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.