Last week I spent a short, but enjoyable, amount of time in the village of Krupa na Vrbasu, some 25 kilometres south of Banja Luka, here in Bosnia and Herzegovina, watching a collection of International acrobats and circus skills performers conducting workshops with children from the locality.
Krupa na Vrbasu was the location chosen to host some 35 performers for a 7 day period, where professional development workshops would be held, as well as a chance for like minded acrobats to get together in an informal gathering to exchange experiences.
The 2011 BiH Acrobatics Festival was the brain child of Berengere Dambrine and Daniel Meijers, French and Dutch respectively, who now live and work in Banja Luka.
Daniel is an expert acrobat in his own right and sees the benefits to all aspects of the continued development of BiH through activities such as acrobatics and circus skills.
In a country where western, urban, progressive moves and developments are shunned and discouraged by both politicians and the current establishment under the guise of “infecting and destroying the rich historical culture and heritage” of the area, the efforts of Berengere and Daniel are continued small steps to better the chaotic world that is BiH.
My impression of both the work conducted in Krupa as well as an excellent, FREE, open air acrobatic performance on the 19 August in the centre of Banja Luka, was that a real breath of fresh air was blown through this part of the country.
Of course no one will know if both Berengere and Daniel “broke even” (events like this do cost money to put on) but I do know sponsorship, even a tiny amount, was difficult to generate.
The courage of people like this to forge forward and do something for a country that isn’t theirs is truly commendable.
Sometimes it’s a pity and a shame that the leadership of this region fails to acknowledge the efforts of outsiders, rather preferring to find continual excuses why anything and everything that is bad, is not their fault, blaming it on a corrupt international community.
So, well done Berengere, Daniel and their team of acrobats that came to BiH!
To see some of the success of the festival you can check out the following links:
Acrobatics Festival in BiH
