Circus tutor teaches gangs in Colombia how to juggle

AN ACTOR who was a West End puppeteer has brought back the lessons he learnt from teaching circus skills in Colombia to London estates.

Greg Bartlett, 23, now a workshop leader with Albert and Friends in Hammersmith, began teaching at 16 and has worked a puppeteer in War Horse.

The performer said: “I love acting and teaching equally. War Horse was a great opportunity, and I loved it, but working with kids is amazing. But being there with the kids in Cali, Colombia was far more rewarding than any amount of great reviews or applause we got on stage.”

Greg decided after starring in the West End show to take the performing skills he learnt as a child to one of the roughest areas of Colombia, known for its gun crime and violence.

He said: “I love working with kids so I got in contact with the group who work out there with the kids and somehow persuaded them to let me join them.

“I had to raise £2000 to get out there and I managed to raise £3000 so I donated the extra money to charity and bought unicycles for the charity in Colombia.”

The young teacher ran lessons in el Distrito de Aguablanca, in Cali, Colombia one of the roughest areas. Nearly all of the children Greg taught had lost a family member to the violence.

He said: “One of my friends when I was out there got shot. It was a shocking reality that this was the life these kids would lead. A lot of the boys would carry knifes and gun crime was extremely high there.

“The problem was these gangs seemed like the only option. Education was very poor out there. They saw that it was easy to get money through gangs.

Greg joined what is seen as the world’s only professional circus school for street children allowing some to go on and earn a living, pay for a four year schooling programme and for them to move their whole family.

He said: “These kids had no love or support. The circus was the alternative to all that.  Some of the kids had not even spoken to each other as they were from different gangs. They were hostile as they came from different areas, but then at the lessons they suddenly were like a family as they came together.”

Greg worked with the Circo para Todos in the Agua Blanca slums providing English lessons, and circus skills workshops.

He said: “I ran workshops in some of the most vulnerable areas where the kids cannot afford to go to school, they run around in the streets carrying knives for protection because they feel like there is no other way.

“A lot of them were positive about learning new skills, they respected me because I could do something cool.”

The enthusiastic workshop leader says that the classes had a grander aim of instilling in the children self-confidence and the belief they could work their way of out slum life.

He said: “The classes gave them wider skills like time keeping and build their self-esteem. It was an outlet for creativity. They learnt that they didn’t have to be the big man in front of the other kids they could just be children.”

While out there Greg also worked with the Sio Way Orchestra, a group who teach children how to play an instrument.

Greg said: “It was amazing. They’d given them instruments to keep them off the streets. I’d never heard someone playing a violin that had just picked it up and learnt it from scratch like that. It was raw.”

Returning from Cali he joined Albert and Friends as workshop leader bringing his experiences from Colombia to London Estates and behavioural centres. Greg works on Wood Lane estate every Friday teaching children how to juggle, walk on stilts and general circus skills.

He said: “I suppose we face similar problems here with crime, knives and guns, but we have more options, it’s easier to find a way out.

“Children on the estates get involved but I’d say the kids in Cali had a respect for their teacher and a thirst for learning that maybe I don’t see as much of here. Kids wherever you are in the world don’t believe in themselves, I try and inspire them.”

Despite having just come home Greg says he misses the Cali children already and is grateful to them for teaching him so much.

He said: “They taught me more than I could ever teach them. They taught me not to be scared. A lot of the time you can be scared.

“There is no need. As long as you keep alert and alive there is nothing you cannot do. They made me see how important it is to inspire the young.”

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