INTERNATIONAL STORY IN CIRKONEO, SERBIA, CIRCUS IS A SPACE FOR SECURITY AND TOGETHERNESS BY DIVNA STOJANOV WHEN I FIRST VISITED CREATIVE PLANT, I was struck by the great joy of everyone present. Within the framework of the Cirkoneo circus school, through workshop activities and playing games, the circus pedagogists teach children and youth circus skills including acrobatics, balancing, and juggling. They start every class in a circle where they talk about what new things have happened to them and how they feel. It’s during these moments that the junior elementary school students can talk about peer bullying or the fact that they have learned to multiply by nine. Thus, Cirkoneo is not only a place where children and youth learn tightrope walking, aerial silks, and nonverbal communication; it is also a space of safety, friendship, and mental and physical development that is unburdened by competitive spirit. As Dragan Jajić, the founder of the Creative Plant points out, pedagogy is prioritized over physical prowess in the circus school. “We develop critical thinking in children, and we discuss bullying and mental health with them,” Jajić says. “We teach them values such as cooperation, mutual respect and recognition, and the acceptance of differences. We never impose our own opinions, but we ask them questions so that they can come up with answers on their own.” Contemporary circus, as opposed to the circus that we see in films or remember from our childhood, doesn’t have animal acts, doesn’t show people with physical deformities, and rejects the familiar structure from the past – the rotation of circus acts and clown performances. Instead, it focuses on the process and the mutual work of all participants, it deals with socially relevant subjects, and it uses elements of physical theatre, dance, acting, and improvisation. However, one thing that circus has maintained from its very beginnings to this day is the understanding of the marginalized. “Circus has always, through both its ups and downs, communicated with the rejected, with the marginalized, and with those who refuse to fit into the system,” Jajić points out. The Creative Plant association, according to him, explores and practices social circus, which gathers the community together, promotes imagination, provides support, and improves the position of people of all ages through the artistic, social, pedagogic, and community values of the circus. A very significant activity of Creative Plant is related to their work in the villages of Vojvodina and the founding of independent cultural outposts in rural areas where the cultural content has been reduced to a minimum. Creative Plant starts working with these communities by organizing circus workshops in small locations, which gives the locals of all ages an opportunity to become closer, build trust, exchange ideas, and share problems; then, they work 10 DENVER VOICE September 2022 PHOTOS COURTESY OF CIRKONEO together to resolve problems through joint action. Creative Plant succeeded in rallying the locals of one village to take the initiative and renovate a children’s playground, while in another village, a cultural center was set up in a formerly dilapidated space. Creative Plant helps the local population by empowering them and helping them connect with municipal institutions to gather funds in collaboration with businesspeople or by writing projects. It also assists them in planning projects’ sustainability, and it also helps with renovations, furnishing the space, and networking with other cultural centers. When one cycle ends, Creative Plant stays in active communication with the community, supports their new actions, provides them with the tools for solving future problems, and shows them that it’s possible to affect the quality of life in a local community through activism. Through the new project titled “Find Your Balance – With the Circus”, this organization is going to hold balancing technique workshops in ten elementary schools in Novi Sad and, through them, explore the effects of practicing circus skills on the development of social and emotional skills in children. “Circus improves focus, builds selfconfidence, promotes persistence and patience, and develops communication skills, tolerance, and the feeling of responsibility for oneself and others,” says Ivana Grković from Creative Plant. This is exactly why, in many developed countries, the contemporary circus is one of the favorite compulsory and optional subjects in schools. “Our wish is to foster these skills in our country as well,” she smiles. ■ Translated from Serbian via Translators without Borders Courtesy of Liceulice / International Network of Street Papers
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