Since May 17, 2006
Circus Day Foundation Becomes Circus Harmony!
Click here to read why!
What’s New
- New Tumbling Times Newsletter! Winter 2009-10 Edition!
- Available as 1.5 MB PDF.
Circus Harmony on Facebook
Read the Latest Issue!
Watch the Peace Through Pyramids Project documentary trailers
Come see us!
Click on a shaded date to see where we are performing that day.
SUMMER 2010 CLASSES COMING SOON!
African Acrobat Abraham Adoka has arrived from Kenya!
Abraham on top of an African acrobatics style pyramid
Abraham will be an artist in residence with with Circus Harmony until May.
Special classes in African Acrobatics (for ages 5 and up, all levels) Start February 4.
This is the only place in the country where you can take classes in African acrobatics!
Demonstration this Saturday, Jan 9 at 1 and 3!
Circus Harmony at City Museum
701 N. 15th St.
St. Louis, MO 63033
314-436-7676
REGISTER NOW FOR WINTER/SPRING 2010 CLASSES!
CIRCUS HARMONY ESTEEM
St. Louis's Circus Harmony and Chicago's CircEsteem presented two days of alternating and combined shows at City Museum. It was a great weekend of skill sharing, friendship making and great circus as these two top social circus organizations made circus history.
In an Unprecedented, Unparalleled, Union of Unique, Uplifting Utilizations of Circus Arts, these two troupes presented a Sensational Series of Successful Shows both alternating and in combination, on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving 2009, in the third floor circus ring of City Museum.
Both groups are ‘social circus’ organizations meaning they use circus arts to help motivate social change.
Circus Harmony is an arts education, youth development organization that teaches the art of life through circus education. Through teaching and performance of circus skills, they help people defy gravity, soar with confidence, and leap over social barriers, all at the same time.
CircEsteem is a non profit youth circus whose mission is to unite youth from diverse racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds and help them build self-esteem and mutual respect through the practice of circus arts.
Together, these two youth circus troupes showed the Power of Possibility by focusing on what unites them instead of on their differences. To see lots of pictures and some fun video go to www.facebook.com/circusharmony.
For more information about CircEsteem, visit a href="www.circesteem.org" target="_blank">www.circesteem.org
Circus Harmony: Fermata a fabulous success
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See how the circus took care of business! Check out the program now available for download! Click here to download the 10.9 MB pdf. A story about kids of all ages coming together from disparate backgrounds to train and perform under the big top is sure to give you warm fuzzies. And if the members of Circus Harmony weren’t so gosh darn talented, their story could stand solely on its feel-good factor. But these kids are really good. Like, mouth-hanging-open, how-did-she-just-do-that good. Read more about what the media said about us. |
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High Fashion!
This month we were part of the Streetscape Fashion show at the Foundry Art Center in celebration of St. Charles Fashion week. Click here to watch the video montage.
Are you looking for exciting entertainment to spice up your holiday events? Think of using some performers from Circus Harmony--- we have tumblers, jugglers, aerialists and more. Just call us at 314-436-7676 to book!
Flying at the Big One!
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Come see your hometown heroes, St. Louis Arches and friends, as they perform with Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey as part of their pre-show Three Ring Adventure. Wednesday, Oct 15, ONLY at 6:30 at the ScoottTrade Center. We're also all going to the show see one of our favorite former Circus Harmony performers, the phenomenally flexible juggler, Book Kennison, who is one of their clowns! |
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Starting with our first project, Circus Salaam Shalom, where we brought together Jewish and Muslim children from St. Louis, part of the work of Circus Harmony has always been to be bridge to connect cultures and expand community. When we went to Israel in 2007 to start our Peace Through Pyramids project, we happened to meet a wonderful Kenyan acrobat named Abraham Adoka. Thanks to the help of Rachel Groneck at the Law Offices of Suzanne Brown we are thrilled to announce that Abraham will be joining us as an Artist in Residence starting in December! Watch for notices about special workshops in the art of African acrobatics!
See our latest act LIVE with Circus Flora now through June 21 or watch our Youtube video!
To view our Youtube channel please click here
Harmonious Congratulations to:
Renaldo "Junior" Williams for starting his studies at the Ecole National Du Cirque in Montreal!
Matt Viverito for 'landing' a spot in the flying trapeze troupe of Florida State University's Flying High Circus!
The St. Louis Arches for their great work at the American Youth Circus Festival in August!
The Circuses Come to Town!
Cirque Du Soleil’s Saltimbanco, Cirque Eloize, Cirque Dreams, Diavolo Dance Theater and Royal Hanneford Circus have all played here since January. We are thankful to all these shows for letting our students attend and be inspired. We also got to visit with performers from each of these shows. Best of all, our students were treated to master classes with performers from both Cirque Dreams and Diavolo Dance Theater. The Cirque Dreams visiting teachers were Mongolian and Russian circus performers who knew our own Rosa Yagaantsetseg and the Diavolo workshops were courtesy of the Edison Theater and its dynamo director, Charlie Robin. Thank you to all!
