Children's circus
Under Children's Circus , also Join the circus, are circus projects understood where children and young people experience as artists can gather and circus artists in a real circus environment. Children's circus is usually offered by circus companies that are located in their winter quarters or are generally stationary. Children's magic schools are very closely related to the children's circus and can also be understood as a special form of the children's circus. The artistry elective course (e.g. juggling) now offered at many schools is not part of the umbrella term children's circus.
Educational concept
The idea of the children's circus emerged in Europe in the 1970s as a form of educational offer that makes use of the fascination and attraction of the circus. It is intended to offer children and young people a platform not only to get to know the circus world, but also to get to know their own capabilities and limits. Sports-acrobatic activities are in the foreground. In the informal circus environment, which appeals to the imagination and creativity of children, skills and talents are discovered and promoted that would be difficult to reveal in everyday life. Participation in the children's circus not only gives you the opportunity to have exciting movement experiences. Through the joint work “Circus Number”, sustainable, effective, positive social effects are established. The effort and ability of the “artists” to compromise on social terms is rewarded by the incorruptible recognition of the audience. This strengthens self-confidence and motivates you to get more out of yourself. It breaks down social barriers and makes people open to contacts. The circus atmosphere is “vacation from everyday life”. This makes it easier for people to open up to new experiences. In the final presentation, the positive emotions reinforce the sustainable and effective transfer into everyday life. The children's circus is not understood as a recruiting event for young circuses. For this purpose, there are circus schools that train the youngsters, who mostly come from artist families. In contrast to the children's circus, circus schools have a tight training program and hard drill , which prepares the trainees for the strenuous and difficult everyday life of the circus. However, the term circus school is also used synonymously for children's circus, and circus schools also offer children's circus.
Forms of the children's circus
Children's circus projects come in different forms. They differ in terms of sponsorship, duration, target group and objectives. Almost every form of educational institution also produces a special variety of children's and youth circus projects. In addition to offers in the context of holiday games or recreation on the outskirts of the youth welfare offices, there are, for example, weekend programs and courses from educational institutions and creativity schools. Overall, the number of events organized in cooperation with schools or youth clubs is increasing. There are children's circus projects in every type of school, from elementary level to special needs schools. There are now over 200 such projects with different focuses in Germany alone. Both youth welfare offices and clubs, schools, associations and initiatives have anchored circus work as part of their pedagogically oriented child and youth cultural work. The promotion of the artistic skills of children and young people has also found its way into everyday school life. In addition to these stationary projects that have "grown" from institutions, there are also companies that offer circus as an educational project and work together with the institutions mentioned. These can be family circus businesses as well as independent circus teachers , adventure teachers and artists.
Most of the time, the aim is to produce a full circus performance. In this way, the children and young people also practice managing organizational and cooperation-promoting tasks that arise around a circus event. Workshops lasting several hours are also common and are also offered as a supporting program for birthday parties. There are increasing numbers of children's circus projects that function similarly to sports clubs and are available to children and young people as a leisure activity all year round. Every company that offers children's circuses has its own focus. Work with animals can also be offered in permanently stationary children's circuses.
