My circus training began in my twenties while working with a horse-drawn theatre company
in British Columbia, Canada. There I taught myself to walk and perform on the low-wire. I studied mime
and clowning for a year before heading to Paris, France to study acrobatics, juggling and balance at the National Circus School for three years. For five seasons I traveled and performed on the streets and in festivals throughout Europe. I taught adult circus skills classes in France, England and Wales. I studied
physical theatre with Jacques Le Coq and clowning with Philippe Gaulier.
I’ve lived in the Bay Area for the past thirty years. I’ve performed on the low wire with the Pickle Family
Circus and with the San Francisco Opera as a pantomime and acrobat. For the past twenty years, I have concentrated my energies on teaching circus arts to children.
Over these years, I’ve worked with many, many children of diverse backgrounds and abilities. I have
experimented with and developed various methods for teaching circus arts, always with the goal of helping each child to overcome their self-limitations or blocks to learning.
I have noticed that by the age of five or six, most children have already formed a rigid image of themselves: i.e., “I’m good at this. I can’t do that” Circus arts are a multi-dimensional training that allows children to progress at their own rate, to become more confident to try new things and to be proud of their accomplishments when taught as a series of small successes.
Because circus arts are so much fun to do, I am able to teach children a lot of things other than the
skills themselves; they learn to be aware of the people around them, to work together in unity,
to challenge themselves and not compare themselves with others, how to support and encourage each other, the value of persistence and how to center, ground and trust themselves.