Pricing starts at $100/hr. for one teacher and $80/ hr. for each additional teacher or hour with discounts for class series and for classes taken at City Museum. A 1 to 10 teacher/student ratio is recommended.
Every class includes a warm-up which works on strength and flexibility. All circus skills benefit the developement of physical coordination and mental concentration. Tumbling and balancing improve body awareness and control. Partner acrobatics and pyramids require trust, cooperation and responsibility.
Clowning is a wonderful outlet for getting attention creatively and with a purpose. Mini-trampoline is an exciting and dynamic activity where the students get to feel the exhileration of flying in a safe, controlled way. Mastering trapeze (even at a low height) gives children a tremendous sense of special accomplishment as they experience their own abilities from a new perspective.
Being introduced to working with animals teaches children to realize that all animals have their own distinct personalities and ways of communicating. The experience of all these aspects of circus work will serve to enhance the children's sense of self, both in regards to control over themselves and in relating to others.
Also, circus is FUN!
Circus Day Foundation
Resident Teaching Artists
JESSICA HENTOFF (Circus Day’s Artistic/Executive Director) has been involved in circus arts since 1973. She has toured with numerous circuses throughout the United States and Canada performing as an aerialist, clown, juggler, bareback-rider, small animal trainer and fire-eater. Jessica has taught circus skills to children and adults of all ages and levels for over a quarter of a century (including deaf children, adolescents with Downs Syndrome and children of all labels---ADD, BD, LD, etc.). She has been privileged to coach and choreograph the St. Louis Arches since the group’s inception in 1989. Jessica was the director of the Circus Flora School in Missouri and co-director of the Berkshire Children’s Circus Camp in Massachusetts. She was a founding member of both the Big Apple Circus in NYC and Circus Flora in St. Louis.
Since 1992, Jessica has run everydaycircus, a family entertainment business based at City Museum in St. Louis. In 2001, Jessica started the Circus Day Foundation to maintain the youth circus troupe the St. Louis Arches and to further inspire individuals and connect communities through circus arts. She has been honored by Gitana Productions with the title “St. Louis Extraordinary/Ordinary Person of the Year for Deeds of Love Beyond Race” for the work she does using circus arts to bring multicultural communities together. She was the recipient of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association Heroes Award for her dedication to youth sports in the community. She is proud to serve on the advisory board of the American Youth Circus Organization and on Circus Fans Association’s Youth Circus Committee.
Circus Day's motto is “We teach the art of life through circus education.” Jessica'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, Far East Meets Midwest and Circus Harmony. These trademarks of the Circus Day Foundation are the embodiment of the organization's mission to help children "defy gravity, soar with confidence and leap over social barriers, all at the same time."
DONALD HUGHES (Lead Teacher) was one of the original St. Louis Arches and is now lead instructor for the Circus Day Foundation. Donald has toured throughout the United States with The Circus Kingdom and Circus Flora. As a performer, Donald was famous for his fantastic flips over Flora the elephant and daring dives through a hoop of fire. His skills include tumbling, juggling, unicycling, rolling globe, mini-trampoline, rolla bolla and bare-back riding. Donald also is an accomplished circus teacher and choreographer. He has taught at Center of Creative Arts’ urban and main campus programs, Edgewood Children’s Center, Prison Performing Arts, PAKT Community Center in Kinloch, Clayton School District, Collinsville Parks and Recreation Department, Webster University, St. Joseph’s Institute for the Deaf, Downtown Youth and Family Center, Circus Flora Community Camp and other venues. Donald has choreographed circus acts for children with a wide range of ages and abilities.
JOELLE PENDERGRASS (Aerial, Tumbling, Basic, Intermediate Circus Arts) is Circus Day Foundation's lead Aerial instructor. Her specialty is static Trapeze with an emphasis on choreography. Joelle's background includes competitive gymnastics, adagio (partner acrobatics), juggling, unicycling, pyramids, and dance. A fascination with the aerial arts began when she joined the Circus Day Foundation in 2002 as a tumbling instructor. She loved the freedom and scope for the imagination in circus arts. Joelle was intrigued by the fact that circus seemed to have plenty of room for extreme athletic abilities as well as artistic expression in almost any form imaginable. In 2003 Joelle began performing the aerial arts that she had learned through Circus Day Foundation. She now heads up the aerial program working with students of all ages and abilities. Come take a class and see what the aerial world is all about!
