TRUST

 

There is another circus organization in St. Louis. Circus Harmony has trained children and teens to perform gymnastics and circus acts, with performances around the world. One of the things they learn is reliance on their teammates. This may be what they call a leap of faith.                               

JUST KIDS!

There is an organization affiliated with Circus Flora called Circus Harmony, https://circusharmony.org/, that teaches children and teens from our area the arts of acrobatics, tumbling and juggling. They are always part of the main circus performance and the skills are amazing. When I was about that age my best physical accomplishment was riding a bicycle, or maybe the subway.              

THE SHOW COMES LATER

One of the reasons to visit the City Museum is its little circus troupe, Circus Harmony, https://circusharmony.org/. It is not a circus in terms of clowns and animals. The organization recruits young people from every part of society and teaches them juggling, gymnastics and aerialist skills. They have a performance space in the center of the building, simple step seats on one side (background) and glass walls on the other for passers-by to watch. A group of young women was practicing when we were there. She looks determined even behind the mask.       

I'D SMILE, TOO

More from the Circus Flora mini-performance at the City Museum. This young man hurled himself backward through what is the middle ring in this shot, hard enough. Then he added the top ring, making the stack taller than he was. He never touched the edge of the ring and deserved an ovation.

Sorry for no post yesterday.Too much work.          

Under The Little Top

 

The City Museum contains rehearsal space for Circus Harmony, an organization that trains young people in the skills of that performing tradition. Kids who might otherwise be on the street work vary hard and learn to do amazing things. Some of the members show their stuff at the museum on weekends.

I don't understand how anybody can do this stuff since, for starters,I am not well coordinated and have zero athletic talent. But he sure has it. Four balls in the air (and another in his right hand)? Amazing.           

Balancing Act

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More from Circus Harmony's show at the City Museum. The young women cantilevered from the ring in the top picture are the daughters of the director, Jessica Hentoff (I'm sorry I don't recall their first names. Jessica, send me a note and I'll fix this.) This is the pair in the spotlight from my post on New Years Day. Below, the whole St. Louis Arches troupe lines up for inspection with Abraham Adoka topping the pile.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series. A cold one.

HEY, BY THE WAY, I keep forgetting to mention that I finally finished the selection and editing of the pix from our trip to Nepal and Tibet last September. I took something like five or six thousand snaps in two and a half weeks and got them culled down to a manageable number. All shot in RAW and buffed up in Photoshop. If you would like to see them, click here.

Run Away With The Circus. Stay Home.

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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.