Poppy Emer Greenford / Bumble Movement Arts
Juggling at the Edge of the World

Poppy Emer Greenford / Bumble Movement Arts

Juggling at the Edge of the World

6 to 9 July 2026

Juggling at the Edge of the World is a playful and poetic contemporary circus performance weaving together juggling, storytelling and creative movement to create a world that celebrates the un-heroic, while reflecting on becoming, decision making and the relentlessness of the womb. This current research explores parallels between juggling and writing, investigating whether language can function like physical material; rhythmically, compositionally, and emotionally. The project uses juggling in multiple forms; clubs, balls, pendulums, bubbles, and everyday objects, alongside choreographed movement and creative text. Meaning emerges through rhythm, repetition, humour, and physical play rather than narrative alone to create an emotionally resonant audience experience that is intimate, imaginative, and intellectually engaging.

The aims of this residency period will be the continued development of Juggling at the Edge of the World, a contemporary circus performance project. The initial research ‘Devising as a cycle of finding our edges’ explored what happens when I allow multiple musings to entangle and see what stories emerge from that frame. Where are my creative edges, and how can I find them? This second phase of research is around two practices ; juggling & writing and how they intersect. In previous work I have integrated these to a certain extent and I want to research devising techniques to find new ways of working. Can I juggle words? Can my writing hold rhythm, can it drop, catch, use siteswap theory? I work with both personal and found texts; my own creative writing as well as words from others, including Ursula le Guin texts, whose work and eloquence with writing inspires both my process as well as the title of sentiment of the work from her essays ‘Dancing at the Edge of the World’.

A self-reflective adventure of turning thirty and realising that although you could have become something useful like a doctor, stories are medicine too. Waiting to be found, danced, made and un-made; arranged to give the illusion of coherence amidst the inexhaustible chaos of being.

Juggling at the Edge of the World brings audiences to a poetic performance world that invites reflection and reimagining. Through games of discovery, within the cracks and crevices. Puzzling together meaning with a judicious collection of fragments and everyday moments. Physical storytelling through an eco-feminist lens.

Celebrating the un-heroic, being reckless with the fine china, bubbles as choreographers, and the relentlessness of the womb. A show for anyone who is, or has ever loved a woman.

Poppy Emer Greenford is a circus artist based in West Cork. Her work weaves together threads of circus, storytelling and ecology. Graduate of Circomedia, school of contemporary circus and physical theatre with a BA in performance (2019) and an MA in directing circus (2021), & in 2025 she completed a postgraduate short course at SKH circus, Stockholm University of the Arts titled ‘Research Design in Circus’.

She has developed her own unique style centred around integration techniques within a meaning and movement context, creative writing informs physical metaphors, and juggling technique informs manipulation of everyday objects.

Inspired by nature and our complex human relationship to the earth, as well as an understanding that art is activism and stories shape the world.

Bumble Movement Arts is a contemporary performance company rooted in play, nature, and physical storytelling. Inspired by the humble bee, our work explores the intersection of ecology, circus, and theatre.

We create original shows for outdoor and indoor spaces that blend circus, narrative, and comedy into joyful, thought-provoking experiences for audiences of all ages.

At the heart of our work is a desire to pollinate connection—between people, between communities, and with the natural world.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bumblemovementarts
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https://www.bumblemovementarts.com/

Image: Juggling at the edge of the World 1 by Paul Blakemore at Circomedia VOLTCircus City 2023

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre acknowledges the financial support of The Arts Council  / An Chomhairle Ealaíon in making these residencies possible.