Fern Street Circus may be in your San Diego neighborhood in 2024

calico 04/05/2024

SAN DIEGO —

Clowns, jugglers, contortionists and other circus performers are bringing their talents to San Diego this Saturday as the annual Fern Street Circus neighborhood tour kicks off in City Heights.

The free 10-day tour of bilingual performances brings professional circus performers from around the world to perform alongside young San Diego students who have been training in circus acts for the past few months. The public performances will be held at l parks and recreation centers across San Diego and feature live music as well as a community health resources fair from Live Well San Diego.

Over three decades, the Fern Street Circus — an initiative of the nonprofit Fern Street Community Arts — has introduced the art of the circus to communities with more limited access to the performing arts. This includes working with schools and after-school programs in City Heights and Imperial Beach. Considered a “social circus,” the circus aims to explore social issues — from immigration to health-care access — through performance.

The spring tour performances are every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., starting this weekend and running through May 5.

The Fern Street Circus brings together professional circus performers and young San Diego students.

This year, the theme of the circus is “Home,” largely inspired by the Fern Street Circus’ move to its first-ever dedicated indoor space, at the former Central Elementary School in City Heights. Until now, the group rehearsed at an outdoor circus pavilion or in shared spaces at city gyms.

“Home” is a feeling of being “accepted, where we can be as big or small as we can be, and it’s a place that we definitely want to return to,” said Catalina Paz, the show’s creator and director and a teaching artist with the circus. Paz, also a performing clown, has been training a group of about a dozen students for the circus for the past three months.

Paz also said that many of the new students in the Fern Street Circus’ programs recently migrated to the U.S., such as two students from Haiti who learned English last year and are now performing in the spring tour.

“[The students] found this circus where they can … get acquainted with the culture and make new friends and learn something new,” Paz said.

She says she’s seen many students transform and open up through the after-school program. Even if students don’t want to pursue performance art, the training gets them ready for real life scenarios, such as public speaking.

The practice of clowning is about amplifying one’s personality, Paz explained, and using physical expression, whether it’s through facial expression or body movements.

It’s less of a verbal art form — the performers don’t say much during the show — so even though Paz and the students don’t always speak the same language, they’re still able to connect and learn together.

Circus acts can also be — simply — a joyful activity, Paz added, especially for migrant children who have potentially already experienced difficulties and challenges at a very young age.

“It’s key because not only are we learning to be clear with our body but we’re learning how to take things with humor,” Paz said.

Show director Catalina Paz as “Abuelita” and Lucy Forton as “Grandpa Gordon.”

Along with the student acts, the Fern Street Circus will have a variety of circus performances, such as a tight wire, puppetry, juggling and more. The professional circus performers are coming from around the world, including from Ethiopia, Chile and Mexico.

Before the circus performances start at 2 p.m., attendees can check out Live Well San Diego’s free community health fair starting at 1 p.m., where there will be health screenings, vaccinations and other community resources.

Pre-show concerts from Mariachi Victoria de San Diego will also begin at 1:15 p.m.