Aerial circus in Brazil spotlights a path to healing for female victims of gender-based violence

(19 Oct 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

THUMBNAIL: ID 25291589484067 - Members of the group aerial circus "Pendurados” perform in an open-air show that explores healing from sexual violence through art and community, at Icarai Beach in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Niteroi, Brazil - 18 October 2025
1. Various of aerial silk acrobatics
2. Rosane Rodrigues performing
3. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Rosane Rodrigues, 48, artisan:
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"To climb on a fabric, you need arm strength, and sometimes you don't believe you have it. Gradually, you start discovering it, just like we do as women, mothers, and professionals, identifying this personal strength. Little by little, you manage to perform, create a routine, and just like in life, you end up doubting yourself, but in the end, it becomes a spectacle. Your life becomes a spectacle. You are the main character of your own story."
4. Various of aerial silk acrobatics
5. Various of woman on stilts and two men staging an act denouncing harassment and violence against women on Icaraí Beach as part of the Women's Circus Healing event
6. People watching the show
7. Show, beach, back shot of audience
8. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Juliana Berti Abduch, 45, Suspended Circus Acrobatics director:
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"We use art to overcome pain, right? I believe the body screams, it speaks, and through art, we can reframe these traumas and pains from all types of violence."
9. Circus group members posing together on Icarai Beach, Niteroi, highlighting the community's healing initiative
STORYLINE:
Performers twisted and twirled above the sand on a beach across the bay from Rio de Janeiro in an aerial circus show that sought to draw attention to the widespread problem of violence against women in Brazil.

Six women and two men performed the piece titled “Alone we are petals, together we are roses” for the first time on Saturday in Niteroi city with Rio’s famed landmarks — the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain — in the background.

At the beginning, a woman in a pink bodysuit and with an attitude struts around on stilts.

The male artists knock her to the ground. But the victim reappropriates her body by exploring its physical strength and gains courage from her connections with other women.

At the end, she returns on even higher stilts.

Juliana Berti Abduch created the Suspended Circus Acrobatics project in 2020.

The group’s first performance in 2023 focused on domestic violence.

She said the new piece isn’t a continuation of that show, but a way to keep addressing and fighting violence in its many forms.

Partaking in the project can be healing for the artists who have been subjected to gender-based violence, who arrive fearful and traumatized, according to Berti Abduch.

"We use art to overcome pain, right? I believe the body screams, it speaks, and through art, we can reframe these traumas and pains from all types of violence. Today, I understand that just being a woman means we are constantly subjected to violence." Berti Abduch said after her piece’s debut.

Approximately 100 people gathered to watch the performance, some of whom were passing by and stopped, intrigued by the visually striking sight involving aerial hoops, trapezes and silks, on a beach packed with people lifting weights and playing volleyball.
All forms of violence against women have increased since then.

AP Video shot by Mario Lobão

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