Step right in and join our circus

CABUWAZI is a space for circus, dance, theatre, music and language. In the afternoon courses, school project weeks and holiday workshops we promote individual forms of expression, social skills and creative abilities for children and young people between the ages of 4 and 19. In a joint artistic and social process, the CABUWAZI artists regularly create performances in the CABUWAZI tents and for outdoor venues. Our circusses shape the cultural life of the neighbourhoods they are based in – through shows, guest performances and many other events.

CABUWAZI stands for a lively, cosmopolitan Berlin and is committed to supporting a dedicated, tolerant youth community. Therefore CABUWAZI works actively in the prevention of violence and addiction and sees itself as a place for social integration, cultural education and the promotion of individual health.

CABUWAZI has six locations in five districts of Berlin. All locations offer various circus programs like afternoon training sessions for children and young people, holiday workshops as well as shows and events. In addition, weekly school and day care projects are held in our tents and we regularly cooperate with refugee and emergency shelters throughout Berlin. Particularly, CABUWAZI Beyond Borders is involved in comprehensive projects, working with refugee children and young people with a mobile team. The Kita-Mobil complements our mobile offerings.

To ensure that this kind of circus has a future, we are conducting training in circus pedagogy at the CABUWAZI Circus Academy Berlin. Further training for young people as well as for teachers and educators is also part of the academy’s program.

Besides workshops, training courses and our commitment to social circus, the circus tents are also rented out as event locations and are available for celebrations of all kinds.

The Circus Academy Berlin (CAB) offers professional training of the highest standards to become a circus trainer. Individual workshops can also be attended by those interested.

The 11-month part-time advanced training – one of the few advanced training courses for circus trainers in Germany – was developed together with the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Zirkuspädagogik (BAG) and other circus institutions. Since then, more than 80 circus educators have been trained.

The CAB actively promotes the professionalisation of circus pedagogy and is a key advocate for uniform training and quality standards so that the title “circus pedagogue” will soon lead to a nationally recognised qualification.

The CAB is part of CABUWAZI, under the sponsorship of Grenzkultur gGmbH.

The Institute for Circus Therapy offers resource-oriented, therapeutic services for children and adolescents to deal with difficult feelings and teaches techniques for self-regulation.

Circus therapy combines two essential focal points: Body and Mind!

Instruction of body-based and movement exercises, circus disciplines and entertaining, mindful relaxation opportunities. Psychotherapeutic methods from behavioural therapy, which, as help for self-help, promote the development of individual coping strategies. Circus therapy develops important resources that offer inner support on the difficult path of finding one’s identity.

The circus therapy approach uses the circus atmosphere of circus tent, adventure and creativity to arouse children’s and young people’s interest and encourage their motivation to try out new skills and behaviours.

Versatile, regular group offers as well as individual therapy invite children and young people to develop a changed view of themselves, take on new roles, learn self-regulation techniques, experience self-efficacy, discover extraordinary skills and positive body perceptions. The creative work enables them to find access to themselves, the athletic movements make it easier to let go of pent-up emotions and helpe to calm down.

We offer children, teenagers and young adults as well as families a diverse range of training opportunities and circus disciplines, such as afternoon training sessions, school and holiday project weeks as well as activities in public spaces.

We accompany creative formative processes of children and adolescents in the development of circus shows and outdoor performances. In the process, we also encourage them to engage in practical and artisanal activities in our workshops. Our circus sites are also venues for interdisciplinary cultural events.

We support children from the age of 4 through movement, creativity and imagination in their pre-school development in an age-appropriate way.

We use circus therapy to support the mental and physical health of children and young people with mental illness. This creative approach combines body and physical orientation from circus education with cognitive therapeutic interventions.

We connect new people arriving and people who have been living in Berlin for a long time. Among other things, we offer mobile circus courses in shelters for people with refugee experience.

In our training institute “Circus Akademie Berlin” we teach the fundamentals of circus education. We offer further training for our staff and external professionals.

We activate volunteering through the involvement of various volunteer programmes and parent initiatives.
We offer opportunities for career orientation, first work experience and a strength-oriented environment for inclusion.

BAG Zirkuspädagogik e.V.
The Bundesverband Zirkuspädagogik was founded in 2005 and is an association of children and youth circus groups and circus pedagogues in Germany. Among other things the BAG develops quality standards for the training of circus educators with a corresponding recognition procedure and promotes the development of circus education through further training and exchange.

Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Berlin
The Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband Berlin, as the umbrella organisation of the independent welfare sector, represents over 760 independent non-profit organisations and self-help groups, which it advises on legal, business and social issues. It advocates the rights of people in need of help and the promotion of civil society.

Landesvereinigung Kulturelle Jugendbildung Berlin e.V.
The LKJ Berlin is a professional umbrella organisation of 43 member organisations with about 400 facilities for child and youth cultural work in various fields. It represents the interests of its members at state level. For this purpose, the InfoPoint is the contact point for all questions concerning the financing and promotion of projects.

Educircation
The international network aims to improve the training quality of trainers in social and youth circus projects. As part of the CIRCE project, professional circus trainers are trained in workshops, training sessions and meetings. Educircation is supported by the EU programme ERASMUS.

Caravan
Founded in 2008, the international network for the social and youth circus comprises 30 circus facilities in Europe, Africa, Asia, America and the Middle East. Its aim is to use circus art to promote personal and social skills and to promote social change.

Zirkus macht stark
The association “Zirkus macht stark – Zirkus für alle e.V.”, founded in 2012, is a nationwide association dedicated to supporting and promoting socially and educationally disadvantaged children and young people with the means of circus education. The association is partner of the support programme “Kultur macht stark. Bündnisse für Bildung” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and passes the funds on to local alliances that implement circus projects for this target group.

In our CABUWAZI Beyond Borders project, refugee children, teenagers and young adults have the opportunity to gain an insight into circus artistry and discover personal strengths, experience social interaction in a community and create positive connections with their new surroundings. Since 2015 the team of CABUWAZI Beyond Borders has been conducting project weeks, workshops and ongoing circus courses directly in refugee accommodations.

In addition to that, CABUWAZI Beyond Borders is on the road throughout Berlin, working in first aid facilities, clearing houses, emergency and community shelters for refugees, thus building up a Berlin-wide network.

Since spring 2017, the project has had a permanent place at CABUWAZI Tempelhof. On the circus grounds, children and young people from Berlin accommodation facilities can take part in inclusive circus weeks, attend open training sessions, courses for beginners and advanced students and present their new skills to an audience in a final circus show together with other children and young people. Since then, the three circus tents on Tempelhofer Feld have also regularly hosted inclusive project weeks with “welcome-classes” from all over Berlin as well as holiday schools with German language support.

We do not strive for top artistic performance in our activities, but rather create a playful space in which self-confidence can develop and children, teenagers and young adults are enabled to actively shape their needs.

A special focus of our circus training for refugee children and young people is the promotion of German language skills: Our circus language concept – a playful form of language teaching – enables both the acquisition of initial knowledge of the German language and the deepening of already existing knowledge.

The main aim of these lessons is to enable the participants to feel comfortable and express their needs and feelings through the unbiased use of German language. We want to awaken in them the desire to get involved with the German language. In order to achieve this, we do not use the usual form of teaching, but adapt the language teaching to the special challenges and helpful vocabulary of the training.

The programme results from combination of the mobile projects in the facilities for refugees and the circus educational offer on site.

Our mobile team carries out its outreach work in the accommodation facilities (currently in Spandau, Charlottenburg and Marienfelde). The team initially offers movement games and circus courses on site to give the children and young people a positive start in their new surroundings.

The courses on the site include regular circus training in each discipline, open trainings, school project weeks with the welcome classes and holiday workshops.

In inclusive groups children with refugee status and local children train together, which helps to normalise common, partnership-based experiences. In addition to the artistic skills, playful concepts and interacting with the local children facilitates and supports their access to and practice of the new language.

Through the “CABUWAZI Welcome Circus” (EU-funded programme) and “CABUWAZI Circus of Life” (federal funding by BAMF and BMFSJ) projects, we provide circus education in residential facilities for refugees and on the Tempelhof Circus grounds, in order to enable the children, teenagers and young adults to have their first positive contact with their new surroundings and the German language. Furthermore they benefit from a comprehensive personal, social and linguistic skill development and experience a sense of participation in the social normality or beyond their isolating residential facilities.

Open workshops and weekly courses

In a group of around 15 children and teenagers, the participants train in different disciplines such as trapeze, trampoline, acrobatics, clowning, juggling or various balance disciplines. The regular training takes place on the circus ground of CABUWAZI Tempelhof. It is important that the groups are mixed: Children and teenagers from refugee families train with local children from the surrounding social environment.

