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citizens homes, institutes for
the mentally ill, prisons. The
show had a message of unity
and harmony. In a way, The
Circus Kingdom had many
elements of a social circus in
that the purpose was to go
beyond just entertainment.
It was meant to create
community, connect people,
and overcome stereotypes and
isolation.
After my first season touring
with The Circus Kingdom, I
came back to my circus teacher,
Warren Bacon, and said, “This
is what I want to do with my
life. How can I repay you?” He
answered, “I’ll tell you what my
teacher told me: ‘Pass it on.’”
I did not originally start
teaching circus arts to motivate
social change. I just wanted
to share the amazing feeling I
had found in doing all things
circus. My circus journey led
me to study circus arts with
Moscow Circus stars Nina
Krasavina and Gregory Fedin,
to become a founding member
for both Big Apple Circus and
Circus Flora, to tour numerous
circuses with my unique
Hentoff & Hoyer double trapeze
act, and eventually to found
Circus Harmony. I started the
youth circus troupe, the St.
Louis Arches, in 1989 because
Circus Flora wanted to do
circus work in the community
of the city of St. Louis. Along
with some other performers,
we started teaching in the
city’s public schools. From
these early classes, we chose
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ten children and started the
Arches. Because we were
teaching in low-income inner-
city neighborhoods, those are
the children who comprised the
original Arches troupe. I was
just sharing something I loved.
I did not know that what I was
doing had a special name until
Reg Bolton came to visit around
2003.
I had never even heard of
the term ‘social circus’ until
Reg asked what I thought of
it. At that point, the term
‘social circus’ had edged out
‘community circus’ to refer
to the sort of work Reg and
I both did that went beyond
just teaching children to flip,
fling, and fly. Our circus work
was changing how they felt
about themselves and how
other people viewed them.
When Reg came to visit me in
St. Louis, I had already started
Circus Salaam Shalom to bring
together children from a Jewish
temple and a Muslim mosque.
While the two places of worship
were only blocks away, the
children had never crossed
paths until they joined the
circus. This program showed
everyone, including me, how
much more we have in common
than what is different about us.
Even though the term ‘social
circus’ won out, the word
‘community’ comes up in this
work over and over again,
both in how circus builds
community within the group
that is working together
and also in the relationship
between participants and their
community.
Social circus has been used in
volatile situations like the early
work of Reg Bolton in Ireland
with Catholic and Protestant
youth years ago and the current
work in Israel done by the
Galilee Circus. Why