In addition, one of our students, contortionist Kyle Kaiser won the Cirque Dreams talent search and was featured in their show one night. He did a fantastic job!
This photo features our student, Meghan, with our contortion teacher, Rosa and one of the Cirque contortionists. Meghan is doing the difficult, classics contortion trick known at the Marinelli Bend.
GAMMA PHI
Fifteen of the fabulous, flying St. Louis Arches made their (now) annual trek to Illinois State University to be special guest performers with the Gamma Phi Circus. They performed in front of 6000 enthusiastic circus goers. The Arches also took a tour of the college and learned about scholarships that would be available to any of them who might want to attend. To top it off, they all got flying trapeze lessons with the legendary Tony Steele, who is still flying at 73 years old! Thanks to Gamma Phi head coach, Al Light, for arranging all this. Expect to see Arches in college there in the next few years!
CIRCUS HARMONY PERFORMERS AROUND TOWN
5 of the Arches performed at the Laumeier Art Fair
Although you can usually find them in our glass tent on the third floor of City Museum, our youth circus performers also perform for other special events. They were classic and fabulous when featured at the Kemp Auto Museum for the National Kidney Foundation fundraiser.
You can also find our young circus stars getting inspiration by visiting other shows. They were special guests with Cirque Eloize during that modern circus’ recent engagement at Lindenwood University. This month, you can also catch Circus Harmony students in the audience being inspired by Cirque Dreams at the Fabulous Fox, Diavolo Dance Theater at the Edison Theater and the Royal Hanneford Shrine Circus at the St. Charles Family Arena. We thank all of these institutions and organizations for graciously allowing our aspiring performers to attend their shows. Our students are excitedly looking forward to special workshops with performers from each of these groups, as well.
Our students with Cirque Eloize
DULUTH TRADING features our director!
http://www.duluthtrading.com/features/bigtop.aspx
Jessica really wears and recommends their clothes because they are tough, stretchy and have lots of pockets!
Back from my wonderful trip to the Monte Carlo Circus Festival where I made a presentation on Social Circus to 60 members at a joint symposium of the World Circus Federation and European Circus Association at the invitation of Laura Van Der Meer. The subject of the symposium was Circus: Culture for the Millions. I talked about how circus education is a way to use circus arts to reach at least a million more! I talked about our work in general and specifically about our collaboration with the Jewish/Arab Galilee Circus youth troupe. In addition to slides of our students, I also showed the 4 minute trailer from the documentary that is being made about the collaboration (you can see it at www.circuskids.tv). On the topic of social circus, I shared the dais with Michel LaFortune from Cirque Du Soliel's Cirque Du Monde program. There were also presentations on animal rights legislation around the world, creativity and innovation in circus, and preserving circus historical items. Playmobil had its new circus sets on display. It was an honor to be included in this confluence of circus interests.
We have been getting some great press recently! (Thank you Insight Marketing.) If you have a moment, please check out the following stories:
Article about Circus Harmony Center and upcoming show:
http://www.stlbeacon.org/theaterdance/circus_harmony_brings_kids_together
Article about our octogenarian trapeze artist:
http://www.stlbeacon.org/theaterdance/bunny_herring_still_flies_on_the_trapeze_after_80
Article about our upcoming show and Monte Carlo presentation:
http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2009/01/13/west/news/0114wcj-circuslady000.txt
AP story about our work (this article appeared in papers around the world):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28598880/
ST. LOUIS -- December 1, 2008 -- Jessica Hentoff is receiving two special honors in early 2009. The Arts & Education Council of St. Louis has named her Arts Innovator of the Year and the World Circus Federation has invited her to address the joint symposium of the World Circus Federation and the European Circus Association on the topic of Social Circus. The term Social Circus refers to using circus arts as a way to motivate social change. Jessica Hentoff is one of the leading American proponents of this social art form. In her 20 years of being a social artist in St. Louis, Hentoff has used circus arts to inspire individual and connect communities.
The international symposium takes place during the annual Monte Carlo Circus Festival in Monaco which is the global circus community's most important event. The festival and World Circus Federation were created by the late Prince Rainier III of Monaco and are now under the patronage of his daughter Princess Stephanie. The Federation's goal is to preserve and promote circus arts and culture around the world. The Monte Carlo Circus Festival has been held annually since 1975. Hentoff's presentation is scheduled on Friday, January 16, 2009.
The Arts & Education Council's St. Louis Arts Innovator Award will be presented to Hentoff in St. Louis on January 26, 2009. The awards honor groups and individuals who help preserve a legacy of artistic excellence and enrich St. Louis' cultural community.
Hentoff is founder of Circus Day Foundation/Circus Harmony-- St. Louis’ only circus school-- and of everydaycircus, the entertainment agency that books circus acts for regional events. Jessica Hentoff and her "flying" children, the St. Louis Arches youth circus troupe, are familiar to attendees of the circus at City Museum, Circus Flora and numerous St. Louis area festivals and events.
