PCS

Founded in 2007 // FEDEC member since 2020

The Palestinian Circus School was established in 2007 in Ramallah, Palestine by Shadi Zmorrod and Jessika Devlieghere, who initiated the idea to introduce circus arts from Palestinians for Palestinians.

By teaching, creating, performing and programming circus arts, PCS strengthens the creative, social and physical potential of Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society and raise local and international awareness about the positive Palestinian potential and its different challenges.

Our goal is to overcome the divisions within our society by working with everybody, everywhere. Bringing people together in our trainings and traveling all over the country with our shows, and challenging the multiple boundaries that have been imposed on us for far too long: political, geographical, economical, religious and gender.   

The Palestinian Circus School encourages the development of a new form of cultural expression, and a new generation of artists in Palestine. An art form that is dynamic, experimental and aimed at challenging traditional perceptions of arts and artistic interaction.

The school is an open space for creativity on all levels, enhancing a strong participation of all people involved: students, trainers, artists, volunteers and the community at large.

Activities

• Weekly circus classes for 250 children and youth from 7-18 years old. 
• Open workshops for public. 
• Summer camps for intensive circus classes. 
• Open days and mobile circus tours: shows by the students for the public. 
• Artistic residency and research. 
• Circus production. 
• Local and International Circus shows. 
• Local and International Circus Festivals. 
• International Youth Exchanges.

Training offered

The responsible framework for planning, implementing and evaluating the training programs. In addition to developing and working on programs, research, educational resources and policies, creating and building capacities for the educational staff in and outside the school.

PCS has three levels: beginners, intermediate and advance. Each level duration is 3 years. 

• Training of trainers program. (3 years) and development of training manuals. 
• Artistic capacity building program (1 year): for graduate students from the advance training program. 

Social programs

The Palestinian Circus School uses the social circus as a tool to develop the capabilities of women, youth and people with disabilities to enable them to face cultural, social and economic challenges, in addition to raising awareness on various societal issues through artistic interactions carried out by the students in the programs.

The Palestine Circus School implemented various social programs over the previous years, which were targeting marginalized women, Children with disabilities, and freed captive children, in partnership with many centers and institutions working in the social field.

Artistic Programs 

The artistic program responds to the second part of our mission: “By creating and performing circus productions, we want to instill hope among the population, promote the freedom of expression and raise local and international awareness about the many challenges of the Palestinian society, and lastly raising the level of circus arts in Palestine”

PCS started its own story with Circus behind the Wall, the first creation that narrated how circus came to Palestine, which obstacles it had to face and how it became a tool to give hope to our young people.

Since then, PCS engages on the quest to introduce Palestine to a new form of Performing Arts, the one of Contemporary Circus.

We see the extreme need of young people to express themselves and to convey a message to their audiences. Through circus we create a new creative medium where we introduce the young people in the language of the body. By using music, costumes, theatrical elements, dance and the many circus skills we develop stories about our daily realities.

Affiliation

• Palestinian Performing Art Network. 
• CARAVAN network for social circus. 
• FEDEC

Learn more about this member

Management

• Director: Mohamad Rabah

Languages

Arabic

Location

The Palestinian Circus
Al Manzel Street
Birzeit, Ramallah
Palestine

Contact

+9702812000
info@plcircus.ps
www.palcircus.ps