Art as a tool for healing? Cambodian circus fosters joy and confidence.


All shows at Siem Reap’s Phare Circus are rooted in Cambodian culture, from a juggling act that pokes fun at tourists to acrobatic routines inspired by local mythology to dances that explore wartime trauma. Watching the performers dance, paint, and twist into pretzels, it’s difficult to imagine that these confident young men and women come from impoverished or troubled families. 

Celebrating its 10th anniversary on Feb. 8, Phare Circus simultaneously provides young Cambodians with a livelihood and showcases the talents of students at Phare Ponleu Selpak, a not-for-profit arts school located in Battambang, Cambodia.

Why We Wrote This

Art can be a tool for radical transformation, joy, and healing. In Cambodia, a circus employing disadvantaged youth is helping break the cycle of poverty and renew arts that were nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge regime.

The school was set up in 1994 by French art teacher Véronique Decrop and a small group of Cambodian refugees who returned home after the brutal Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979. Apart from giving kids a safe space away from crowded homes and dangerous streets, the school aims to revive arts that were decimated during the Cambodian genocide. 

Preserving the arts “gives young Cambodians something to hold on to from their past,” says musician and genocide survivor Arn Chorn-Pond, who founded an organization that provides arts education scholarships. “It also gives them an identity, it gives them confidence, it gives them the voice to tell their own stories to the world.”

A short drive away from the famed Angkor Wat temple ruins in Siem Reap, Cambodia, another spectacle has been quietly attracting visitors for years. Every evening, under the big top at the Phare Circus, audiences watch mesmerized as acrobats and artists jump and somersault, dance and paint, execute midair flips and twist into pretzels. 

Forgetting the discomfort of the hard wood seats, the viewers cheer and clap at the entertainers, who work in perfect harmony as a team.

Watching them smile under the spotlight, it is difficult to imagine that these confident young men and women come from impoverished or troubled families. Celebrating its 10th anniversary on Feb. 8, Phare Circus simultaneously provides young Cambodians with a livelihood and showcases the talents of students at Phare Ponleu Selpak, a not-for-profit arts school located in Battambang, Cambodia.

Why We Wrote This

Art can be a tool for radical transformation, joy, and healing. In Cambodia, a circus employing disadvantaged youth is helping break the cycle of poverty and renew arts that were nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge regime.

Phare Ponleu Selpak – meaning “The Brightness of the Arts” – was set up in 1994 by French art teacher Véronique Decrop, who practiced art therapy at refugee camps, and a small group of refugees who returned home from Thailand after the brutal Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979. Apart from giving children a safe space away from crowded homes and dangerous streets, the school aims to revive arts that were decimated during the Cambodian genocide. Their restoration has brought healing and joy to performers and audiences alike. 

“The Khmer Rouge left us with zero – 1,000 years of history of the Cambodian empire reduced to ash. More than 90{abdbf1aafee1705a3934b904a34e25e9fc41880f65382909ec0927360d773d22} of the masters were killed or just disappeared,” says musician and genocide survivor Arn Chorn-Pond, who founded Cambodian Living Arts, an organization that provides arts education scholarships.



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