The Galilee Circus

Who They Are, Where They Live, and What They Do

The Galilee Circus resides in the northern region of Israel called, logically, the Galilee. The four troupers featured in Watch Out for Flying Kids! are shown below. Click on their photos to see them in action!

Hala and Hla, who are Israeli Arabs, live in Deir al-Asad.

Here is a video of Deir al-Asad that I took from Hla and Hala’s rooftop while the muezzin called Muslims to prayer from the minaret.

Here is another video of Deir al-Asad that I took while walking from the entrance to the village to Hla and Hala’s home.

According to a village elder, Hala and Hla’s families have lived in Deir al-Asad for 500 years, ever since Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the area and converted the locals, who were Christian, to Islam. The villager showed Hala a family tree, drawn recently, that traces her family’s ancestors back to that time.

Hala and a Village Elder with the Asadi Family Tree

The Jewish kids, Shai and Roey, live in Karmiel and Atzmon.

They arrived in the area more recently. Born in Israel, Roey is called a sabra. His mother and father’s parents, however, were immigrants and represent the backgrounds of many Jews there.

Orly and her family were born in Uruguay. Her grandparents had found refuge there from anti-Semitism in the Ukraine and disease in Egypt. When Uruguay threatened to turn into a military dictatorship in 1973, they fled again, this time to safety in Israel.

Both of Hanoch’s parents, who were born in Eastern Europe, were pre-teens when the Nazis deported them and their families to concentration camps where they served as slave laborers. By the end of the Second World War in 1945, most of their family members, including their parents, had perished. As teenage refugees with no home or relatives, they made their way, separately, to Palestine, as the land was known then. Many displaced Jews considered the region a Biblical homeland and safe haven. Hanoch’s parents met, married, and had children in the new land of Israel.

The threads of Roey’s ancestors started on three different continents—Africa, Europe, and South America—and wove together in Israel in the latter part of the 20th century.

Tricks!

The Galilee Circus performs tricks that the St. Louis Arches do not. Here’s how Shai describes them.

• Flower sticks: Flower sticks involve three sticks. Holding one stick in each hand, the juggler tosses the tasseled flower stick back and forth between them.
• Poi: Poi consists of a ball or weight in a bag attached to the end of a string with hand-holds at the other end. You hold or put your hand through a look and, using your wrist, you spin ribbons with weights tied to them. You try to make pretty patterns with the ribbons or, depending on what’s on the end of the Poi, light or fire.
• Staff: Staff is a long stick, usually made out of a broomstick, that comes to your chest. You hold the Staff vertically, with your thumb up, along the side of it and do a Figure Eight with one hand.

Here’s the Galilee Circus in action.

• “It’s a Matter of Trust“–as Hla, Hala, Roey, and Shai demonstrate, that’s what the Galilee Circus is all about!
• Take a peek at a trailer of the Galilee Circus in 2012–where they come from and how they performed. (Thank you to RebesAquaticSheep for compiling the video!)
• A documentary and also an advertisement about the Galilee Circus in 2012
• Galilee Circus Club Act with master jugglers and clowns Shai Ben Yosef, Roey Shafran, and Noam Davidovich
• Galilee Circus 2013 with Hala Asadi, Hla Asadi, Shirel Mondrik, Einat Opalin, and others.