In addition, we offer daily open trainings for children and young people (from Monday to Friday). The workshops, courses and project weeks are conducted by qualified circus educators and pedagogically experienced artists.

Holiday school

Holiday school at CABUWAZI gives children from accommodation facilities the possibility to learn German in a playful way and to grow as a person through artistry.
A holiday school lasts 10 days, i.e. two weeks from Monday to Friday, and is run for 12-15 participants by two circus trainers and a language trainer.
Our language acquisition aims to enable the children and young people to introduce themselves, express their needs and actively participate in circus and social life.
In the subsequent circus training, the students can directly apply their new knowledge while they get to know and experience different artistic disciplines (juggling, acrobatics, trapeze, balance etc.) and artistic genres (music, dance, acting).
At the end of those two weeks, they present their acquired skills and artistic talent in a final show for parents, neighbours and staff – either in their accommodation or the circus tent on our site.

Many thanks to the German Children and Youth Foundation for financing the holiday programme for refugee children.

Circus knows no borders and is an intercultural place where people from different cultures and social backgrounds meet and work together. International exchange and various youth meetings have always been a solid and important part of CABUWAZI’s work. Through diverse musical, creative and movement-oriented activities, young people can discover new roles and develop artistic, acrobatic, music and clowning skills. They improve their perception, coordination and tactile sensitivity. In addition to that, teamwork is encouraged. Furthermore, we encourage teamwork, because working together towards one goal or a good result activates the participants not just in an artistic field, but also areas like planning, organisation and event management – useful professional skills. During rehearsals for performances they also learn to take responsibility for themselves and their group and causally develop cognitive and motor skills, learning competence, initiative and entrepreneurial skills, cultural awareness and cultural expression. By discovering their own strengths, weaknesses, abilities and inclinations, the learning process is stimulated, promoting the development of key competencies.

Mirtos – Berlin

A central goal of our cooperation with the Greek partner Youthnet Hellas, which has existed since 2014, is the reduction of intolerance and right-wing ideas. Many of the young people are confronted with other cultures and mindsets for the first time and learn to deal critically with their own prejudices. This exchange programme particularly addresses young people who have no access to further education. What both groups, Greek and German, have in common is their lack of prospects, threatening or existing unemployment and resignation.

Molcad – Berlin

“Wir schenken uns ein Lachen” („We give each other a smile“) is an international youth exchange between CABUWAZI and young people from the village of Molcad in Belarus. Since 2015 the participants regularly slip into new roles and work on their own shows, applying the means of circus and theatre education to incorporate a variety of artistic elements. We use the creative methods of dance, theatre and circus pedagogy to work with young people on topics such as recycling and upcycling.

Circus overcomes borders

For many years, international youth encounters have played a major role at CABUWAZI Altglienicke. Within the initiative “Circus overcomes borders” we have opened our circus on several occasions to children and young people from many countries and, in return, have been guests at youth encounters, for example in Israel and Palestine. Furthermore we are in close contact with groups from Costa Rica (Circo FantazzTico), Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Belgium, England, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Poland and others. These interchanges broaden young people‘s horizons by showing them other perspectives, other stories, cultures, arts and disciplines through people with the same interests and the language of circus. This in turn allows them to better understand political and religious issues.

An enriching experience not only for the children but also for the circus educators – on a professional and personal level.

Israel – Berlin

The best way to learn about the world is to cultivate friendships around the globe. With this in mind, CABUWAZI Marzahn conducts regular exchanges and visits with the Israel Circus School. The same basic conviction also led to a cooperation with the Albert and Friends Instant Circus, through which we were part of the cultural programme of the 2012 Olympics in England. And our participation in international competitions – for example, at festivals of the European Circus Schools at the Honnelles Circus School in Belgium – is also based on this idea.

At the moment we have ten young people as European volunteers at CABUWAZI, in addition to federal volunteers from Germany – all working together with a lot of energy and motivation.. They present current impressions and experiences from their everyday life on our blog: evscabuwazi.tumblr.com

CABUWAZI is also a sending organisation for young people from Berlin who would like to do a long-term European voluntary service.

The European Voluntary Service offers participants the opportunity to develop personally and professionally. In our projects the volunteers gain new ideas and experiences, get to know other perspectives and points of view – while developing personal strengths and job-specific skills.