Social Circus Educational Tools

Global Citizenship
September 2012

Objectives
Support and stimulate social circus development; Enable the numerous organizations interested in social circus to benefit from the expertise developed by Cirque du Soleil and its partners since 1995; share our knowledge; Provide tools to different social circus practitioners: community workers, social circus instructors, social circus trainers, organization and social circus project coordinators;

What is Social Circus?

An innovative social intervention approach based on the circus arts. It targets various at-risk groups living in precarious personal and social situations, in the case of Cirque du Soleil, mainly at-risk youth. Primary goal is not to learn the circus arts, but rather to assist with participants personal and social development by nurturing their self-esteem and trust in others, as well as by helping them to acquire social skills, become active citizens, express their creativity and realize their potential. A powerful catalyst for creating social change because it helps marginalized individuals take their place as citizens within a community and enrich that community with their talents. Enable community to change the perception they have of the youth. Cirque du Monde is the social circus program of Cirque du Soleil.

Production Process
In 2005, we identified the need for two documents: one for our community workers, one for our circus instructors:

1. Community Workers Guide

A summary of the social circus approach, as well as a practical guide, it will help community workers with the fundamentals and guiding principles of this mode of intervention, as well as support them in organizing, planning and evaluating social circus workshops.

2. Basic Techniques in Circus Arts (BTCA)

This document aims to introduce the public to circus arts. As both a technical guide and an educational tool, this document illustrates 177 technical elements drawn from 17 basic circus arts disciplines. Accompanied by video documents, this work offers in-depth expertise and technical content that will enable the delivery of progressive and specialized instruction in a safe environment.

Community Workers Guide

A summary of the social circus approach, as well as a practical guide for the community worker

Community Workers Guide

CWG

Four main sections:

1. The circus and social intervention 2. Local organization, challenges and responsibilities 3. The community worker-instructor tandem, the mainstay of social circus 4. Practical guide for community workers

Basic Techniques in Circus Arts

A multimedia kit with a DVD illustrating 177 technical elements drawn from 17 basic circus arts disciplines and a CD that includes 17 training handbooks

Production Process
Capsule

First draft written in French in 2007-2008 by the teachers of the National Circus School Standardization of the terminology, linguistic revision and layout of the 17 documents Translation into 4 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian Online sharing (BOX) and distribution of the tool (video and written documents)

Basic Techniques in Circus Arts

Video - Pyramids - Written document - Pyramids

General information:
Introduction Terminology Specific Information Safety

Detailed information:
Technical Element Description; Prerequisite(s); Explanation of the Movement; Educational(s); Manual Aid; Common Mistakes; Correction(s) and Corrective Exercise(s); Variant(s)

Basic Social Circus Training Program

The basic social circus training program of Cirque du Soleil purpose is to prepare circus instructors and community workers for conducting social circus workshops with at-risk people. The training also seeks to help them better understand the overall context of social circus intervention. It also aims to develop the skills needed to intervene appropriately with partners in a varied and multicultural context.

General training objectives

Develop strong personal and professional ethics; Introduce the fundamentals of an innovative and participative teaching method; Develop a community-based learning environment; Turn art into a personal development tool.

Develop less new projects; support the existing projects with training and educational tools.

EDUCATIONAL TOOLS IN PROGRESS

1. Social Circus Trainers Guide (for our Trainers) 2. Handbook for Participant (for the participants of a training)

Objectives (Why?)

Sharing
Open the produced content to our partners and collaborators , according to their profile and field of action

Exchanging
Interact with our peers Trade knowledge between practitioners , reseachers and our internal resources Facilitate and sustain communities of pratice

Promoting
To promote social circus, in general,and more specifically our approach as well as our programs

Content and Collaborators (what? And to whom?)

Trainers

Training Program Participants

Content to Share
Educational tools (BTCA, CWG, TG, HP) Reference Texts and Grids External documents and links Administration Documents

Cirque du Monde Partners

Social Intervention or Social Circus Researchers

Non-Partner Organisations practicing Social Circus

Sharing
Open the produced content to our partners and collaborators , according to their profile and field of action

Exchanging
Open the produced content to our partners and collaborators , according to their profile and field of action

Site/plateforme Box Promote

To promote social circus, in general,and more specifically our approach as well as our programs

Facebook

Site Internet

 QUESTIONS ?