Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Run Away With The Circus. Stay Home.

.
Regular readers may recall that I had a post on New Year's Day about our First Night festivities and particularly the troupe of young acrobats known as the St. Louis Arches. A couple of days later, I got an email from Jessica Hentoff, the artistic and executive director of Circus Harmony, the school and performance group that teaches "the art of life through circus education." There's a circus school in St. Louis! Jessica invited me to one of their rehearsals and shows at the wacky City Museum to meet the people and take some shots.

This was some kind of fun. Most of the students are children and teens, although Jessica told me they had a student in her 80s. The big star of the moment is Abraham Adoka of Kenya, an acrobat, fire eater and extreme limbo performer. He will be artist in residence with Circus Harmony until May. So at this time St. Louis is the only place in the country where you can learn African acrobatics. This guy is stunning. There is a feature about him in a local newspaper here.

I'm looking forward to shooting Circus Harmony's performers again. Come back for a few more circus tricks tomorrow.

11 comments:

Leif Hagen said...

I wonder if he ever gets a sore throat?!

Olivier said...

c'est toujours impressionnant a voir les cracheurs de feux.

Stefan Jansson said...

That was a good move from Jessica. Very impressive work Abraham and from the photographer!

Luis Gomez said...

Bob, this is such a wonderful work you have done. I have enjoyed all of this series of images.

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

Heh, is the title like opposing voices in your head?

Very cool stuff, pops. #1 is such an excellent portrait.

Bob Crowe said...

What I meant by the title is that with a circus school here you can, in effect, run away with the circus without having to leave home. Maybe that could have been clearer.

brattcat said...

I'll run away to the circus with you any day! Especially this circus!

Kate said...

Love the broad smile and image of energy in your photos. What fun it must have been to have been there. Thanks for visiting my blog this morning!

Chuck Pefley said...

Cool! By the way, there is a circus school in Seattle, as well. My wife knows one of the principals. I'll have to check that out myself one day soon. Don't know about any fire-eaters here, though. Think I'll stick to salsa, and mild at that.

Louis la Vache said...

A fire eater! «Louis» doesn't understand how anyone could try that! Talk about heartburn!

«Louis» pauses this comment to go fetch some Tums..

Pat said...

Oh, what fun. I am fascinated by fire throwers/swallowers or whatever, and in my next life I'd like to be a circus performer...which one, I do not know.