American Circus Educators Magazine Fall 2017 (Issue 2, Volume 10) | Page 10

Train at the All trainings led by Carrie Heller, MSW, LCSW, RPT, founding member of AYCO, author of The Aerial Circus Training and Safety Manual All trainings located in Atlanta, GA Find out more at circusartsinstitute.com Email Carrie at [email protected] Current Training Offerings perform workshops and gigs, and then funnel that back to the Home Work Circus Work program that is going on downstairs, which is a 100% free program, three days a week, 12 hours a week, for about 40 kids. Photo by Lucy Little K/ D/ Tell me about your team of educators. We have five full-time employees, including Kasumi Kato and Cornell Freeney, who run our Programs Department; Arin Mulvaney, our Operations Director; and Joanna Melville, our Administrative Coordinator. We also have 39 part-time employees who work with 500 kids each week in 17 different neighborhoods and suburbs. In Chicago, phenomenal circus coaches are everywhere; it’s just a matter of raising the money to pay them to do the awesome work that they do. About 15 of those 39 are university students, our young adult mentors, who tutor the kids three times a week. The rest of them are teaching artists and performers, some of whom are specifically social circus folks. We try to keep our staff as gender balanced and as racially and culturally balanced as possible because we can’t tell the kids about how we need to be a diverse community unless we lead by example in our staff. K/ 10 One thing that interested me is that you are working with two schools in opposing gang zones and doing a show with them together. Tell me a little bit about how that is going and what the impetus was for that. D/ Funny enough, that came from a chat I had with Cornell Freeney. I asked what other directions CircEsteem could go in, and he said “You know, we spend a lot of effort working with refugee kids, or the kids out of Uptown. What about the kids in Uptown? Uptown has a terrible gang problem. There are 4 gang lines drawn right down the middle of this neighborhood.” The intention behind the program was to get to kids in grades 4-6, before they’re recruited into gangs. If we can get them working together, playing together, counting on each other, trusting each other, then when these kids are being recruited and are told that they should hate the other kids, we hope they will say “Oh, no. I know that guy. I juggled with him” or “I had a relationship with that person.” Our pilot program is aimed at giving them positive experiences with kids that they may later be urged to hate. Right now, it’s twice a week in the schools and then after four weeks we bring both classes here. We mix them up and have them do stuff where they have to work together and count on each other. They literally have to lift each other up and catch each other. Then we go back to the schools and build a show together. In the end, the kids actually perform together for each of the schools. K/ D/ What are your goals for two or three years down the road? For 2017, our goal is to sustain the quality of our current programming and to slowly expand our outreach capacity. I am also working with the teens to use their performance skills as a tool for social change. The idea of social circus is not only about learning circus—it’s also about performing circus. In theater, you have things like Theater of the Oppressed where you can help audience members explore social issues that are complicated and difficult. I’ve got a grant out now to do free shows this summer where the teens will get to pick the themes. I’ll ask them, “What is going on in your world? Let’s talk about it through circus.” The work that we do is great when it helps 40 kids. But it’s even greater when those 40 kids go on to effect 4,000 people or 40,000 people and on and on and on. The way to do that is through performance. Circus Arts Therapy® Training: Levels 1 and 2 (summers) Interested in using the Circus Arts in your program / practice to help others? For details and to register: circusartsinstitute.com/level-one-overview Circus Arts Therapy® Training: Level 3 (independently scheduled) A residency program tailor-made for those who have taken Levels 1 and 2 and would like to have their own Circus Arts Therapy® Program. Aerial Teacher Trainings (multiple times a year, see website for dates) Want to be an excellent teacher of the Aerial Arts? Want to ensure that your program adheres to the highest safety standards? Seeking certification as an aerial instructor? This course is the "classroom hours" for our certification program and is recommended for all teachers who hold themselves to high standards. For details and to register: circusartsinstitute.com/teacher-certifications We are proud to be the first Teacher Training Program in America to be recognized for our excellent standards.