Circus Lady Hentoff's remarkable vision and use of circus arts to build character and community has brought about ground-breaking and bridge-building programs like Circus Salaam Shalom (with local Jewish and Muslim children) and Far East Meets Midwest (combining Asian and Midwestern arts and artists).
For the past two year, Hentoff's work has gone international with Peace through Pyramids, an inspirational collaboration between the St. Louis Arches and the Galilee Circus, a Jewish/Arab youth circus in northern Israel. A documentary film is being made about this remarkable Social Circus project. Click on www.circuskids.tv to view excerpts from the film. The concept of Peace through Pyramids is what has earned the Circus Lady the appellation of St. Louis Arts Innovator and the invitation to address the combined World Circus Federation and European Circus Association in Monte Carlo.
Peace through Pyramids is the embodiment of Jessica the Circus Lady’s mission to help children "defy gravity, soar with confidence and leap over social barriers, all at the same time."
To see this work in action, check out www.circuskids.tv and watch the trailers for the documentary being made about our inspirational Israeli collaboration!
18 of Circus Day's talented youth circus performers did a great job performing at Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus on their opening night!!! They got a lot of compliments from the performers and staff at the show. For two of our students, Melvin and Mysteria it was their very first show with us. What a thrill to say you made your debut at Ringing Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus!!
For more pictures of this performance, visit http://photojoe.lifepics.com/net/Pro/Default.aspx
Thank you to Universoul Circus, Cedric Walker, Manuel Ruffin and the cast and crew of Universoul Circus for having us as their guests at their recent appearance in St. Louis. What a great show!
To visit the website of Universoul Circus, please go to www.universoulcircus.com
Special thanks to Wandi Mtshula and Ricardo Sosa for coming and working with our students!
Final Peace through Pyramids – Credit: Chris Mrozewski
The Israelis Came!
The Galilee Arches Reunited
Galilee Circus: Troupe of Israeli children from Jewish and Arab villages
St. Louis Arches: Troupe of American children from different St. Louis neighborhoods
Galilee Arches: International troupe of American and Israeli children of diverse backgrounds
Last summer the combined troupe toured throughout Israel and performed for thousands of people.This summer the Israeli toupe came to America!
July 30 - Aug 13, 2008
We can still use your support!
Donate online via SSL from here.
Click Here for full-sized flyer.
Read the Galilee Arches Press Release.
READ, SEE AND HEAR ALL ABOUT THE GALILEE ARCHES' AMAZING TIME IN ST. LOUIS:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Jewish Light
Second St. Louis Jewish Light Article
St. Louis Beacon
Riverfront Times
KSDK/NBC TV
KWMU/NPR
Online videos!
Galilee Arches' videos are starting to go up at http://www.culturesurfer.com/ (currently on the main page but also available by going to More Videos and then Sports). More will be put up each week.
Galilee Arches on HECTV's State of the Arts! Click here to view the video. The coverage of the Galilee Arches starts at about 0:25 on the video.
Read the Israeli blog:
To read the text in English: http://www.eng.makom-bagalil.org.il/10625/
To see the wonderful photos, to go to the Hebrew side, then click on dates at bottom on the right: http://www.makom-bagalil.org.il/10624/
We are especially grateful to:
City Museum for giving our circus a home.
The Original Soupman for taking such good gastronomic care of the flying children!
The Anti-Defamation League for recognizing how circus children can make “a world of difference.”
We would like to thank the following for their generosity in supporting our Peace through Pyramids project.
We'd also like to thank:
Staenberg Family Foundation, Ruth Siteman, Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, Susan Latorre, Sally Sloan and Tom Hentoff, Mary Strauss, Giovanna and Bob Cassily, Bob Knipfer, John and Cindy Wallach, Stein-Sharpe Family, Cyndy and Laurence Hillman, Harold and Karen Karabell, Margot Hentoff, Bert and Janet Krauss, Don Stueck, Rick Erwin, Carlo and Orlene Gentile and Family, Erb Industries, Karen Schellin, Diane Kline, Global Foods, Pepose/Feigenbaum Family, Harold Hoffman, Diane Ranken, Cate Ponder, Glazier-Snow Family, Greene Family, Callanan Family
New Video Links
New Arches Act Performed at City Museum 2008.
Arches Perform at Circus Flora 2008.
Arches Perform at Circus Flora 2007
Circus Harmony 2005 Special from KETC Channel 9 (PBS)
Culture Surfer Video Collections (Go to Other Video, Sports, and then click on Circus Harmony or Galilee Arches.)
- Circus Day Foundation is a proud founding member of Interchange, the new arts education integration program. Learn more at: www.interchangestlouis.org.
- Buy juggling equipment from Dube to support Circus Day Foundation.
- Use This Link
We Gratefully Acknowledge Our Funders:
Circus Harmony | 4120 Parker Road | Florissant, MO 63033 | 314-436-7676 | circusday@everydaycircus.net