The Lowry brings ‘beautiful’ circus experience to Salford this July

The unique circus experience ‘Brave Space’ by the all-female Chicago-based circus company Aloft is coming to The Lowry this July.

The ‘breathtakingly beautiful’ circus experience will come to Salford on Thursday July 18 until Saturday July 20.

Presented in the Lowry scene-dock, this event will offer audiences the chance to step behind the scenes into a rarely seen area of The Lowry building, whilst experiencing an immersive circus ‘like never before’.

Brave Space is a celebration of female strength and power and received five-star reviews at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is now touring Europe with just two stops in the UK.

Inspired by the idea of creating trusting communities in trying and dangerous times, Brave Space starts as a puddle of 250-yards of fabric on the floor, and, with the help of the audience, grows into a massive blanket fort – a world of hope that includes interdependent acts of aerial arts, acrobatics, juggling and balancing on 8 ft high poles.

A show that is impossible to perform without an audience, each act in Brave Space is designed to physically draw spectators into the experience of putting oneself on the line for the safety and well-being of at-risk members of a community. The audience becomes a part of the show, sometimes helping to raise the tent, sometimes holding ropes that keep trapeze artists aloft.

Circus Artist and Director Shayna Swanson said: “Brave Space was created as an antidote to the horrors of daily news cycle. It’s not a “safe space,” but, an immersive performance that requires the audience and artists to show up as their best selves, encouraging them to care of themselves and those around them.

“I wanted to create a show that felt like the opposite of The Handmaid’s Tale – something empowering. I wanted to create the world I want to live in, even if it only exists for an hour at a time.”

For tickets, click here.

The featured image is by Mark Ronson Photos