The (Palestinian) Circus comes to town

There are no high-wire acts. There's no Cirque du Soleil stage show. And there's no Siegfried and Roy-esque lion tamers.

But the Palestinian Circus has come to town.

Billing itself as the first Palestinian Circus school, the young group is at the forefront of a nascentt cultural renaissance in the West Bank.

While the peace process is muddling along and Gaza is suspended in suffocating isolation, there is a small-but-growing cultural transformation taking place in the West Bank.

From the young Palestinian circus school to the Palestinian Hip-Hop Tour, from the Kamandjati music school that teaches classical music to Palestinian kids in refugee camps to the Jenin Freedom Theater led by one of the West Bank's highest-profile militants to recently put down his gun, there is an evolving cultural scene taking shape.

"This is a society that's in extremely high need of exploring its creativity," said Jessica, who, along with her husband Shadi, co-founded of the Palestinian Circus School. "This is a huge new generation in need of an outlet and a sense of hope."

The psychological space for this new creative expression has been made possible by the relative calm that has settled in over the West Bank. There have been two suicide bombings in the last two years in Israel, and 41 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers this year, making it the least-deadly year of the decade in the West Bank.

That has allowed places like the Circus School to take root. 

Shadi and Jessica founded the school two years ago as a way to provide both boys and girls in the West Bank with a way to have fun. The Circus School has trained more than 100 kids and set up sites in Ramallah, Jenin and Hebron.

More than 500 parents and kids recently packed into a small gym in central Ramallah to see the latest circus show.

There were clowns and acrobats, a fire spinner and jugglers. The school, backed by the new Palestinian cell phone company Wataniya, still lacks proper costumes, staging and lights.

But it is taking root and starting to gain momentum.

"It's a way to channel their energy," Jessica said after the most recent show. "They live under a lot of pressure and this is one way to build self-esteem and trust."

You can get a little flavor for the Circus School's performances here:

  

(Photos: Tara Todras-Whitehill)