A world-renowned circus performer returned to Maple Ridge Secondary to teach the students the skills that have propelled him around the world. 

Circus art master Beno卯t Ranger, founder of Les Transporteurs De R锚ves, or The Dream Circus, and circus coach Pascale Schram, were at the school from Monday, April 7, to Friday, April 11, showing students how to balance on the tightrope, juggle, walk on stilts, use a stable trapeze, aerial silks, roller balancing, and more.

The pair head the B.C. chapter of Cirque Jeunesse.

New this year were unicycles, which Grade 10 student Avery MacDonald took a shining to.

Although MacDonald admitted that she learned to ride well before circus school. In fact she received a unicycle for her ninth birthday. 

鈥淚 saw someone doing it in my neighbourhood and I thought I want to do that,鈥� she said. 

MacDonald loves the challenge of riding on one wheel. 

鈥淟ook where you want to go. Don鈥檛 look down or then you鈥檙e going to go down,鈥� she advised. 

Grade 10 student Zareen Sikandari enjoyed the trapeze the best. 

鈥淚 enjoy how every year they try to incorporate different parts of the circus but in like an easy way for students to understand and to follow,鈥� she said.

Ranger has performed with Cirque du Soleil, Th茅芒tre des deux mondes, and at Vari茅t茅s de Radio-Canada. Now he crosses the country teaching children the various circus arts. And, he just returned from a trip to the north African country Tunisia where he has founded another circus school and where he hopes in the future to be able to have student exchanges.

Students learn more than the physical and artistic circus skills in the program, he explained. They learn how to work together in teams, how to lead, how to organize, and respect for the equipment. 

鈥淚f you want to do a show, if you want to do a rehearsal, you need your props ready, clean, and at the proper place,鈥� he said.

They also learn about the origins and history of the various circus props. For example, he explained, stilt walking in France originated with sheep keepers or shepherds who used the height to watch over their flocks and walk over marshy areas.

To become a circus master, Ranger explained, most people start out doing floor routines and tumbling in gymnastics. Then they pursue aerial skills like silks and tightrope, moving on to balancing and juggling, and then trampoline.

To become a multi-circus artist 鈥� to learn all the skills of a circus performer 鈥� takes around 15 to 20 years to complete.

The next step is becoming a clown, and finally, a master, he said, which means they are ready to teach the craft.

Ranger, who has been in the business as his clown character Ben Labarouette, or Ben The Clown, for 40 years, said his life has been fulfilled being able to travel worldwide, with 17 different circuses. He has been a master for the past seven years.

Hella Beckmann, the French immersion department head at MRSS, was one of the key people who brought Ranger鈥檚 circus program to the school which has seen so much demand from students that the program is available to all students, including those not in the French immersion program. 

15-year-old Bella Berner explained that doing the different activities is not just about the movement, but about using your brain as well, especially on the tightrope where you have to maintain your balance. 

Berner's friend Claire McIlwain, also 15, enjoyed the tightrope because it is something she has never had the opportunity to try before. 

But, she added, the whole program is fun because, "it's super interesting to try new things."

For more information about the program go to:  or email: cirq2003@videotron.ca.