They
Float Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease
There
once was a day, perhaps not so long past, when every kid
at some point entertained a dream of running away and joining
the circus. Thrills and glory would await them there as they
climb to the distant pinnacle near the highest peak of the
Big Top and fly through the air on a swinging trapeze.
Greylin Nielsen '14 performs on the aerial hoop. |
Teenaged Greylin Nielsen
(on far right) with Circus Smirkus, circa 2008. |
That dream, for many kids, is
still alive and well, and thanks to Circus Smirkus, a training
and touring circus company in Greensboro, Vt., many kids
experience the circus life—without having to run
away.
For Greylin Nielsen ’14, a Circus Smirkus performer
for five years, from 8th grade through her senior year in
high school, the experience gave her skills that will last
a lifetime.
“Circus Smirkus is such a unique experience,” says Nielsen, who traveled around
New England each summer as a performer in the company’s Big Top Tour. “It teaches
group cohesion and self-confidence. It really develops the whole child.”
Nielsen will be among Circus
Smirkus performers featured in Circus
Dreams, an award-winning
film that documents a year around the organization, which
will be screened at the Academy of Music on Sunday, Feb.
19, as part of the Northampton Arts Council’s Four Sundays in February series.
The film will be preceded by
performances by Circus Smirkus clowns, aerialists and others.
The event, which is sponsored by Smith College, begins at
2 p.m.
Nielsen, who is from Temple,
N.H., had had a taste of circus performance beginning in
fifth grade with the Hilltop Circus, a small company associated
with her school. She and her younger brother were introduced
to aerial acts such as trapeze, aerial hoop and tight wire. “I
thought, ‘This is really cool, I can walk across a tight
wire,'” she says. “It
captured my interest and kept it.”
After auditioning for Circus
Smirkus, Nielsen quickly set to work training for performance
on tight wire, trapeze, “pretty
much anything that was airborne.”
It didn’t take long before Nielsen found herself flying through
the air. “I got
to be thrown around a lot,” she recalls. “They like to try
things with little people.”
Circus Smirkus has hosted and
trained kids, ages 10 to 18, in a range of circus performing
skills at its summer camps and school programs for the past
25 years.
Addison MacDonald, manager of
the Smith College Conference Center and a fellow former Circus
Smirkus performer, agrees with Nielsen that the childhood
circus experience was transformative.
“At the age of 10, I was spending my summers with performers from across the
world out of a farmhouse in northern Vermont,” he describes. “The
experience really taught me to be adaptable to both people
and situations.”
 Unlike Nielsen, MacDonald remained
mostly on the ground during his four years with Circus Smirkus,
from age 10 to 14. “I
opened each show as a rapping clown, which still humiliates
me to this day,” he says. “Later I was trained in juggling,
acrobatics and magic. Being a clown was my strength.”
Though their tenures with Circus
Smirkus were separated by a couple decades, both Nielsen
and MacDonald developed friendships there that have been
with them since.
“I’ve gained an amazing network of friends from Circus Smirkus,” says Addison. “I’ve
been to Europe and South America to watch and perform with
friends I met during my summers at Smirkus.”
For Nielsen, a biology major,
the circus life continues into her life at Smith. She trains
and teaches other performers in circus arts at Show Circus
Studio in Easthampton, and she’s attempting to start a Circus Club at Smith, called
the Bearded Ladies.
“There are a lot of people who want to do circus,” she says. “Circus is on
the rise.”
As Nielsen remembers it, the
year the film Circus Dreams was being shot was one of high
stress. It was 2006 and the company was on the verge of financial
collapse, unsure if it would open its doors again the next
season.
Circus Smirkus obtained the
funding needed to open for another season and has continued
growing since.
“It’s nice to go back and watch the documentary now,” says Nielsen, “but it’s
humbling to see that part of my life captured forever—my
ignorant adolescence.”
Tickets for the Circus Dreams
screening and circus show (in advance: $8 for adults, $5
for kids under 16; at the door for $10 adults, $5 for kids
under 16) are available online and at local businesses, or
by calling Northampton Arts Council, 413-587-1069. |
