Phare - The Cambodian Circus - Siem Reap - Dano's Cambodian Quickie

This is a longer video at just over an hour that was shot on an older smartphone so the quality is not the best, but it still highlights the performers skills.

Phare - The Cambodian Circus was established as a social enterprise and is based in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

More than just a circus, Phare, The Cambodian Circus performers use theater, music, dance and modern circus arts to tell uniquely Cambodian stories; combining historical, folk lore with modern eye-popping acrobatics, hypnotic dance, thrilling, bone-chilling music, dramatic live art, enough energy to power a million dreams and stories that will make you laugh, then cry, then smile deep inside. That is the essence of Phare, the Cambodian Circus.

Phare, was created by Phare Ponleu Selpak, a Battambang-based performance and arts school established by 9 young survivors of the refugees camps in Thailand, where so many Cambodians fled during and after the Khmer Rouge years. Their aims over the last 20 years have been to provide poor, socially deprived, troubled and disadvantaged youth with real employment and to breathe new life into Cambodian visual, applied and performance arts scenes.

The mission was to create job opportunities for graduates of the circus program and give back almost 75% of its profits to support the school’s programming and offers the students and graduates somewhere to hone their skills and a place to earn a decent wage. Money that will take them out of poverty and give them self-respect and freedom.

The art school in Battambang has become a powerhouse of the Cambodian art scene and the two circuses are training young Cambodians in highly marketable skills. Some have already graduated to training with Cirque du Soleil and circuses in Europe.

Phare, The Cambodian Circus performs nightly under a big top and it is one of the genuinely unmissable performances available in Siem Reap.

I hope that you enjoy the video. Be sure to check out my other videos from Cambodia, and don't forget to like 👍 share comment and subscribe if you are a legend!

Peace out

Dano...

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