Casual passerby of Circus Harmony’s practices and shows have been charmed by its colorful and varied artistic presentations for 25 years now. It’s a perfect fit inside the weirdly wonderful City Museum.
But not all visitors know this locally loved circus school has served as a launching pad for some of the world’s most celebrated artists. Just this week, artistic director and founder Jessica Hentoff was named a World Circus Federation Ambassador, one of the highest honors in circus arts, because of her contributions to the global reach and excellence in the arts.
Through Circus Harmony, students as young as 3 years old can run away to the circus to learn acrobatics, juggling, unicycle, clowning, contortion, and more from some of the industry’s giants on a semester basis. Alumni have performed with Cirque du Soleil, Seven Fingers, Teatro ZinZanni, and the Flying Wallendas. Circus Harmony family members have also entered elite circus schools in Canada, toured internationally, and transitioned into nonprofit leadership. Notable alum Sidney Bateman even has his own action figure, Hentoff quips.
To celebrate its 25th season, the school has produced an all-ages whodunnit, Misterioso, running February 1—28. It begs the age-old question: Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar? (Cookies are provided by Whisk.) “If you come to the show, you see which way the cookie crumbles, and you get an answer that you might not expect,” Hentoff teases.
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The show is this year’s full-length ticketed production at City Museum. It features student-led choreography and character development, as well as the leadership of artist-in-residence Susan Voyticky, a celebrated aerialist and circus creator director.
Hentoff notes that Misterioso is a G-rated, crowd-pleasing option for all audiences with twists and turns to surprise and delight. “Circus is supposed to be about joy and play, but it’s also about being amazing, and that’s what this show combines.”
The Ring Leader
Hentoff founded the St. Louis Arches Youth Circus Troupe in 1988. It later became Circus Harmony, which became a nonprofit in 2001. Hentoff is a founding member of both the Big Apple Circus in New York City and Circus Flora in St. Louis. She’s served as a founding board member of the American Circus Alliance, a steering committee member of the Global Alliance of Circus Schools, and youth and social circus advisor of the World Circus Federation.
Hentoff discovered circus at SUNY Purchase in 1973, initially as a college class. She studied teaching and performing circus arts under the mentorship of Warren Bacon. Over time, she toured professionally with The Circus Kingdom, then co-founded Triplopy, an all-female juggling clown trio. She has performed as an aerialist, clown, juggler, unicyclist, trick cyclist, bareback rider, small animal trainer, and fire-eater.
She trained with renowned Russian circus coaches Nina Krasavina and Gregory Fedin, and her signature heel-to-heel double trapeze trick has never been duplicated. Her designation as a World Circus Federation Ambassador is hardly her first honor in the field. Among her other honors:
- St. Louis Arts Innovator of the Year (2009)
- Outstanding Arts Educator of the Year (2009)
- AYCO/ACE Excellence in Circus Education Award (2014)
- Missouri Arts Award for Arts & Education (2018)
- Youth Development Practitioner Award (2020)
- Focus St. Louis “What’s Right with the Region” honoree
- National Endowment for the Arts funding recipient
The 70-year-old is known to often say, “Circus teaches the art of life.”
A Generational Act
Multiple generations of students have come through the program, with former and original students often returning as coaches, mentors, and board members. “Circus is family, and ours is an absolute, beautiful example of that,” Hentoff says. “Once an Arch, always an Arch.”
Reflecting on 50-plus years of teaching and performing circus arts, she says it’s most rewarding to see the international network of alumni, who not only lead in their art forms on a global scale but also return to the school to mentor current students. Where else, she asks, can you learn contortion, hand-balancing, aerial, and wire-walking from the foremost honored artists in Mongolia, Rosa Yagaantsetseg?
“My teacher told me, ‘Pass it on,’” Hentoff says. And she has, even within her own family: Her daughter Elliana Grace was the youngest human cannonball on Ringling Bros. and the first Jewish human cannonball in history. She is now serving as general manager and lead coach for Circus Harmony.
With a mission-driven focus on empowerment, inclusion, and youth development, Circus Harmony primarily identifies as a social circus and produces long-running community programs such as Peace Through Pyramids, through which it has partnered with the Jewish/Arab Galilee Circus in Israel; students from Ferguson and Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School; students in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria; and students in Stuttgart, Germany. Additional community signature programs through Circus Harmony include Circus Salaam Shalom,Circus Science, Architecture and Acrobats, the St. Louis Teen Talent Competition, and Defy Gravity 101.
“The reason that we do what we do is to build character and individuals and bridges between communities,” Hentoff says. “When you focus on what connects you instead of what divides you, you can create something amazing.”
(To read more about the Peace Through Pyramids program, check out the acclaimed book Watch Out for Flying Children by Cynthia Levinson and the award-winning film Circus Kids by Alexandra Lipsitz.)
Everyone’s Circus
Circus Harmony’s wide range of disciplines—aerials, juggling, unicycle, wire, clowning, acrobatics—offer an inclusive approach, allowing students with different strengths to participate. Programs welcome students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds and offer multiple pathways to success—from recreational to pre-professional to social circus tracks. Classes are offered for ages 3 through adults on a sliding-scale tuition, and the nonprofit also offers free community-based programming.
“In circus, there are so many different genres under one umbrella. Maybe you can’t flip, but you have good balance,” Hentoff says. “This is the place where the class clown is valued.”
Circus Harmony is committed to access and equity, as well as philanthropic support in many program areas. At the same time, transportation remains a major barrier for many students; Hentoff’s dream is to expand Circus Harmony’s reach beyond City Museum to schools and recreation centers. “A lot of people want to fund the program, but they don’t always want to fund transportation,” Hentoff says. “We used to have a funded transportation program called Wheels to Wings, because the wheels would bring you to where you could earn your wings. We want to show kids, You are not limited by your ZIP code. You can create your own life path.”
Thanks to a new partnership with Northside Community School, she explains, those limitations have been lifted for a significant number of students—but Hentoff hopes to broaden that reach.
The next semester of Circus Harmony classes starts in February. As the organization is still rebounding from the pandemic, it hopes to welcome a swell of new students and new support with scholarships and funding.
Where Are They Now?
Circus Harmony graduates are performing on some of the world’s biggest stages. “I can’t even keep up with all the kids who are working professionally,” Hentoff says. “They have grown up performing all the time, so they have a real edge when they are auditioning for these circus colleges or auditioning for regular companies.”
That said, Hentoff makes her best effort to travel and catch her former students’ big-league performances. Among former Circus Harmony performers:
- Kellin Quinn, a top-ranked juggler, is currently working in Europe.
- Isabella Majzun appears in Cirque du Soleil’s Berlin production ALIZÉ.
- Melvin Diggs performs with Seven Fingers in Dear San Francisco.
- Kyran Walton is featured at Teatro ZinZanni in Chicago.
- Oliver Layher tours internationally with Circa Contemporary Circus and returns to coach students when home.
- Sidney Bateman, the subject of the PBS short The Acrobat, went from Cirque du Soleil to the WWE and is now a motivational speaker who is launching his own nonprofit.
- Closer to home, Claire Wallenda performs with the Flying Wallendas and Circus Flora, while Keaton Hentoff-Killian has launched his own circus company, Company 29.
