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Submitted by John Wells on 1/16/2007 Last Modified
This November, Circus Day Foundation’s advanced youth circus troupe, the St. Louis Arches, were invited to appear with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus for a second time! The Arches performed as part of the Three Ring Adventure pre-show. Below is an article written by a 16 year old member of the troupe. After the show, the Arches also got to meet and talk with Ringling star, Bello Nock. Here’s Rosie’s story and some photos of the visit....Jessica Hentoff
By Rosie Eastman
The Arches visit the Greatest Show on Earth
Teenagers are hard enough to deal with already. I should know; I am one. But something about the circus makes people wise beyond their years. People mentally grow up, stand tall, and salute the audience like they have been doing it their whole lives. It lets people come out of their shells, clown around, shine. It makes them smile! As a member of the elite acrobatic troupe The St. Louis arches, I should know. I certainly was not shy; I was just unsure of myself and my capabilities. But when I joined this fantastic group of artists, that all changed. I was surrounded by people who loved what I loved, who encouraged me to try new things, even if I ended up landing on my head. They picked me up, dusted me off, and told me “Again”. My partners don’t all have easy lives, and we are certainly not from one neighborhood. Yet we work together like a family (and, like all families, occasionally have our differences). But we always have respect for each other, If someone falls, we help them stand, if someone is injured, we comfort them (which usually involves Arnica followed by some sort of candy).
3 high in the pre show, Lil' Donald up top
We are one of the bounciest, most effervescent troupes of youth circus performers there are. We reach out to the audience, and in turn, the audience reaches out to us. The jaws of children and adults alike drop when we go flipping past. Hurling each other into the air and have them come safely down into our waiting arms. People gasp and sometimes shriek when our Lil’ Donald takes his dive from a three-high, but they always applaud, smiling ear to ear. Because that is what we do; we make people smile.When people think of the circus, the names Ringling, Barnum, and Bailey immediately come to mind. These names have been synonymous with the American circus since its conception. Elephants, daredevils, graceful dancers, all are representative of one of the most well-known circuses in the world. The Ringling units travel continuously all over the country throughout the year, and draw some of the biggest crowds around. They represent a circus, a family, and a whole other world.
Tips from Bello Nock, on acrobatics and hair styling!
As we trooped into the Ring 1, we were immediately greeted by two clowns, smiling like, well, clowns. One thing must be said about the Ringling clowns. They are incredibly nice and have the biggest hearts. They asked us where we were from, how old we were, our names, and they stayed and watched our entire performance, start to finish. The girls especially loved our Daring Darling Little Donald, who might be the smallest acrobat in the world. During the show, they would come over to where we were seated and make sure everyone was dancing, no matter how red our faces turned. That’s one of the many positive things about the circus; it definitely makes you come out of your shell.
Final Pyramid at Ringling
During our performance, we noticed a group of kids our age at the edge of the ring, in costume nonetheless. They didn’t look all that special, strong, friendly, but certainly not what we would expect from what was about to come. We knew that they were the Windy City Acrobats, and that they had a reputation of not only being a great tumbling troupe, but also very disciplined and eager to share. But these kids looked normal, just like us. Until they started their act. We were completely blown out of the water. These were kids like us, from a big city like us (Chicago), and they were doing these incredible tricks, ones that seemed impossible. Now, instead of thinking “yeah, right, we can never do that”, they only inspired us to do bigger, better things. They inspired us to reach out to new heights, and bring our performance up to an even better level. Every single one of us is ready to show the circus world what we’ve got.
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