circus is
INTERVIEW #2
We recently reached out to Suzanne
Rappaport to learn more about how
she infuses occupational therapy
with the circus arts through her
program, Circus for Survivors.
ACE/
wonderful
because
it's infinitely
adaptable
Where did this idea to
start Circus for Survivors
come from? Did it originate with your
doctoral thesis research on circus
as a feasible therapeutic method or
did your interest spur your research?
Were there other aspects unrelated
to your research that also prompted
you to move in this direction?
SUZANNE/
A friend of mine
who was also one
of my recreational trapeze students
was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Shortly after her diagnosis, she
reached out to me and said that
she couldn’t do trapeze anymore
because she had cancer. I told her
that she probably had cancer the
week before and just didn’t know
about it and was in trapeze class
then as well.
She continued with classes and
I would modify any moves that
needed to be switched because
they affected her radiation burns
from her treatments. She joined a
local community cancer support
group and brought me in to offer
a circus class for survivors, as
the usual offerings were more
sedentary and we thought having
a more lively option would be fun.
I had just finished my occupational
therapy studies at that time and
was well suited to offer this to the
group—I understood all the medical
complications that come with
cancer survivorship as well as having
a breadth of knowledge surrounding
circus.
I had then honed circus groups
with many other populations
(Traumatic Brain Injury, Adults
with Intellectual Disabilities, Deaf
& Hard of hearing with other
Communication Disorders, acute
Photos provided by Suzanne Rappaport
psychiatric patients, and children
with social-emotional difficulties)
but since I had the most experience
with my circus groups for cancer
survivors, I had chosen to focus on
that population for my occupational
therapy doctorate. as I maintain a full-time job as an
occupational therapist and I pursue
various research projects and
presentations. Also, from a grant
funding standpoint, I have been very
lucky to obtain modest monetary
amounts for short workshops.
ACE/ ACE/
How have you had to adapt
to treating such a wide
variety of conditions? What are
some of the most difficult challenges
you've encountered or the most
innovative workarounds that you've
had to design?
S/
Each population had different
needs in terms of ensuring a
successful circus group experience.
The adults with Traumatic Brain
Injury were also older adults and for
them, I incorporated chairs to help
create a human pyramid. One of the
more tricky settings I have adapted
to was when I worked with acute
psychiatric adolescent patients in a
psychiatric hospital. There was a unit
policy of ‘no touching’ so I couldn’t
touch them and they couldn’t
touch each other so I incorporated
Chinese jump ropes (which are
essentially large rubber bands)
to work in a connected way while
maintaining the unit policy. When I
worked with children who were deaf
and hard of hearing, it was a group
of 65 children and their one-on-one
staff. All the children had slightly
different diagnoses so I organized
the circus event into a ‘circus
petting zoo’ where they could move
around to different circus stations
as they pleased and take time away if
they were becoming overstimulated
and needed a sensory break.
ACE/
How did you settle on doing
workshops as the primary
format for the program? What
advantages have you g ained in doing
so?
S/
I settled on short sessions or
workshops mainly for pragmatic
reasons. They work best for me
What advantages are there
to using circus as OT that
other forms of OT don't necessarily
produce?
S/
Circus is wonderful because
it’s infinitely adaptable and
it can target many physical and
psychological outcomes. Some
forms of occupational therapy, like
sensory integration therapy, can
target the same outcomes, but they
don’t hold the meaningfulness that I
feel that circus can embody.
ACE/
What have you learned
through creating and
managing the program that could
be of benefit to non-therapeutic
programs? What are the things
we might not suspect need to be
considered when teaching people of
diverse body conditions?
S/
Group cohesiveness can make
any circus lesson richer and
build a community base—always
have an opening activity and a
closing one. I have felt it is always
easier to adapt to physical needs
and more difficult to recognize the
psychosocial needs. However, the
most important thing to remember
is safety should always be first (both
physical and emotional).
ACE/
What is your vision for
the future of Circus for
Survivors?
S/
I hope to continue to offer
circus as therapeutic
workshops and to continue to
research it so that an evidence
base can be formed around its
effectiveness.
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