With a madcap show featuring uproarious acrobatics accompanied by raucous music, Phare could be described as Cambodia’s answer to Cirque du Soleil, and not long ago it was playing to packed houses in the town of Siem Reap night after night. All the performers have a story to tell. Drawn from among the country’s beggars, orphans, victims of human trafficking, and drug addicts, they have developed skills and found new purpose in life. Phare has also been the prime source of funding for 1,200 students at an arts school – Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS) – in the city of Battambang . Early this year, however, the coronavirus pandemic struck and the Cambodian government put travel restrictions in place . As tourist arrivals slowed to a trickle and then stopped altogether, the audiences stopped coming, and Phare found itself teetering. “Tourism to Cambodia has vanished, which is devastating for people whose livelihood depends on it, says Khuon Chanreaksmey, deputy director of PPS. “The PPS school receives over half its annual budget of US$1 million from Phare circus. The circus depends on visitors to Cambodia. The longer this continues, the harder it becomes for the circus to cover costs, pay salaries and support the school.” When the circus is running according to its regular schedule, Phare’s nightly extravaganzas are an enthralling mix of skill and daring, performed to a cacophony of live music played on instruments ranging from traditional Cambodian gongs to electric guitars. Tourists amazed about seeing Angkor Wat without usual crowds The artistes juggle, tumble, cavort, clown, eat fire and dance on the circular stage with barely a pause for breath. Each performance carries a loose storyline – the ravages of the Khmer Rouge regime , which sought to stamp out all forms of art, is a popular theme. In some of the more ambitious acrobatic stunts, Phare performers hurl themselves through the air to be caught just in time in the outstretched arms of their colleagues. The spectators are kept transfixed on the edge of their seats. Phare Ponleu Selpak, meaning “The Brightness of the Arts” in Khmer, was founded in 1994 by a handful of artists who had spent years kicking their heels in refugee camps after fleeing the murderous Khmer Rouge. Reasoning that art was the best way to help heal psychological wounds, they started with free drawing lessons for Battambang’s street children. Classes in music, dance and drama followed, and the circus formally opened in Siem Reap , the town close to the Angkor temples complex, in 2013. “We’ve devised a careful recruitment process. Phare’s social workers put the message out in the community and we open our doors to everyone who wants to experience arts training,” says Khuon Chanreaksmey. “Children start circus training at the age of eight, and initially we have a trial period to see what skills fit them best. “It takes about eight years before they are ready to perform professionally. Of course, there’s always an element of risk, so to start with there is always a teacher right beside the student to take care of him or her and impart confidence.” On top of their circus training, Phare’s students are also taught life skills and receive a general education. When time allows – and pandemic permitting – Phare invites local schoolchildren, members of non-profit organisations, villagers and hospitality workers to watch the show free of charge or at greatly reduced prices. The troupe also aims to visit the Angkor Hospital for Children once a month with pop-up entertainment for the patients, and stages occasional performances at the local market to support Cambodian artisans and craftspeople. “Cambodian youth are transforming their lives through art, breaking the cycle of poverty,” says Khuon Chanreaksmey. “They are discovering their own talents and realising that with hard work and opportunity anything in life is possible. The salaries they earn performing in the circus help support themselves and their families. Today’s artists are paving the way for the younger generations.” Phare has fired imaginations around the world on its overseas tours. “Phare is amazing – its performers are so talented, especially since most of them are kids coming from the street, and obviously there’s a lot of hard work and creativity behind the scenes,” says Ravindra Ngo, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Cambodian Society, a non-profit organisation that promotes the country’s art and culture. “As a social enterprise it has been a sustainable model for more than seven years, which is inspiring for Cambodia. It has created significant opportunities for employment, but also built an ecosystem in Siem Reap promoting art and culture to international visitors, while impacting positively on the PPS school,” Ngo says. “Sadly, as with other social enterprises in Cambodia, it is being adversely affected by the Covid-19 disaster as it depends mainly on inbound travellers and visitors.” While the show cannot go on, the 100-strong Phare troupe has thrown itself into honing its artistic and other skills. “We’re counting on everyone’s solidarity, believing that we will come out of this pandemic stronger,” says Sigrid Baldinger, Phare’s development manager. Before joining Phare, I sold snacks in the street to support my family, but I still didn’t have enough to eat. My dream is to become an instructor at the circus, someone who can help other children and provide them with the same opportunities that I have had Nov Sreyleak, performer at Phare “Home confinement has provided us with time to reflect and adapt to the situation by doing what we know best. Our performers ran a ‘stay home, stay fit’ video contest showing creative training initiatives, and our visual arts students and alumni expressed their personal insights through inspiring art works. Now is the time to celebrate art and its universal capacity to build resilience, a motto that has accompanied PPS since its very beginnings.” If Phare’s nightly performances merit a sustained round of applause, some of its long-term achievements are also astonishing. It is the personal, often heartbreaking, stories of its performers that really resonate. “Before joining Phare, I sold snacks in the street to support my family, but I still didn’t have enough to eat,” says Nov Sreyleak, who at 29 is one of the circus’ most experienced performers. “My dream is to become an instructor at the circus, someone who can help other children and provide them with the same opportunities that I have had, like the chance to travel abroad and learn a foreign language as well as other skills. Phare has transformed my life, and not just mine but my whole family’s lives as well.” If Nov Sreyleak’s tale is inspiring, Pin Phunam’s life story reads like a potential movie script. Pin Phunam grew up in abject poverty in a village on the outskirts of Battambang. By the age of seven she was earning a pittance by scavenging for plastic and glass at the city dump. When she was nine she had to snatch a bottle of rat poison away from her mother to prevent her committing suicide. Pin Phunam’s life might have continued its downward spiral but for a chance meeting with a social worker. “She told me about PPS’ free school, although I was more interested in getting a free lunch,” says Pin Phunam, who is now 29 and about to take a course in government and gender studies at Smith College, a private women’s liberal arts institution in the US state of Massachusetts. “My mum told me that education is the only weapon that can protect you, and nobody can ever steal it from you. I’ve always remembered her words.” Pin Phunam’s father died of Aids when she was 13, and she moved into Phare’s childcare centre, training for the circus and eventually becoming one of its star performers. Following a wrist injury, she went back to full-time education, studying first in Cambodia and more recently in the United States. “Ultimately, I want to return to my own country, Cambodia, to be part of the solution in ending the cycle of poverty and destruction of our environment,” she says, adding that she wants to do something big for her homeland. “Phare holds a special place in my heart, it was my second home, a place that taught me to discover my best self.”