christopher mcauley

Growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Christopher stumbled upon circus arts at age 12 at Circusful, formerly Belfast Community Circus School. Having spent his life developing various techniques, he has chosen to specialise in recent years upon dance trapeze and partner acrobatics.

Since graduating in June 2020 from Codarts University Rotterdam with a Bachelor’s degree in Circus Arts, Christopher has spent the past few years refining his approach to performance. His contemporary work touches upon human emotion, vulnerability, and identity, aiming to use his platform to bring awareness to the queer community. His graduation act OMI±POLONE (one of the few selected as laureate of the BNG Circusprijs 2020) touched upon his identity as a queer male and his acceptance of his natural femininity. This has sparked his research into who and what he is on stage, and how this can be represented.

In addition to performing, Christopher loves skilled coaching. Having taught from the age of 16, he has spent the majority of his circus career breaking down fundamental trapeze movement in order to make it more accessible. As a dynamic trapeze artist, he works with momentum, flight, and freefall, three central themes of his tuition for his advanced students. For Improvers, he approaches trapeze like children on a swing — Remember when as a child when you didn’t panic when you were swinging in the air? All of this work is directed towards learning to trust our bodies to hold us and protect us, in very inventive ways when we are dangling 3m off the floor.