Guest Teaching Artists
SARIYA SAABYE (Tumbling and Acrobatics) is a four-time national tumbling champion and former member of the USSA acro and tumbling World Team. She has competed nationally with Arch Rivals water show-ski team. Sariya has choreographed and coached tumbling and sports acrobatics for the past 13 years and is also a certified personal trainer. She recently graduated from Maryville University with master’s degree in physical therapy.
MONICA NEWSAM (Dance and Aerial Silks) finished her primary and secondary education in her home country of Panama. She continued her studies at the National School of Dance and Folklore in Cuba where she choreographed and danced in several dance festivals. Monica traveled to India where she studied Indian Classical dance and yoga while teaching Spanish and classical ballet. She returned to Panama as a dance professor at the University of Panama. Recently, she has been living in Missouri and received a Masters Degree in education from Lindenwood University while serving as a ballet teacher and dancing with Mid-America Dance Co. She teaches Spanish at St. Clair High School. She also trained aerial dance in Panama with the Mexican circus “Hermanos Gaska”. She has performed aerial dance in Panama, Bahamas and Missouri. Last summer, she participated in the Aerial Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado.
WARREN BACON (Advanced acrobatics, wire, minitrampoline, aerial, equilibristics; risk management and rigging consultant) has over 30 years experience as an international aerialist performer and over 15 years of rigging management experience as the Rigging Supervisor at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida and with his own nationally recognized rigging firm. Warren’s interest in alternative circus organizations goes back to his own experience as a student at Florida State University, where, while pursuing a graduate degree he was introduced to the circus arts in a special program offered at that institution. Warren recognized the extraordinary task that youth circus organizations were trying to accomplish and was confronted by the real need to bring professional equipment to them. "Putting risk management techniques to work for these groups, and taking the message of making better, safer equipment available not to only professional circus but youth circus as well became my goal."
In the end, Warren's dream of someday teaching has been realized. "This is where it all started for me. I wanted to make a difference. I started my career in a youth circus and now I find myself, at the end of my career, imparting the dreams and skill I began with… Children learn to accept challenges gracefully. They learn to work in a team and acquire mental and physical discipline. It's all about self exploration and confidence." Warren was also Jessica Hentoff’s first circus teacher and aerial partner.
CARRIE HELLER (Aerial), M.S.W., CEO of the Circus Arts Institute, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker as well as a professional trapeze artist, an unusual but effective combination! Prior to her psychology and graduate social work training she was a choreographer and performer with over 20 years experience. Carrie has appeared on CNN; at the Georgia World Congress Center; Emory University; The Rayburn Congressional Center in Washington D.C.; and at other events across the country. She has lectured on her Circus Arts Therapy techniques at the World Congress on Child and Play Therapy in Toronto, Canada, at the American Youth Circus Organization Festival, and many other venues.
Carrie is the author of Aerial Circus Training and Safety Manual, a guide for teachers and students. Carrie is also the author of several other training manuals focusing on Circus Arts Therapy. Utilizing her manuals, Carrie conducts workshops for circus schools, gymnastics schools, camps and treatment centers, as well as individuals, families and groups throughout the country.
CARLO GENTILE (Foot Juggling, Chinese Poles, Rolla Bolla, Chinese Acrobatics) has been teaching circus arts to children and adults since 1994. He has performed with Circus Flora and toured with the Royal Lichtenstein Circus as a clown, juggler, unicyclist and diabolo artist. Carlo is a charter member of the American Youth Circus Organization.
Carlo has been teaching and directing circus programs for the past nine years. In 2002, Carlo and his wife Orlene founded Fool Time Circus, an ensemble of teachers/performing artists dedicated to building confidence and expanding life choices through recreational circus arts. Both are graduates of Santa Clara University and the San Francisco Circus Center's Clown Conservatory. They just returned from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China where they developed their foot juggling techniques. In 2004, they toured the Midwestern and Eastern USA with the Zoppé Family Circus. Currently, they reside in Los Angeles awaiting the birth of their first child.
LYNN POLKE (Hula hoops, Dance, Aerials, Character Development) Lynn Polk ran away and joined the circus after getting a Fine Arts degree from UW Milwaukee. The circus has provided her with the opportunity to travel and perform throughout the world, work in film and television, choreograph and teach others circus skills. She has worked with Ringling Bros., Big Apple Circus, Cirque du Soleil, LA Circus and many others as a dancer, aerialist, hula hoop spinner and elephant empress. She currently owns RTC Productions which mentors and manages performing artists, choreographs and produces shows.
