and they talked about a lot of issues in the UK"

During the workshop I learnt some choreography which I found out was going to be a part of the performance. This is something I didn’t expect to be doing and I don’t have a lot of experience but it was really fun to learn and to be a part of. We learnt the choreography step by step and rehearsed with the performers. The performers were doing it with us and so we had someone to follow if we were unsure of the steps. It was all fun and not taken serious. We had to keep the fact that we are going to be a part of the performance a secret to make it look like a flash mob.

I really liked the choreography - it wasn’t too complicated and was fun to learn and do. we went out to the main entrance just before the show was about to start. The performance began; it was set out like a rent party, party games, music and dancing which meant you couldn’t help but want to join in.

In the show they each told their own story and experiences of growing up in the UK as a person of colour and the issues they had to overcome. We were given play money which we would give to the performer we thought deserved the money at the end.

The show in general was inspiring and gave me motivation to get to where I want to be. Something I really like about the performance was that it was really energetic, fun and everyone could get involve. As a person of colour living in the UK the show was relatable and they talked about a lot of issues in the UK but they didn’t always say them in a serious way which meant they kept to the theme of their performance.

This performance was appealing to everyone and was nothing like I had ever seen before. Before I came to the workshop and performance I didn’t know what to expect other than it was going to have a party vibe and there was going to be music and dance. So I was excited to see what was going to happen.

From a young person’s perspective, who wants to get into acting and performance, it was great to take part in and learn from. I learnt new choreography and gained confidence in performing infront of others. I got a better understanding of different types of performances.

You can read more of Maya's blogs over here.

IGNiTE is supported using public funding by Bristol City Council and by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Save money with thousands of discounted tickets and offers in the Bristol and Bath 24-hour culture flash sale from 10 am tomorrow (Thursday 17 January).

Windows of Displacement (23 March) explores Issues surrounding migration, home, borders and identity - some of the biggest questions of our time. Photo credit @Ashley Karrell

From music, theatre, art and museum exhibitions to Planetarium shows and theatre classes, there are deals galore. Take a punt on something new, grab a bargain and kick off your year with a barrow-load of amazing culture. This is the 10th edition of the Culture Flash Sale, which this time sees over 20 organisations from across Bristol and Bath offer culture fans amazing discounts and deals to help beat the January blues.

Save 20% on Benjamin Zephaniah (16 May) tickets during the flash sale

Grab yourself 20% off selected IGNiTE and live music shows by using the code: FLASH20 at the check out - there is only a limited number of tickets available at this very special Flash Sale discount so do-not miss out!

TECH N9NE 2 Feb 7:00 PM

Slum Village (LIVE) X Abstract Orchestra 7 Feb 7:00 PM

Fat Blokes – Scottee 20 Feb 7:30 PM

Confessions of a Cockney Temple Dancer - Shane Shambhu Sun 10 March 7:30 PM

Windows of Displacement - Toussaint To Move 23 March 7:30 PM

Benjamin Zephaniah & The Revolutionary Minds Thu 16 May 7:00 PM

Don't forget to use the code FLASH20 at the checkout to get 20% of these selected shows

Other highlights from the sale include 20% off selected tickets at Bristol Old Vic (link will be live at 10am 17 Jan) , discounted tickets to SS Great Britain's Late Nights and 50% of selected gigs at Lakota (use code 50OFF).

Running time: 90 mins

Dear Audience Member

The Circus City team are really sorry to announce that, due to an artist injury, Bromance by Barely Methodical Troupe has been cancelled.

We will automatically refund all tickets, but please do email us at tickets@britsolcircuscity.com should you have any further queries.

All the best,

Circus City Team x

Circus City 08 - 31 October
Circus City is a brand new festival for Bristol celebrating the city's vibrant circus scene. The programme has something for everyone, mixing circus with dance, theatre, comedy and puppetry, featuring homegrown talent and award winning European shows.
For the full festival programme visit www.bristolcircuscity.com

After touring around her home country, Brazilian artist Bianca Bertalot brings her fun and moving show for the first time in the UK.

Structured around the five basic needs of a child – Place, Love, Support, Protection and Limitation – the show “Cinco Coisas” proposes to lead the public to a purely human experience through various creative artistic elements. The show involves storytelling, dance, play, clowning and improvisation.

