Circus arts lift Chile's troubled youths

Circo del Mundo's approach teams circus arts performers with social workers who run workshops in schools or community centers, meeting once or twice a week. The workshops usually run the course of a school year, but they are most effective after two consecutive years.

Silva says many of the youth they work with end up so transformed by the experience, they want to become circus professionals. So Circo del Mundo created its own mini-company, whose "Ekun" show is now touring the country. Circo also began a project to create its own professional circus school a few years ago. It involved developing a curriculum and finding funding for everything from teachers to infrastructure - difficult for an already struggling NGO. But last year it culminated in the birth of the first professional circus school in all of Latin America to be recognized by the International Circus Authority.

Students come here to learn the ropes, so to speak. In the middle of a park, beneath a large plastic blue tent, one young man in dreadlocks dangles from a long sheet, wrapping and unwrapping his body in it as he descends. Once on the mat below, he cleans up to head inside for his music and dance classes.

But this school doesn't just focus on teaching circus techniques. It also trains its students to become teachers, so they can then do the same social intervention that drew many of them in.

"Using circus techniques we can make a switch, a change in society," says 23-year-old student Soraya Sepulveda. "What more could I ask for? Through my art, I can make a difference. That makes me feel good as a human being."

Still, the social circus approach has been criticized for creating dreams that can't always be realized.

"One criticism we get is 'yes, but what [do the teens do] after [the program]?' " says Mr. Lafortune. But he says the goal is to build kids' self-esteem, not necessarily to turn them into professional performers.

Silva says that, in Chile, many kids who go through the program go on to study something completely outside the realm of performance arts.

"We had one former student come in to see us a few weeks ago and he was so excited because he got accepted to an engineering program," says Silva. "And he told us that it was all thanks to the circus because it helped him develop the discipline to be constant enough in his studies."

Lafortune stresses that Cirque du Soleil's social circus programs have survived over the years in more than 80 percent of the places they've been implemented. He says part of their success lies in their local adaptations.

One of the things that makes Chile's program different, says Lafortune, is that it doesn't always pair up social workers and artists. Sometimes a circus instructor will go into a community or a school alone. Lafortune says that has created concern for their safety because artists aren't necessarily trained to handle violent youth, or youth with mental health problems. Still, he says they haven't run into problems yet, and Cirque du Soleil gives its partner organizations free rein over how to adapt their programs to their own circumstances.

Along with Chile, Brazil was one of the first places Cirque du Soleil began it's social circus programs back in 1995. They started with three sites in Brazil, but have expanded to 34 different organizations and now reach almost 10,000 kids per year.

Eleven years after creating these spin-off organizations in Brazil and Chile, Cirque du Soleil is back in the region, on its first South American tour. They are scheduled to perform in São Paolo, Brazil in August, and opened Tuesday in Buenos Aires. They began the tour in Santiago in March and April, when 450 youth got free invitations to a special private performance of their internationally acclaimed show - Saltimbanco.

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