<p>This study looked at two groups of adolescents aged 12-17 years who had participated in circus training. One group had some form of disability while the other had none. The study was carried out as a qualitative study with observations, interviews and a questionnaire used as methods of gathering data. A small part of the study was quantitative and an observation chart was used. The purpose was to examine the importance of teamwork, environmental factors and the necessary requirements during a learning situation. The results of the study showed that all of the factors, in combination with one another, were important during the learning situation. If the participants worked well together, the circus teacher was able to use relevant demands and the environment was stimulating and not stressful. The negative attitude towards the failure of others in the group became less prevalent and the participants felt more responsible with increased self esteem. Different approaches or theories about disability, or being different, were observed and had an effect on the participants’ self-esteem. The main conclusion was that a training situation is complex and that participants should be met with respect and with an attitude that no one should be afraid of failure. Another conclusion was that the approaches or theories about disability do not have to concur but should complement each other.</p>

This study looked at two groups of adolescents aged 12-17 years who had participated in circus training. One group had some form of disability while the other had none. The study was carried out as a qualitative study with observations, interviews and a questionnaire used as methods of gathering data. A small part of the study was quantitative and an observation chart was used. The purpose was to examine the importance of teamwork, environmental factors and the necessary requirements during a learning situation. The results of the study showed that all of the factors, in combination with one another, were important during the learning situation. If the participants worked well together, the circus teacher was able to use relevant demands and the environment was stimulating and not stressful. The negative attitude towards the failure of others in the group became less prevalent and the participants felt more responsible with increased self esteem. Different approaches or theories about disability, or being different, were observed and had an effect on the participants’ self-esteem. The main conclusion was that a training situation is complex and that participants should be met with respect and with an attitude that no one should be afraid of failure. Another conclusion was that the approaches or theories about disability do not have to concur but should complement each other.

Effectuer une activité artistique ne va pas de soi. Cependant, aujourd’hui en France, le système scolaire développe des ateliers qui invitent les jeunes à se mettre,notamment, en piste. Les arts du cirque contemporain participent d’une est/éthique et d’une pratique du déséquilibre et du risque, qui en font sa particularité. C’est à la découverte d’une recherche-Action menée grâce à une intervention circassienne auprès de jeunes d’un lycée professionnel du Nord de la France, que ce travail convie. Le dispositif, faisant partie d’un projet Interreg et expérimenté lors de deux ateliers interculturels franco-Anglais a permis d’interroger les enjeux corporels, psychologiques, sociaux, psychiques et affectifs d’une pratique effectuée par un troisième groupe français. L’approche ethnographique sensible a mis en avant la souffrance de vie de ces jeunes et leur relation à l’école, faisant apparaître, a contrario, le rôle éducatif de la pratique de cirque dans son rapport au « vivre ». / Doing an artistic activity is not easy. Nevertheless, to day in France, the scholar system creates workshops to invite the youth to get on track. The contemporary circus arts develop an aes/ethics and a practice based on unbalance and risk, that makes it particular. This study aims to discover up an action-Research thanks to a circus intervention to students in a professional high school in Northern France. This device, belonging to an Interreg Project and experimented during two intercultural French/English workshops, allowed to question the bodily, psychological, social, psychic and affective issues of a practicing third French group. The sensitive ethnographic approach highlighted their suffering life and their link to the school, enlightening, by contrast, the educative role of the circus practice within the relationship to “living”