“Circus didn’t change my life. It saved my life,” says Melvin Diggs, a St. Louis Arches alumni who is currently touring the world with Cirque du Soleil. In addition to Melvin, three other Circus Harmony students are touring with the renowned Cirque du Soleil, Sidney ‘Iking’ Bateman, Terrance ‘T-Roc’ Robinson, and Chauncey Kroner!!!
Melvin, Iking, and ‘T-Roc are all touring with Cirque du Soleil’s show, Luzia. Currently in Vancouver, they next go to London and Moscow. Chauncey Kroner is in Montreal rehearsing for Cirque du Soleil’s new holiday show, ‘Twas the Night Before which opens in Chicago and then in NYC. From their St. Louis City neighborhoods to these international destinations is quite a journey!
Their journeys started at Circus Harmony. They all came to the circus from different paths. Melvin started with an internship from a local Boys and Girls Club where he worked in the snack bar next to the circus ring. Melvin quickly decided that he would rather be flipping in the ring than making popcorn outside the ring! Iking was assigned a mentor at his middle school who found out he liked to tumble and brought him to see a show. When Iking saw the mats he couldn’t resist trying them. I actually found T-Roc tumbling down the street when I chose to drive a different way to work one day. And Chauncey was a boy who liked to jump on of backyard trampoline and when he needed a place to be during the summer, a neighbor suggested Circus Harmony.
All four boys found a home and a sense of family at Circus Harmony. They found a place where they could be successful which they had not found anywhere else. Iking says, “It was a place where I could be free and be myself without any judging. I loved the feeling it gave me to perform. I loved the security and safety it gave that I didn’t have at home or in my neighborhood.”
Iking and Melvin attended Ecole National de Cirque in Montreal. T-Roc went to the Ecole de Cirque do Quebec. These three have already toured the world with other circus companies. Chauncey is just starting his professional circus career but has already performed twice at the Kennedy Center – once with Circus Harmony and once as a special guest with South Africa’s Zip Zap Circus! He also performed for President Obama at the White House.
Whenever they are home, they come to Circus Harmony and help the next generation. Chauncey finished choreographing the hoop diving act for our upcoming January show before leaving for Cirque du Soleil! They help teach tricks, choreograph acts, and just serve as positive role models for the current generation of flying children. In Sidney’s words, “ This great life, these great life lessons that I’ve learned implement into my life now. They are a big reason why I’m considered so successful in my field. I give my time to Circus Harmony. I come back and work with the kids. I do what I can so that the youth can follow in my footsteps if they want to. It would be wrong if I didn’t do anything at all.“
Melvin, Iking, T-Roc, and Chauncey are just four of the students launched by Circus Harmony who happen to have landed with the most prestigious circus company in the world! The next international circus star or community leader may just be in need of a circus class scholarship. This is why we have the Flying Children’s Scholarship Fund!
Donations to the Fund can be made directly online as one time or sustaining donations. Buying our Defy Gravity Coffee also supports the fund. I say, “It gives you a lift and helps a child soar, all in one cup!”.The Flying Children Scholarship Fund gives children an opportunity that may never even have occurred to them. When I was in high school, I certainly never thought I would join the circus much less run a circus school later in life! Whether it lands them at Cirque du Soleil or working as a teacher, electrician or some other job, children remember what they learn at Circus Harmony. Last month, I heard from someone who had been my student in 1981! She even remembered my dog, Ponyboy, who was with me then. She says she has often thought of and applied life lessons she learned in my circus class to this day!
From backstage at Cirque du Soleil, Melvin now says, “Without Circus Harmony, I would have never known anything about circus or had the opportunity to pursue it. In return, Circus gave me my first footsteps toward the correct direction in life. To this day I am still on that path Circus Harmony opened for me. With a full heart, I can say I’m currently living out my passion every day because of that opportunity I was offered so many years ago!”
It’s just amazing. I’m so proud of, thrilled for, and excited about their adventures! Creating professional circus performers is not the intention of the work of Circus Harmony. It is first and foremost a social circus— meant to help build character in individuals and bridges between communities. Still, I have to admit it is pretty wonderful when these young people soar into the professional circus world and get to show the world how capable and courageous they really are! Go see them, if you can! Bravo and thank you to all four!!!
Jessica Hentoff, November 2019
