For The Palestinian Circus, the sky, not occupation, is the limit

It might be a grey and wet afternoon in Edinburgh, but wind-assisted rain is no force powerful enough to dampen the spirits of The Palestinian Circus, a troupe of artists from across Palestine performing at the Scottish capital's Festival Fringe.

In a circus tent on the city's muddied Meadows, the group performs hoop work, juggling, acrobatics, Chinese pole, trapeze, silk straps, LED lighting and fireworks, blended with Palestinian dabke folk dance.

This novel and breathtaking blend of disciplines first saw the light of day after the group was invited to perform at Glastonbury Festival last year.

"The artists chose and started to work on how to blend circus techniques and disciplines with dabke, to celebrate Palestinian identity, culture, hope, and resistance," The Palestinian Circus's artistic director, Noor Abo Alrob, tells The New Arab about the show, The Palestinian Circus: Step and a Half. 

"After Glastonbury, we said we wanted to develop the idea further and create a full show about this concept."

The creation of this full show began in May, but bringing performers from cities in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem together to develop it was difficult on a daily basis, Noor shares.

"Some days, it wasn’t easy for the artists to go home. On other days, it was really challenging for them to come in, so we needed to postpone some of the training. We also couldn't do it for days in a row where everyone could come and sleep in the same space. But we did our best."

Circus with a purpose 

The Palestinian Circus was established 20 years ago by Palestinian actor and theatre teacher Shadi Zmorrod and Belgian social worker Jessika Devlieghere. At the time, the circus was very much a foreign concept in Palestine, Noor says.

"Before 2006, performers would come from different countries to Palestine and give workshops," he says.

"The idea was to establish something Palestinian, with Palestinian staff and team, for the Palestinian children – that was the starting point for it."

The circus operates on two pathways, Noor explains – one artistic, training young Palestinian circus artists, and the other social.

"With the social programmes, the idea is to spread circus in Palestine, and give every Palestinian child the chance to at least be part of the circus," he continues.

"We believe circus is for everyone, everywhere – in the West Bank, in Gaza, in Jerusalem – wherever Palestinians are. The focus is on bringing people together, building a community, and letting them think together and share something together."

The artistic group "creates and tours circus shows everywhere in Palestine that we can reach – villages, refugee camps, cities, schools, everywhere."

Performers in the artistic programme use show creation to express themselves on Palestinian social and political issues, which, Noor says, is particularly necessary when Palestinians are so often misrepresented internationally.

"Usually when we create a show, the artist does research, and they choose to talk about power, or gender issues in Palestinian society, or Israeli occupation – or Palestinian identity, like the show we are here with today."

The result is a defiant and, at most times, joyous show, broken up by segments of dabke that compel us to clap along; our claps move from rhythmic, excited, responsive flurries to, at times, jaw-dropping circus stunts. One performer falls metres from the Chinese pole into the arms of her troupe, to the echoing, reverberating sound of statements like: "Every fall teaches me a lesson."

Noor notes, "The circus and the show require a lot of coordination, communication, teamwork and trust. If the person who is falling does not have one hundred percent, blind trust that they will fall and the group will catch them, and if there is no eye communication between the group and the person falling, the trick will not work, and someone will be injured – or maybe even die, if they are falling from three or four metres high."

A lot of those values – communication, teamwork, trust – are a key part of the circus's social programme too, which has reached thousands of children in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, according to Noor.

Overcoming obstacles 

The Palestinian Circus has always had to respond to the challenges of operating under Israeli occupation, but matters have become worse since Israel's genocide in Gaza began, as well as with its tightening stranglehold on the West Bank.

"During the genocide in Gaza, most of the circus artists have lost their houses and their family members, and some of them have been killed too," Noor highlights.

"In the past two to three years, we have not been able to plan anything long-term because things keep changing. Sometimes the checkpoints are closed in the West Bank, so we need to postpone shows and training, and cancel events… It's getting worse, and it’s getting harder to move between cities."

These cruel conditions have not kept the circus down; instead, its team has developed new strategies on how to overcome them, including a new training programme for those with basic circus knowledge who want to teach circus in their local community.

"We're trying to build a more sustainable model so that people who teach are from the same area as the students, and so that if we can’t reach that city, the training or shows or activities can still happen," Noor explains.

Taking the magic further 

The circus is not just doubling down in the face of adversity, but quadrupling down. The team currently has one circus tent for shows, based in Birzeit, but by September, it will have four across the West Bank.

These tents will allow more circus artists to train at the heights they need for aerial arts, and will allow the magic of the circus to reach even more Palestinians.

"The idea is to have one of these circus tents be mobile, so we can take the full circus experience somewhere and leave it there for perhaps three months, to do shows and training for the community," Noor says.

"We'll be able to take the full circus experience to the communities that have not had the chance to see any art or circus shows before."

From the thousands of artists and shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, these artists will bring new inspiration back to Palestine once the festival is over.

"It's a really amazing opportunity," Noor says. "Being part of such a big festival, you really get to connect to people from all over the world… even Palestinians in the diaspora whom we don't or can't meet in Palestine."

Shahla Omar is a freelance journalist based in London

Follow her on Instagram: @shahlatan