Spirit Riders to Perform at Circus
Katya |
Circus Flora, the one ring, European-style circus that will be performing on Nantucket this Saturday and Sunday, believes a part of its mission is to preserve circus heritage and its traditions. With that in mind, the St. Louis-based organization has extended a hand back to the next generation of circus performers by featuring two youth acts in this year’s show.
The St. Louis Arches and the Ianna Spirit Riders both come from the St. Louis-based Circus Day Foundation, a year round circus school located at the City Museum. The Circus Day Foundation teaches children from many different backgrounds and uses the circus arts as a way to motivate social change. The foundation encourages the development of skills in persistence, focus, tolerance and team work the Circus Day Foundation
“Perhaps the most important experience we give our participants is the opportunity to meet and interact with children from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds than their own. We don't just work with "at-risk" kids or just offer classes to "well-off" kids. We purposefully bring all these children together, give them a common language (circus) and a common goal (a show). When the people working together are from different backgrounds, everyone’s sense of community is expanded,” said executive director Jessica Hentoff.
“When they first start working with us, many of these young people cannot even look a grown-up in the eye. Through our circus programs, they can stand in front of a crowd of over 200 people with heads held high. Some of them have never met a Jewish child, or had a friend who was poor or rich or of a different race. Now, they each know a variety of children from diverse backgrounds,” she added.
This is the fourth year the Nantucket Atheneum, the island’s public library, has presented Circus Flora. Shows are scheduled for Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29 with show times at 3 p.m. and at 7 p.m. In addition, there will be a Family Barbecue from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 28 (tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for children), and an Opening Night Gala on Friday, July 27 at the Big Top, that includes a cocktail reception, dinner, preview performance followed by dessert and dancing to Entrain (tickets are $1,000 for the full gala or $200 for the preview, dessert, and dancing) .
Scheduled for the Nantucket show, The Ianna Spirit Riders are currently the only youth circus bareback riding act in America. This act features youth circus performers from the Circus Day Foundation trained and choreographed by Jennifer Buck from Therapeutic Horsemanship. The Spirit Riders were born from a unique collaboration between Circus Flora, The Circus Day Foundation, and Therapeutic Horsemanship to keep alive the fine art of acrobatics on horseback.
The Nantucket show also features Dondi, an 8,000 pound Asian elephant as well as return favorites Nino the Clown, Yo-Yo, the show’s narrator, The Flying Wallendas on the tightrope and The Flying Pages on trapeze. For details visit www.nantucketatheneum.org.
Circus tickets cost $35 for adults, $15 for children and $75 for box seats. They may be purchased online at www.nantucketatheneum.org or Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the library’s box office, located in the garden at 1 India Street
