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News About Circus Harmony's Flying Children
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| For Immediate Release! Contact: Jessica Hentoff: 314-226-3633 |
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30th ANNIVERSARY OF CIRCUS FLORA
Jessica Hentoff with Kathie Hoyer, David Balding, and Cecil Mackinnon , Circus Flora 1986
You only have one last week to catch our fabulous, flying St. Louis Arches in the 30th anniversary production of Circus Flora! Above are photos from 1986 when our director, Jessica Hentoff, was one of the founding members of the show! Look for her in the Big Juggle at the end of the show. Also, look for Arch alums Claire Wallenda-Zoppe and Si
dney Iking in the current show! Get your tickets at
www.circusflora.org
St. Louis Arches , Circus Flora 2016
Claire Kuciejczyk-Kernan Wallenda-Zoppé with The Flying Wallendas, Circus Flora, 2016
Sidney Iking Bateman, Circus Flora 2016
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CIRCUS HARMONY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
BENEFIT!
This is the easiest fund-raiser ever! Just buy tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's Ovo through us for our special benefit night on Wednesday, August 3rd, using
this link
and
the money will go to support our Circus Harmony Flying Children Scholarship Fund! Please spread the word, bring your friends and family! Just by going to see a great show, you will help a deserving child defy gravity and other limitations! There are limited number of seats available to benefit Circus Harmony. Please buy yours
NOW
! Out of town? Buy a ticket and we will donate it to a deserving student!
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CATCH OUR FLYING ALUMNI !
Elliana Grace will be performing with Flubber and Friends as Ella the clown at Al Ain Mall
mall in the city of Al Ain in Dubai for the next two weeks!
Keaton Hentoff-Killian is heading to Australia to tour Australia, New Zealand and Europe with the contemporary circus company,
Circa, for two years!
Sidney 'Iking' Bateman and Melvin Diggs start the American tour of
Les7 Doigts de la Main's
on July 12!
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THE ISRAELIS ARE COMING!
The next chapter of our Peace Through Pyramids partnership with the Jewish/Arab Galilee Circus from Israel will take place in St. Louis from August 2-15! We are looking for people interested in:
- booking the combined St. Louis Arches & Galilee Circus
- donating food for the flying children
- providing activities for the combined troupes
Call 314-436-7676 if you can help with any of the above! Follow us on social media to see where you can catch this heart-warming, history-making partnership!
In related news, we would like to congratulate Cynthia Levinson, the author of
the
book about this partnership, on winning the International Literacy Association's Social Justice Award for non-fiction!
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COME FLY IN CHESTERFIELD!
We are up and flying at our new location in Chesterfield behind the Chesterfield Athletic Club and the Doubletree Hotel. Come fly n
ext weekend, Saturday or Sunday, July 2nd or 3rd, and get our Independence Day Weekend Special of 25% off by calling 314-504-4298 and say the word "fireworks' when you book your flight!
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CIRCUS SUMMER CAMPS & ADULT CLASSES
Summer camps and classes for children and adults are in full swing. Check out
Circus Harmony summer opp
ortunities and run away and join this circus where you can still be home in time for dinner!
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WHAT THEY TAKE WITH THEM
Circus is family. That has always been a perception: that you had to be born into a circus family to join the circus. That is one truth but it is also true that circus itself is a family. I started my own circus family and am now the mother of three biological children who are all circus performers. But I also started a much larger circus family called Circus Harmony. When I first founded the St. Louis Arches youth circus troupe in 1989, I had no idea that little troupe of ten would grow into a full circus school where hundreds of children have learned focus, persistence and teamwork while they trained to flip, fly and fling. They also learned that truth I learned when I first joined the circus: Circus is family.
Family are the people who care about you and take care of you. If you ask Circus Harmony students about being in the circus, they will almost all talk about it being a family. On Friday, June 4, 2016, we had a reunion of people who had been members of the St. Louis Arches from as far back as 1989! They brought their children, some brought their mothers. They all brought their memories of being part of the circus family and how much it meant to them and shaped them as the adults they are now. One posted on Facebook: "This place (the circus) made me a very interesting person! I learned and grew with people from different lives! Remembering when you were part of something great.. best years of my life."
