O PROCESSO DE CRIAÇÃO DA ESCOLA NACIONAL DE CIRCO NO BRASIL E A CONTINUIDADE DOS MODOS DE VIDA DENTRO E FORA DA LONA

Abstract

The circus is a show that brings together under canvas, in a circular arena, different artistic manifestations produced by humankind throughout its history. Circus’organization have in the family a central element, its way of life is itinerant and children can guarantee survival. During the history of circus women, men and children in Brazil, the different ways of doing circus had been transmitted from generation to generation within the family, in continuous processes. In a context, however, there began to emerge specific educational institutions for the artists training, such as the National Circus School. It is a State character school and the first of its kind in Latin America, and had been inaugurated on May 13, 1982, in Rio de Janeiro. The objective of this thesis was to investigate and to analyze the factors that conditioned its establishment, based on the history movements and on the identification of multiple factors that would lead to its consolidation as a major training institution for the Brazilian artistic class. Therefore, we first conducted a survey of sources for research in the school's archives and CEDOC/FUNARTE and identified actors who contributed to the ENC creation process. There had been conducted interviews and document reviews, in continuous dialogue with the literature related to the theme, and with the theoretical framework that guided the research. From the information sources, there had highlighted the recurring reports about the approach between circus and Brazilian State of the period, the one was going through a very peculiar moment in its history, when it should prepare people for political openness, after years of military dictatorship. Cultural policies of the 1970s began to invest in stimulating and directing the cultural activities, minimizing the repression of the years before. As an itinerant show that could reach isolated places and carried important ideological signs for the construction of a new Brazil, circus seemed a good investment. Moreover, it was possible to list two main factors that ledthe circus to go through a crisis in the second half of the twentieth century: the lack of suitable places for circuses installation; and the lack of skilled artists, who understand circus life. Trying to find solutions to these problems, the National Theatre Service implemented a national policy to support circuses, which included the construction of a permanent structure and public spaces for circuses installation in the big cities, and the creation of schools for professional training. From these discussions, there was formulated the following thesis: new settings in ways to make and learn to make circus,as well as the interests of the Brazilian state to foment cultural policies able to disseminate their ideology, were conditions for the ENC creation process.