Get your tickets Circus Harmony: Bravura , our 2017 annual confluence of music and circus arts. Bravura is a musical term whose definition also describes our youth circus performers: exceptional agility and brilliant style. Our theme this year is archetypes. Follow our King as he searches for the Trickster who stole his crown and finds out that one person can wear many hats.
Hats are like labels. They are something put on you that can cause people to make assumptions. Wear a construction hat? You’re a builder. A wreath of flowers? A dreamer. Soldier’s helmet? You must be a warrior. Similarly, people make assumptions about you based on the color of your skin, your religion or even just your neighborhood. These features of your life do not need to define you any more than a hat you might wear. At Circus Harmony, we let your children define themselves! In this show, you will see one person can play many characters. In the same way, each of us has aspects of many archetypes that make up our personalities. We each have a little explorer, a bit of maverick, and some trickster in us. We can have aspects of both a kingly leader and a nurturing queen, no matter our gender.
Our programs help individual children find their own power. We help young women to be strong, young men to be graceful and everyone to work together. We help our children make their own labels instead of being seen by society’s labels put on them because of their race, religion, neighborhood or diagnosis. We help our students defy gravity and other limitations. We give children incredible opportunities! This fall, one of our students got to perform at the White House and the Kennedy Center! This year, Circus Harmony was named one of 17 Circuses Changing the World by Buzzfeed. It is hard for some people to understand how being part of a youth circus can be a life changing experience. But it has been for many of our young people. In the words of one alumnus, “The circus didn’t change my life, it saved my life!” All by letting them define themselves. Currently, we have alumni working around the world. We offer 27 classes at City Museum and are working at 10 off-site locations. We help over 1,600 people a year defy gravity through Circus Harmony and TrapezeSTL, our flying trapeze center.
This original show is presented by a marvelous mini-multitude of our magnificently multi-talented youth circus performers and is made possible in part by the support of the Missouri Arts Council, Regional Arts Commission, Boeing Employee Community Fund, Cardinals Care and REA Charitable Foundation. We are grateful to Laurence Hillman of www.laurencehillman.com for his lessons on archetypes.
We are honored that our Peace Through Pyramids work is supported by the Nationale Endowment for the Arts and that the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has named us as presenting partners for the 50th Anniversary Folklife Festival, this summer, in Washington DC. The Circus Fans of America are having their annual conference in St. Louis in June so that they can see us. We have a beautiful exhibit of photographs of our flying chldren opening at the Sheldon Art Galleries and running through the summer. On March 17, we are thrilled that Nancy and Ken Kranzberg are the hosting our show Defy Gravity and Other limitations at the incredible new .Zack Theater! Catch the flying children of Circus Harmony!
Bravura will be presented at City Museum on Saturday, January 21 and 28 at 2 & 7 PM and on Sunday, January 22 and 29 at 2 PM. Tickets, $20.
See the program here!