Keaton Hentoff-Killian is a Circus Harmony alumnus who is also my now 21 year old, acrobatic, wire-walking biological son. I have been watching Keaton perform since he insisted on crawling into the ring with the St. Louis Arches as a very small child. I've watched him in hundreds of Circus Harmony shows, numerous Circus Flora shows- including the one where he was the lead character at both the St. Louis Symphony and tented productions. This April, I watched his final exam act on tight wire for Ecole Nationale de Cirque (ENC) in Montreal with tears in my eyes. (You can see it
here
.) The poignant performance piece was about mothers and sons and life chapters. It was about leaving. For the entire act, he stayed on the wire and never went back to the platform.
This month, June, I went to the ENC graduation show. There is a photograph of him from this show where he is standing on the platform of the wire, with suitcase in hand, looking off into the distance. He looks older, somehow. For the show, the director had him grow a beard. But that's not it. There is something about his presence in this show. A self-assuredness. A self-possession. It's not that Keaton ever looked like he lacked self-confidence in the ring, quite the contrary. But now there is a maturity, a deep awareness that grounds him even as he nimbly balances and leaps on his wire.
I have been coming to ENC for several years now. Keaton is the fifth Circus Harmony student to attend this Harvard of circus schools and his brother, my youngest biological, has two years more to go here. The staff knows me. They speak highly of Keaton. They congratulate me on Keaton's graduation and upcoming contract. They ask how other graduates are doing. Previous conversations have talked about the skills of our students. For some reason, several conversations this time talk about the respect our students show.
In July, Keaton heads to the other side of the planet for a two year contract with the renowned contemporary circus company,
Circa, touring Australia, New Zealand and Europe. He is the first of Circus Harmony's students to be booked with them. Like all our students since I started teaching in St. Louis over thirty years ago, he stands on the shoulders of those who went before him. As part of the ever-evolving art form of circus, he stands on shoulders that go back to cave paintings in ancient Crete and hieroglyphics in Egypt. That is why respect is such an important character trait to carry. No performer gets where they are alone.
Last summer, Keaton performed for Cirque du Soleil at the Pan Am games where he also had a scene where he stood with a suitcase. As a graduation gift, I just bought him his own first real set of luggage. As he embarks on this next big chapter in his life's journey, as he goes off on his own to join a faraway branch of the circus family on the other side of the earth, I know he carries the tools he will need: courage, creativity, cooperation, kindness, integrity and respect. He is stepping off the platform for the great balancing act that he has chosen as his life. He goes with my love and with my respect, as my son, as a performer and as a young man.
Jessica Hentoff
June 2016
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YOU CAN SUPPORT THE FLYING CHILDREN OF CIRCUS HARMONY
- Go to: http://circusharmony.org/support/ and make a donation
- Sign up for classes (for all ages--- join Juggling Club as a family, try our new Circus Strength class for adults)
- Follow our blog
- Check our schedule and catch some of our flying children and young adults
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Invite our director, Jessica Hentoff, to come and speak
to your organization about Circus Harmony
Your donation helps one of our over 600 children directly and it also inspires the over 80,000 people who see our shows and the St. Louis communities where our children live.
You can also send a donation to us at :
Circus Harmony
4120 Parker Rd. Florissant, MO 63033
Thank you from,
Everyone at Circus Harmony
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To keep up with the latest news on where to catch the flyng children,
special offers and awesome opportunities,
we hope you:
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OUR MISSION
Circus Harmony teaches the art of life through circus education. We work to build character and expand community for youth of all ages, cultures, abilities and backgrounds. Through the teaching and performing of circus arts, we help people defy gravity, soar with confidence, and leap over social barriers, all at the same time. |
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OUR SPONSORS
We are very grateful for the support of the City Museum, Regional Arts Commission, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Missouri Arts Council, Jewish Federation of St. Louis, Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, Boeing Employee Community Fund, Wells Fargo Advisors, Edward Jones, Cardinals Care, Arts & Education Council of St. Louis, Greater St. Louis Community Foundation, DCA Family Foundation,
Lubin Green Foundation,Staenberg Family Foundation, Kranzberg Family Foundation, Saigh Foundation, Build-A-Bear Foundation, Macy's Foundation, Bommarito Automotive Group, Simon Foundation, Big Shark Bicycle Works, Goudurix, Cirque Du Soleil, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey, American Youth Circus Organization, Brentwood Minuteman Press, Stahl & Ponder, Circus Fans of America, Circus4Youth and people like you!
PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FLYING CHILDREN:
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