For the first time in American history, social circus was put to the test…

Circus Harmony was one of 8 social circuses participating in this landmark study, and much to our delight, it confirmed many of the things we already “knew” about circus— kids in these programs grow better. Carried out by the Weikart Center, a nationally-recognized youth program research organization, and funded by Cirque du Soleil and the American Youth Circus Organization/American Circus Educators, the study analyzed Social-Emotional Learning in the quality of our program as a whole, as well as the actual change in attitude and behavior exhibited by the youth in our classes.

The bottom line? Compared to hundreds of other youth programs in the US, social circus has an exceptionally strong impact in social-emotional learning, putting it in the top tier of youth programs. Not only does our program measurably improve youth’s emotion management, empathy, teamwork, responsibility, initiative, and problem solving in a year, but we do it better than most. And now, we’ve even got the data to show it.

In particular, Circus Harmony’s youth demonstrated high levels of teamwork and responsibility, even when compared to the 7 other social circuses. Over the course of the year’s classes, the youth improved substantially in emotion management, initiative, and problem solving. These beautiful effects are based in our (now-measured) exceptionally high quality program, which fosters supportive and positive environments, and where youth are actively engaged, interacting, and collaborating. They feel they belong here, and consequently, have the freedom to excel here.

More details on the study will be coming soon.

This article is featured in Spectacle: An Online Journal of the Circus Arts here!