'New Ways To Reform Circus Art' @ Budapest Circus, 10 January

  • 22 Nov 2017 8:00 AM
'New Ways To Reform Circus Art' @ Budapest Circus, 10 January
Circus pedagogy – using circus art for public education purposes <br> In connection to the 12th Budapest International Circus Festival organized by the European Circus Association (ECA) a scientific conference will be held on the 10th of January next year with the participation of many countries. The main topic will be about the exploration of the possibilities of circus art for public service.

How can circus serve society in important public services? What public messages can certain circus acts convey? How can a teacher use a circus visit with his class for educational and pedagogical purposes?
A new method has answered to these questions: circus pedagogy.
Comprehensive experiment with the involvement of elementary and high schools

Just like theatres are used for educational and pedagogical purposes – it is called theatre pedagogy – and using museums for special lectures is wide-spread over the world, visiting circuses can be more than carefree fun and entertainment.

The Capitol Circus of Budapest has been experimenting with circus pedagogy for two years now. Excellent pedagogues analyse the social messages of certain tricks. The question is how tricks of circus can be used for educational goals with the support of experts.

At the moment more than twenty subjects are taught in Hungary with the help of circus pedagogy. These subjects are the following: friction, physics, combinatorics, geometrical elements, mathematics, balance, zoology, biology as well as in the field of social knowledges: trust, punctuality, caring about each other, equal opportunities.

The above mentioned topics are elaborated precisely and in detail, in the catalogue of circus pedagogy, they are adapted to curriculums and student groups. The new method is accepted by some travelling circuses too.

The goal of circus pedagogy is that circus would have an increasingly dominant role being an art-serving public and social tool. The new method is important for the circus financially and revenue-wise besides its significance in the field of pedagogy: the number of the visitors increased by circus shows by one-third.

Presenting the new Hungarian pedagogical method at the St. Petersburg Cultural Forum

Mr Peter Fekete, director general of the Hungarian Circus and Variety Ltd. has already made presentations about the positive results achieved by the paradigm shift in circus art described above at many scientific professional conferences.

His lectures has got always huge interest on the mentioned culture oriented convents. Even right now he gives a presentation in the highly important St. Petersburg Cultural Forum which is one of this year’s most significant conferences regarding international cultural life.

Learn more about the Circus Festival

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