A Pharely Interesting Circus

One night in Siam Reap, we went to the Phare circus, which bills itself as more than a circus:

From their website:

More than just a circus, Phare performers use theater, music, dance and modern circus arts to tell uniquely Cambodian stories; historical, folk and modern. The young circus artists will astonish you with their energy, emotion, enthusiasm and talent, making Phare Circus the top-rated modern cultural performance in Siem Reap.

It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest single circus performance, going more than 24 hours in March of 2024.  

(It's neat to see the Guinness Book of World Records is still around.  When I was a kid, the Guinness Book of World Records was a huge deal.  Kids carried around their well-thumbed copies of it and we would refer to it to settle disputes that seemed important at that time.)

The performers are students and graduates of an organization founded in 1994 by nine young men coming home from a refugee camp after the Khmer Rouge regime.  The fact the Khmer Rouge was toppled in 1979 and it took 15 years for some people to return to Cambodia from refugee camps reinforces just how bad things were there.

They founded Phare Ponleu Selpak (a vocational training school focused on the arts) in Battamberg to help other poor, deprived children in their area.  The circus is based in Siam Reap because that's where the tourists are.  The nine founders started with an art school, followed by a public school, then a music school and theater school soon followed.  Then, as interest grew, the circus school.  

These days, around 1200 students attend the public school, and approximately 500 attend the other schools.  So not only is the circus pretty cool to watch, it is part of a world of good.

I could try to describe the actual circus to you, but I would fail.  We were highly entertained as we sat in the bleachers, taking in the energy and activity of the young men and young women in the circus.  Don't think of Ringling Brothers circus, instead, think more of a Cirque du Soleil production, but without the expensive and expansive sets.

The website has a highlights video if you want to check it out -- warning, the first 40 seconds of video shows the performers putting on make-up, etc. before any of the actual action is shown.  Just be patient.  The video is about one quarter of the way down on the linked-to page.

While none of us went down, afterwards you could go down to the stage and pose for photos with the performers.  I didn't take pictures during the performance, it was quite dark (except the stage) and flash could cause performers to be injured.  We enjoyed the performance.

(Editor: Well, that's an awkward, abrupt way to end a post.  Writer: Yes, can you tell I had no idea how else to end it?  I still have no idea, even with you helping me stall like this.)

The End.