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NYC Youth Circus Programs in the News
Posted August 16, 2010
Note: This article appeared in today's Wall Street Journal in print and online. For the full article, with photos, see here.
By Joy Resmovits
On a rainy afternoon in Westchester County, Lindsey Steeg, snug in a safety harness, climbs 28 feet into the air, toes the platform, grabs the trapeze and goes flying.
"Not many of my friends can do this," the 9-year-old said.
For hundreds of children like Lindsey across Greater New York, the circus has come to town for the summer. The arts of the aerialist, the juggler and the clown are becoming the summer-camp and after-school activities of choice for those tired of team sports and capture the flag.
"There are thousands of youth across America studying circus like people study soccer," said Zoë Brookes, executive director of the American Youth Circus Organization. "It's a way to get off the street, to build self-esteem. There's a lot more of it going on than people realize."
She estimates that of the nation's 8,000 kids who belong to the organizations that comprise AYCO, 1,000 are based in this area.
At Circus Arts Camp's aerial arts week in Hartsdale, where Lindsey flew through the air with the greatest of ease, the kids learned the gravity-defying mysteries of the hammock, Spanish web, silk, trampoline, trapeze, and human pyramids. Earlier in the summer, the camp held three two-week general-circus sessions that taught unicycling, balancing, juggling, high-wire walking and clowning.
For parents, sending their kids to join the circus—for a few hours a day, or a few weeks a summe—appeals because it enables intense physical activity without the stress or drama of a team sport, like those favored by Lindsey's twin brother Ryan.
"It's nice because Lindsey's a twin, so it's hard not to be competitive," said Stacey Steeg, Lindsey's mother. "She's a sporty kid, but not into team sports."
Youth circus has grown over the last 25 years, said Greg Milstein, the executive director of Long Island-based National Circus Project, a group that has conducted more than 50,000 workshops. "In 1984, the idea of youth circus virtually didn't exist," he said. "We had to work very hard to convince people that circus was educational. It was all team sports then."
Now, he says, "there's a resurgence of the artistry that is circus." Youth circus backers credit everything from the popularity of Cirque du Soleil to the circus-inspired tricks on shows like "America's Got Talent."
In New York, youth circus programs abound. Long Lake Camp for the Arts in Dobbs Ferry has a circus program that culminates in a three-ring performance. Jill Maglio offers circus-themed programs to at-risk children in the Bronx. New York Circus Arts in Long Island City offers about 50 different courses. The New York City-based Bindlestiff Family Cirkus puts on the Cavalcade of Youth.
Circus Minimus travels, and offers "the Circus Kids Create," a program that ends in a show where "every kid can shine," said artistic director Kevin O'Keefe. Mr. O'Keefe, an actor turned circus man, has put on circuses for up to 500 kids at a time in schools and community centers.
"In circus, you can shine as an individual," said Chris Glover, co-director of the Circus Arts Camp in Westchester. A two-week session costs $1,150 and Aerial Arts Week costs $800 for a single week.
The program speaks to the ambitions of Jacob Roshkow, who, at age 10, has his life all planned out: He wants to be an actor and have a fashion line called "J by Jake." The introduction of aerial arts, he said, could inspire the dancing in music videos he plans to make. "I've seen a circus but never thought I'd be in one," he said, before jumping on a trampoline.
Likewise, Nia Soto, 9, wants to be a contortionist. To demonstrate those skills, she put her legs over her head before doing a split mid-air on the trapeze.
And the parents get a kick out of it too. Elaine Sinacore and her husband, Paul, taped their daughter Carole swinging through the air. "My friends think it's exotic," Elaine said. "I don't think it was available when I was younger."
Does it encourage that oft-feared possibility of running off and joining the circus? "She can do that, as long as she's happy," Elaine Sinacore said. "And as long as it supports me in my old age."
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