How often do former street children get to learn ballet, hip-hop, pop, yoga, and rope dancing all in the same day? Well, six performing arts teachers from Viva Circus, founded by Vivian Lee and Jerry Snell, have travelled from various places in the world to join Stairway Foundation summer Youth for Change Camps. They will be part of a total of 4 camps, reaching out to a total of 100 children from the streets, deaf children, indigenous children from Mindoro and Stairway scholars.
The camps will incorporate children’s rights, circus arts, acrobatics, rope dancing, yoga, ballet, and hip hop. At the end of each camp, the children will create their own performance pieces. Equipping street and at-risk children with knowledge and skills-particularly in the arts- can inspire and empower them to create and think up new ways in which they can get actively involved in social issues that concern them.
Below is a quote from the founder of the travelling circus group, Jerry Snell, mime artist and project director:
“Our workshops with the children at Stairway Foundation have already begun, and we are so happy to be part of this project, it is a very inspirational and my team and I are just so impressed with everything that the Stairway Foundation is doing for these unique children. In my experience with NGOs in South East Asia, I have never seen such a generous and successful opportunity for street and at-risk children.”
This exchange has been made possible through the generous support of TRANSCOM
The teachers on the team include:
YOGA& Physical Development -Machima Wattana (Thailand)
BALLET- Alex Gretchen (Germany)
HIP HOP- Koshu Konii (Japan)
MIME& Project director- Jerry Snell (Canada)
VIVA CIRCUS- one aerial arts teacher one acrobatics teacher (Malaysia/ UK)