PHOTOS: South Africa’s Zip Zap Circus Brings A Big Heart To The Big Top

Enlarge this image

Phelelani Ndakrokra completes an aerial act at a Zip Zap circus show in Cape Town, South Africa.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

Phelelani Ndakrokra performs an aerial acrobatic dance. Ndakrokra, who grew up in a part of Cape Town where gang violence is rife, says: «The circus gave me a platform to feel free and do something I enjoy. It gave me a place to belong.»

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville/ Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville/ Tommy Trenchard for NPR

Now, as he walks out on stage to thunderous applause from the audience, spotlights following his every move, that past seems a long way away. It’s late 2019 and Ndakrokra is about perform an intricately rehearsed aerial dance routine in what will turn out to be one of the last major pre-COVID performances of the Zip Zap circus, a Cape Town institution that’s been wowing audiences since 1992.

Leah Philander jumps off the stage after a performance.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

The audience reacts during a Zip Zap circus show in Cape Town, South Africa.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

And they’ve helped distribute food to some of the underserved communities they work in.

Inathi Zungula gets ready for her act backstage during a Zip Zap performance in Cape Town, South Africa. A contortionist and acrobat, she was so dedicated to making it in the circus that she made a 7-hour roundtrip commute by train to attend Zip Classes training twice a week.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

It’s what’s known as a «social circus.» That’s to say, one that aims not only to entertain but also, through the teaching of valuable life skills and the creation of a nurturing environment, to foster personal development and achieve positive social change. As such, it aims to give youngsters from some of Cape Town’s roughest neighborhoods a path to a different future.

Few have benefited quite as much as Ndakrokra, who has risen up through the organization to the point where he’s not only a star performer but also a trainer, mentoring and inspiring the next generation. He says joining the circus has given him «the best family I’ve ever had» and has transformed his sense of self-esteem.

Xolani Sikunana rehearses his act — acrobatics while hanging from long strips of silk — at the Zip Zap circus school in Cape Town, South Africa.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

«It’s hard to explain but it feels like it’s not me performing» he says, describing the euphoria he experiences on stage. «It’s my soul, my energy. Once I hold the straps and the music starts everything just flows like a waterfall. I lose everything. The audience is my power. I feed from their energy, and I become unstoppable. It feels like there’s nothing I can’t do in the world.»

To figure out how to improve their technique, Zip Zap performers watch a video clip after rehearsals at the Zip Zap dome, the Cape Town for the circus.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

Social circuses have been booming in recent years. When Zip Zap first began, it was one of only a handful world-wide, but since the 1990s they have been springing up everywhere from Conakry to Kabul. According to a 2015 study conducted by the Cirque du Soleil, the number of social circuses in operation has shot up from just eight in 1979 to more than 500 today.

Sabine Van Rensburg, the daughter of Zip Zap’s founder, Brent Van Rensburg, performs aerial silk acrobatics act during a show in Cape Town, South Africa. She now tours with the Canada-based Seven Fingers circus but returned as a visiting performer.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

«It’s exploded in the last 25 years!» says Brent Van Rensburg, co-founder of Zip Zap. A former trapeze artist, Van Rensburg took jobs as a stuntman to help fund the project in its early days.

Thabo Gxoyiyana and fellow performers rehearse their juggling act at the Zip Zap dome in Cape Town’s city center.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

«People are using circuses for drug rehab, violence, poverty. It just works!»

At the outset, one of his main goals was addressing racial injustice in his homeland.

«We wanted to bridge the divide between black and white,» says Van Rensburg. «That was the beginning of our work. We wanted to be a part of the rainbow nation, a part of the new South Africa and to be a lifeline for kids who were struggling.»

Back then, South Africa was only just beginning to emerge from the horrors of apartheid and the country remained deeply divided along racial lines. Nelson Mandela had only recently been released from prison, and it would be another two years before the end of white minority rule. At the time, seeing black and white South Africans performing together on stage was a powerful symbol, says Van Rensburg.

Contortionist Zusiphe Mgijima limbers up backstage during a Zip Zap circus performance in Cape Town, South Africa.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

In its early years Zip Zap operated on a shoestring budget, with Van Rensburg and his wife and co-founder, Laurence, fixing trapezes to trees in schoolyards and teaching kids the basics in an abandoned warehouse made available to them by a local company.

Since then the circus has grown enormously.

Enlarge this image

An emcee addresses a sellout crowd at the Zip Zap dome during a 2019 performance.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

Children who are hospital patients practice circus tricks outside a hospital in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Zip Zap’s Ubuntu program aims to introduce children with medical conditions to the world of circus.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville/ Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville/ Tommy Trenchard for NPR

«Respect — that’s what I’ve learnt from Zip Zap», says 23-year-old Aviwe Mfundisi, a trapeze artist who lives with his family in the township of Khayelitsha. «At Zip Zap you trust people even though you’ve never met them. It’s the circus way. When you’re in the air, you have to just know that the other guys will catch you. It’s not like that in the townships.»

Circus performers including Sabine van Rensburg, the daughter of Zip Zap’s founder, asleep backstage after a performance in Cape Town, South Africa.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

Like many of the performers, Mfundisi credits the circus with completely altering the direction of his life. In the neighborhood of Langa, where he grew up, many of his contemporaries got caught up in a cycle of unemployment, drugs and crime. By contrast, thanks largely to the circus, he says, Mfundisi has become a respected professional, acquired new skills, traveled the world, become part of a community and earned enough money to start expanding his mother’s home. He even got a tattoo of a circus tent on his forearm to serve as a reminder.

It’s that kind of passion that Lizo James hopes to pass on when he turns up at a hospital in Khayelitsha every Wednesday to introduce kids living with chronic illnesses to the circus. The sessions are part of a collaboration with the medical charity Doctors without Borders and aim to make hospital visits less intimidating.

Aviwe Mfundisi rests after his performance at a Zip Zap show in Cape Town, South Africa. «Respect — that’s what I’ve learnt from Zip Zap», says the 23-year-old trapeze artist.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

«Within a couple of minutes you see them start smiling, and you see the interest. They become more relaxed,» says Lizo, who joined Zip Zap at the age of 11 and says it opened his mind to a whole other world. «I love what I’m doing, it always feels good.»

Since the lockdown put an end to their regular schedule of training and performances, the Zip Zap team has been doing tricks on video in their front yards to entertain fans on social media, staging virtual training sessions for some of their outreach programs and screening online reruns of past performances (which brings in some revenue to offset the loss of ticket sales for their shows).

«It has definitely been and will continue to be a challenge» says Van Rensburg, who compares trying to navigate a safe path forward during the coronavirus pandemic to walking a tightrope. «It requires meticulous preparation, focus and balance. But, as always, the show must go on.»

Zip Zap perfomer Jason Barnard climbs on a rooftop near his home in Green Point, Cape Town, South Africa. He’s best known for his juggling skills and clown act and also works as an instructor.

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville and Tommy Trenchard for NPR

Tommy Trenchard and Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville are photojournalists based in Cape Town, South Africa. Their last joint contribution to NPR explored the funeral practices of Indonesia’s Toraja people.

• circus
• cape town
• South Africa