“Cinco Coisas” is a solo show, based on studies of a body psychiatrist called Pesso, co-creator of Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor therapy, which focuses on the five types of interactions that need to happen between the child and their caregivers. It is a playful, poignant and inspiring show where two opposing viewpoints, but also complementary – positive and negative, met and lost, abundance and absence - are presented by a single actress, who covers the polarities through the staging of two clowns and a narrator.

The aim of the show is to highlight the human vulnerability of the spectator existent since childhood, but doing so in a playful and entertaining way, as is characteristic of the clown.

Doors: 7pm

Show starts: 7.30pm

Running time: 45mins

Roots of Rumba is coming to Trinity on July the 6th! The Afro-Latin dance festival, curated by fomer IGNiTE artist in resident Ella Mesma features shows that stand for representing the diversity of dances of the African Diaspora.

The line-up includes performances by Sandra Passirani, Latisha Cesar, RJC, Franck Arnaud-Lusbec, Iris de Brito and Myriam Gadri. In “Mine Or Theirs”, Sandra Passirani reflects on her own identity and body as a queer woman of colour. The performance invites the audience to realise how social constructs smother and bend the beauty and sacredness of womanhood.

Franck Arnaud-Lusbec’s “Di-Osmosis” celebrates his Martiniquan roots and how these have shaped and still shape who he is today. Through his performance, he explores how his origins harmoniously blend with his eagerness to discover other cultures to form a perfect osmosis. “Uprooting”, performed by Iris De Brito, is a work in progress centred around the family bonds severed through migration and immigration. The show sheds light on how forced movement creates new identities and trauma that reflect through generations.

Myriam Gadri’s dance piece “The Lost Goddess” depicts the unexpected awakening of the Lady of the River, after a hundred years of ceremonial attempts to break her sleep, Further unexpected events follow and lead two women to eventually discover they are stronger and more in tune with the elements when they coexist.

For further information about the different performances and artists, and to book tickets click here.

Cardboard Citizens presents as part of The Ignite Programme

Cathy by Ali Taylor

Directed by Adrian Jackson

Settled …. Until suddenly you’re not…

Candid, poignant and intimate, this new play by award winning playwright Ali Taylor offers a timely reflection on the social and personal impact of spiralling housing costs, gentrification and the challenges of the forced relocation away from London.

Acclaimed Theatre Company Cardboard Citizens presents this powerful and emotive Forum Theatre show, exploring resonances in today’s society with the story told in the ground-breaking Ken Loach film, Cathy Come Home, 50 years ago.

The Forum session which follows the play is an interactive theatrical debate which empowers the audience to take issue with subject matter – and even participate in a live rewriting of the story.

Ali Taylor’s previous credits include plays Cotton Wool and OVERSPILL (both Critics Choice).  He is currently adapting his sell out show Fault Lines for TV.

Let us know you’re coming to see the show and join the conversation on Twitter using #Cathy

“Cardboard Citizens is a theatre company that must surely rank as being amongst the most genuinely life-changing in the UK” What’s On Stage

Show times

Matinee: 2.30pm / Evening: 7pm

Cathy will also be performed on Friday 21st October: 7pm

Age guidance 14+

Cardboard Citizens presents as part of The Ignite Programme

Cathy by Ali Taylor

Directed by Adrian Jackson

Settled …. Until suddenly you’re not…

Candid, poignant and intimate, this new play by award winning playwright Ali Taylor offers a timely reflection on the social and personal impact of spiralling housing costs, gentrification and the challenges of the forced relocation away from London.

Acclaimed Theatre Company Cardboard Citizens presents this powerful and emotive Forum Theatre show, exploring resonances in today’s society with the story told in the ground-breaking Ken Loach film, Cathy Come Home, 50 years ago.

The Forum session which follows the play is an interactive theatrical debate which empowers the audience to take issue with subject matter – and even participate in a live rewriting of the story.

Ali Taylor’s previous credits include plays Cotton Wool and OVERSPILL (both Critics Choice).  He is currently adapting his sell out show Fault Lines for TV.

Let us know you’re coming to see the show and join the conversation on Twitter using #Cathy

“Cardboard Citizens is a theatre company that must surely rank as being amongst the most genuinely life-changing in the UK” What’s On Stage

Show times

Matinee: 2.30pm / Evening: 7pm

Cathy will also be performed on Friday 21st October: 7pm

Age guidance 14+