Peace Through Pyramids: Puerto Rico is a partnership between St. Louis’ Circus Harmony and the National Circus School of Puerto. Last year, together, they made history bringing the joy and hope of Circus to the most devastated parts of Puerto Rico. This year they are bringing this same spirit of cooperation and inspiration to St. Louis!
Circus Harmony has been using circus arts to bring hope and motivate social change since 2001. Through our Peace Through Pyramids program, they have worked toward building bridges between communities in the St. Louis area and around the world by uniting children through circus arts. After successful Peace Through Pyramids collaborations in Ferguson and Israel, Circus Harmony turned to Escuela Nacional de Circo de Puerto Rico (ENC). The two troupes of young people created a show and brought some much-needed joy and entertainment to communities who were among those most impacted by the hurricanes. This exchange will reunite members of Circus Harmony with children from ENC’s Social Circus, the Revolution Circus, in their second Revolution for Harmony Tour!
“Circus Harmony is one of the foremost practitioners of social circus, a growing intervention tool use to foster personal and social development in at-risk youth,” said Jessica Hentoff, artistic and executive director of Circus Harmony. “Our original Peace Through Pyramids partnership with the Galilee Circus in Israel and between children in different neighborhoods in St. Louis have helped children reach new heights physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. We believe building pyramids with people is a great way to build bridges between communities. Circus Harmony is excited to continue a partnership with the young people in Puerto Rico and bring the effervescent energy of Puerto Rican culture here to St. Louis. At some of the shows, the young people from Puerto Rico will also talk about what is happening in that country two years after the devastating hurricanes.”
This inspirational Peace through Pyramids partnership was generously supported by Mary Strauss and Suzi Latorre, with funding from the Arts & Education Council of St. Louis, Missouri Humanities Council, Regional Arts Commission, and Yadier Molina’s Fundación 4. Lodging is being provided by The Last Hotel STL, a beautiful, new hotel in downtown St. Louis near Circus Harmony’s City Museum home.
Circus Harmony is still seeking donations for troupe meals, activities, and program underwriting for the combined troupes. Members are available for interviews. Circus Harmony’s Peace through Pyramids partnerships show that when you concentrate on what connects you instead of what divides, you can create something amazing!
Circus Harmony, St. Louis’ only social circus organization, has been using circus arts to bring hope and motivate social change since 2001. Through its Peace Through Pyramids program, the organization has worked toward building bridges between communities in the St. Louis area and around the world by uniting children through circus arts. After successful Peace Through Pyramids collaborations in Ferguson and Israel, Circus Harmony partnered with The National School of Circus of Puerto Rico (ENC) for the Revolution for Harmony Circus Tour on Puerto Rico from July 3-17, 2018.
Read about it in the wonderful Huffington Post article!
Nine St. Louis Arches, our director, Jessica Hentoff, two coaches who are St. Louis Arches alums and an embedded reporter from St. Louis American joined 9 members of the Revolution Circus, the social circus troupe of the National Circus School of Puerto Rico. Along with three of their coaches, their social worker and Brazilian social circus practitioner, we formed the Revolution for Harmony Circus Tour. We brought the joy and inspiration of the circus to the towns of Adjuntas, San Juan, Yabucoa, Comerio, Dorado, and Vieques.
Our children bonded quickly with their Puerto Rican counterparts. At their first lunch break, they were dancing salsa together! Some of their kids spoke English and some of ours made good use of their high school Spanish. All spoke Circus! Together they created unicycle, contortion, diabolo, and hula hoop acts plus an 18 person partner acrobatic finale.
With the exception of our show in Old San Juan, the places we played were chosen because they had been among those hardest hit and least restored from the hurricane. Many of the people in these towns felt abandoned by authorities and some people still did not have electricity or actual roofs for their homes! We often found ourselves driving on streets that had no working street lights. Even in the relatively good neighborhood where we stayed, there were houses that were destroyed by Maria and left vacant.
In the isolated town of Comerio, high up in the mountains of Puerto Rico, an artist-activist named Edgardo Larregui Rodriguez, told us that he believes that public art experiences like we brought there where we bring the art into the neighborhood are a necessary part of building community. “Art is what unites us in our community,” he said. “It is an activation of the abandoned spaces. It’s an action of reclaiming community. It’s not just drawing, or painting, or making sculptures, but a vision of community, of uniting people to make public spaces better.”
Thanks to our embedded reporter from St. Louis American, you can read about the journey in the 8 installments she posted.
- 5 July 2018 – St. Louis Arches leave for first-ever collaborative circus project in Puerto Rico
- 6 July 2018 – ‘Circus is a universal language:’ St. Louis/Puerto Rico circus collaboration continues
- 9 July 2018 – Pass it on: St. Louis youth circus performers share their skills in Puerto Rico
- 10 July 2018 – Under state of emergency, St. Louis circus troupe prepares to begin their Puerto Rican show
- 13 July 2018 – Neighbors and circus can change lives, Malik and Ariana experienced both at once
- 16 July 2018 – Revolution for Harmony Circus Tour visits Adjuntas and San Juan during circus collaborative with Puerto Rico
- 17 July 2018 – Revolution for Harmony Circus Puerto Rico Tour stops in Comerío
- 17 July 2018 – Yadier Molina seeds funding for Puerto Rican circus troupe to visit St. Louis
- 8 Aug 2018 – Local youth circus helps bring joy to Puerto Rico a year after Maria
In the words of St. Louis American reporter, Sophie Hurwitz, ‘Circus doesn’t just impact the lives of those who see it-it has changed the course of the young performers’ lives, too.” This, we know, is true. For the next chapters of Peace Through Pyramids: Puerto Rico and our other adventures, stay tuned here and follow us on our Facebook page!
To learn more about what got us started:
- Read this front page article about the partnership from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch!
- Check out this article from St. Louis Magazine
- Watch this story about it on FOX2Now
The ENC is a non-profit founded in 2014, that like Circus Harmony, provides professional training for future circus performers and delivers social circus community workshops for the social transformation of young people at risk. This exchange will unite members of Circus Harmony’s St. Louis Arches, an acrobatic troupe of children from various neighborhoods throughout the city, with the children of ENC’s Social Circus project in Dorado, one of the neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
In this Peace through Pyramids partnership, the two troupes of young people will work together, learn from each other and create a show to bring some much-needed joy and entertainment to communities who were among those most impacted by the disaster including Dorado, Corozal, Naranjito, Comerío, and Morovis.Circus Harmony is one of the foremost practitioners of social circus, a growing intervention tool use to foster personal and social development in at-risk youth,” said Jessica Hentoff, artistic and executive director of Circus Harmony. “Our Peace Through Pyramids partnership with the Galilee Circus in Israel and between children in different neighborhoods in St. Louis have helped children reach new heights physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. We are excited to add a partnership with the young people in Puerto Rico! We believe building pyramids with people is a great way to build bridges between communities!”
Watch this video about our partnership!