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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Circus performer Albert the Idiot's plans for Hammersmith schools

A CLOWN has put forward a plan to introduce circus skills to PE lessons.

Albert the Idiot, of Albert and Friends Instant Circus, Hammersmith, thinks such lessons would help address problems of obesity and concentration problems.

And the veteran performer says he would have set up his own free school teaching Big Top skills if he was younger.

Ian Scott Owens, known as Albert, has been a clown for over 35 years and now teaches social circus at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith as well as in schools across the borough.

Albert said: "If they had started free schools 15years ago I would have set one up based circus skills. All these problems with troubled children, obesity and kids who find it hard to learn all can be combated in the circus.

"Circus skills are physical from moment they start, we are trying a holistic approach and kids working with us do excessively well. They’re not all well to do, middle class children.

"We give them independence and the ability to question. They learn through doing. It can be applied in school work, and they carry on into exams. It’s an approach to life."

Despite feeling he is now too old to pioneer a new circus free school Albert is creating a curriculum for circus skills to be taught in schools not just for PE but for a variety of lessons, such as Maths and History for Key Stage 1-3.

Children would be taught ground skills including juggling, uni-cycling, walking globe, tight rope, Diablo, spinning plates, stilts, skipping and dance.

Albert said: "We’re currently trialling the curriculum in schools and trying to get the scheme recognised with more formality."

For past four years Albert has been working with Melcombe Primary School, Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith and says they can see the benefits already.

Teachers’ feedback shows children are more aware, their attention span increases, they can work as a team and they are less focused on themselves.

The veteran clown said: "The kids choose what skill they want to learn and do, it looks like chaos but its organised chaos. They’ve learnt about Shakespeare and performed fairytales and the Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 45 minutes – all through mime."

Albert feels that people’s perceptions of the circus holds them back from benefiting from all it has to offer.

He said: "A lot of people think of the circus and think tents, animals and scruffy travellers, but it’s much wider than that. It’s about making young people look beyond themselves not necessarily become circus acts, independence being taken away. They learn to deal with problems, find solutions and grow in confidence."

Albert says circus skills look at the whole child and makes them more of a rounded human being, making it ideal to base lessons around.

He said: "If you do it properly they begin to look after each other, there’s a huge range of ages from five to 14, but they teach each other and do it without even thinking."

Petrea Owens, 61, the general manager of the Circus, says that Albert and Friends Circus also work with problem children, excluded youths and the disabled.

She said: "It’s a chance for many to stand up and be counted. Lots of the children have something to say in University interviews. It’s seen to be doing something different and challenging. Not only spatial awareness, balance, and team work. It’s hard to reach them at first. You’re working to get through their mask."

Petrea also feels it works well in tackling bad behaviour. She said: "The children know where the line is so they behave and have good manners. Circus skills are good for their confidence and they learn stage skills, theatre. They suddenly feel like they can achieve something."

The circus duo feel that a focus on circus skills could tackle the cotton wool culture.

Petrea said: "The whole of society fear for kids, the children are afraid. It’s really about undoing that attitude. Children can’t go out on their own, can’t climb trees – the risk level of circus is less than playing snooker. We teach children with controlled risks."

An index published in Wales, found that rugby was responsible for 380 cases of injury per 10,000 but injuries due to the circus didn’t register on the list.

Albert said: "Some people think you work with very small children of two or three and put them on a trapeze. They panic. Parents scream, but I say trust and they’ll do it. We had an 18 month year old on a tight rope. There’s an instinct in us to say automatically kids cannot do things but we have got to trust them.

"A boy with learning difficulties came along and his mum said he can’t do this and this and that, but by the end of the first lesson he was walking on two foot stilts and she was in tears."

Both Albert and his wife are on The British Council Youth in Action board for past 20 years, and involved with the European Youth Circus.

Albert said: "Our links abroad allow the kids to see the world, it breaks down language barriers, and we do exchanges so people from other countries come here.

"The circus has so much to offer and I’m hoping the schools will see this and work with us on the curriculum."

More about Albert here -http://albertandfriendsinstantcircus.co.uk/

Read here http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/fulham-and-hammersmith-news/local-fulham-and-hammersmith-news/2011/10/24/circus-performer-albert-the-idiot-s-plans-for-hammersmith-schools-82029-29653786/#ixzz1cxLI70Yp

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