In Cuba, the circus is not just a fantasy

In Cuba, the circus is not just a fantasy
BY DANIEL TROTTA

Inside an abandoned movie theatre in working-class Havana, Cuban
children as young as nine pursue dreams of joining the circus.

Aspiring acrobats – some 70 of them – climb a rope while young jugglers
toss pins back and forth, and others take turns on the trampoline or
parallel bars. No one seems to mind the dilapidated conditions, at least
as long as the weather is dry. Several corrugated tin laminates are
missing from the roof, exposing the sky.

"Ever since I was little, I always say, 'I want to join the circus,'"
says 12-year-old Daniela Rodriguez, who likes training at heights. "At
first I was a little scared, but not anymore."

The circus is a lucrative career path and a rare opportunity for Cubans
to make real money on the communist-led island. Cuban circus artists
working abroad make a minimum of 800 euros (RM3,300) a month, and
usually much more than that, a relative fortune compared to the meagre
salaries back home.

Odelmi Hernandez, 42, who once worked briefly as a circus clown, guides
the students for three hours daily at the Havana school, where some
students commute from as far as two hours away.

"A lot of these children come from disadvantaged homes, have shown bad
conduct, or come from family conflicts," says Hernandez, whom everyone
calls Kiko. "Through this project, we help them incorporate socially.
They also learn values here."

On a recent day, the programme includes physical exercise, from push-ups
to chin-ups to running, with most of the students dressed in leotards.

One teenager balanced on a board placed over a cylinder starts jumping
rope, blind-folded, and with young Daniela on his shoulders. "My heart
is up here," says Ivette Rivera, grabbing her throat as she watches her
daughter participate in the stunt.

Rivera says her daughter hopes to enter Cuba's National Circus School
and then perform professionally, even if that means long stretches
overseas. "It scares me but it's what she likes to do," says Rivera.
"I'll accompany her all the way to the airport if she makes it. She's
fighting for her dream."

Youth circus training is fairly common internationally, whether as pure
recreation or career training. "Circus education is on the rise all over
the world," saysAmy Cohen, director of the US-based American Youth
Circus Organisation. The Cuban National Circus tours as a company and
also hires out its talent to companies such as Ringling Brothers and
Cirque du Soleil.

Even though the Cuban state takes a cut of their salaries, the circus
gives students a clearly defined profession, says Jose Manuel Cordero,
spokesman for the Cuban National Circus. "They know that in the circus
they have a future as a person, as an artist," says Cordero. "They can
triumph doing what they love." – Reuters

Source: In Cuba, the circus is not just a fantasy - People | The Star
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http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/People/2014/10/14/In-Cuba-the-circus-is-not-just-a-fantasy/