Good Morning, Saratoga Springs!
It’s a glorious day for a circus! We’re pretty proud of our 25th anniversary, but The Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs has outdone us, with a 30th anniversary this year. That’s 30 years of inspiring a life-long love of learning, of cultivating academic knowledge, artistic work, and practical skills. Part of the celebration is to bring Circus Smirkus back for the sixth summer in a row. We’ll be performing four shows today and tomorrow, under the Big Top at the Saratoga Race Course. From the school’s website: “The Waldorf Schools recognize the simple but profound insight that children learn in…
Movements
During our shows the Big Top becomes the center of the Smirkus universe. People are constantly coming and going. Staff and crew pop in and out, catching acts as they are able. Audience members cart off fussy babies, or those in need of a diaper change. If I’m not running around taking pictures, I go and draft the day’s thoughts in shorthand under the dining tent where there is always shade and coffee. While the shade is always welcome, the coffee is deeply troubling, considering my caffeine dependency. The Essex Fairgrounds, where Smirkus performed six shows from Thursday through Saturday…
The View From Trailer-ville
A circus “jumps “ (travels to a new location) many times over the course of a tour, and it always lands on its feet. Business continues as usual. Yesterday the troupers worked through their notes and warm-ups with their usual intensity and focus and I wandered off for a much-needed shower and shave. I had just was walking back from the concrete shower house across pavement hot enough to cook an egg, when I noticed that I’ve been on tour long enough for the days to start to run together. It’s taken a number of adjustments, but I’m getting the…
“…That our (tent) was still there”
Louka noticed the storm first. It was the Fourth of July and volunteer home-stay families had picked up the troupers that afternoon. The weather was brutally hot and the entire staff gathered in our tidy tent village to lounge in whatever shade was a available and read the New York Post, paperback novels, and old issues of National Geographic. When we gathered for dinner at six, clouds the color of slate and the size of warships building over distant Lake Champlain. As the minutes wore on, they began to march towards us and it was then that our costume designer’s…
Smirkus @ Champlain Valley Expo
We’ve hit the road! We’ve completed our first “jump”* of the season, and are ready for packed shows here in Essex, VT today, tomorrow & Sunday! Our new but temporary “home” is the Champlain Valley Expo, “Vermont’s Community Events Facility.” Formed as a non-profit in 1922, this organization’s mission is to promote agriculture, education, commerce, arts and culture in Vermont, and it does so by hosting dozens of events: the Vermont Quilt Festival, the Champlain Valley Fair, and concerts by performers including the likes of Justin Bieber and Peter Frampton. Life in Vermont would be very different without CVE. Circus…
Happy July 4th!
Time To Reflect: A Note From The Executive Director
“Topsy Turvy Time Travel” is the perfect theme for a youth circus celebrating its silver anniversary. This year we traveled back in time, researching our book “Circus Smirkus: 25 Years of Running Home to the Circus.” Director Signe Taylor turned back the clock to 2006 with the release of the award-winning “Circus Dreams” documentary. Our cultural exchange with Cuba’s Escuela Nacional de Circo both recalled historic alliances with the Moscow Circus and opened the door to a rich future of international friendships and skills exchange. With one foot in the past and one in the future, this year seemed so…
And So It Begins…
From the minute I stepped outside of my trailer at 7:20 a.m., yesterday felt different. People were moving with a greater sense of purpose and direction and the troupers were all sleepy smiles. Even at breakfast there was a definite tension. Troy walked into the “pie car” (circus-ese for “cook trailer”) with his breakfast and hollered “GOOD MORNING! SHOW DAY!” The pie car erupted into cheers. I took another gulp of my coffee, feeling myself begin to hurry. It’s opening day I watched a quick re-blocking of a scene at the Big Top and then I walked back up to…
Ready, Set, Go!
Yesterday was the last day of preparations for today’s opening. Down the driveway from where the troupers tumbled and sprang through a full dress rehearsal under the chapiteau (French for “Big Top” and a word adopted by circuses worldwide), I busied myself at the computer keyboard sitting at a long wooden table in what is the upstairs bedroom of a farmhouse now converted into an office. This is the nerve center of Circus Smirkus. It is important to clarify that this is not where the magic happens – that’s in the ring, under the tent – but the red farmhouse…
Sunset over Smirkus
The weather finally cleared in the afternoon and the view at sunset was beautiful. The troupers made tie-dyed t-shirts out on the grass in the new sunshine while the rain clouds blew apart overhead. The sky was clear blue and as the sun dropped, the horizon turned pink, then purple. After dinner during troupe and coach meetings, I walked into the field behind the tents to where the fields rolled away to the edge of the woods and the sun’s final rays softly stretched towards Smirkus’ farmhouse office. The shadows lengthened over the tops of the big striped tents and…