Palestinian Circus School (PCS)

About us

The Palestinian Circus School (PCS) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, established in 2006 and registered with the Palestinian Authority since February 2007. It teaches circus in Birzeit and in other cities like Jenin, Hebron, Ramallah and Al Fara refugee camp.

Vision
A free Palestine in which Palestinians engage in a dynamic cultural and artistic life that embraces creativity, freedom of expression and diversity as the main pillars for a just and inclusive society.

Mission
By teaching, creating, performing and programming circus arts, the Palestinian Circus School strengthens the creative, social and physical potential of Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society and raises 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, is challenging the multiple boundaries that have been imposed on us for far too long: political, geographical, economical, religious and gender.
The school is an open space for creativity on all levels, enhancing a strong participation of all people involved: students, trainers, volunteers and the community at large

Our work
The educational program fulfills the first part of our mission. Although circus in Palestine is still perceived as clowning or just fooling around, in reality the center of the circus we practice - different from the traditional circus - has a strong value based pedagogical approach where trust, respect and teamwork play a key role. It focuses strongly on the socio-emotional development of the student: concentration, self-expression, working together and strengthening the creativity, next to developing many physical skills of the children and youth.
• Circus Clubs: All these aspects are fully integrated in the circus clubs where we teach different circus techniques like: acrobatics (floor acrobatics, trampoline, pair-acrobatics, handstand,..), aerial acrobatics (tissue, trapeze, ..), juggling (balls, clubs, diabolo, scrafs), Chinese pole, balance (walking on a slack or tight wire, unicycle, rola bola) and on the artistic interpretation skills of how to use circus to tell a story. Our educational offer is based on clear objectives and curricula for all its trainings.
• Open Days: PCS organizes a series of open days in its different training locations, to celebrate the International Circus Day and to give its students the chance to share the techniques and skills they have learned throughout the year with their families and friends.
• Summer Camps: PCS organizes one or more summer camps for its students from all different training locations. Each summer camp last either one, two or three weeks and takes place in PCS premises in Birzeit.
• Capacity Building: To ensure its sustainability, PCS focuses on strengthening and empowering its staff and students. Accordingly it offers its trainers and students many programs, workshops and internship opportunities with the aim of building their capacities and enabling them to face the many challenges resulting from its continuous and rapid development.
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”
• Productions and PerformancesSpreading circus arts in Palestine and introducing Palestinians to a new form of performing arts, is an important quest for PCS. In order to fulfill this goal, PCS produces shows and organizes tours both locally and internationally.
• Palestine Circus Festival—United for Freedom: On its 10th anniversary, the Palestinian Circus School organized its first international circus festival called Palestine Circus Festival under the slogan “United for Freedom”. We brought together over 60 circus artists from Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Morocco, Germany, Denmark and Palestine.

Mohammed Rabah Aliahmed is the Executive Director at the Palestinian Circus School (PCS).

For other net participants we can offer overnight facilities. Also we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work: Circus workshops and Circus Performances.