Thanks for coming to see us this year! What an amazing show.
We have the theater reserved for Oct 8-10 2010. Hope to see you then! Find us on FaceBook to get our latest updates!
Our MC: Warren Etheredge
As founder of The Warren Report (www.thewarrenreport.com), Warren Etheredge curates and hosts over 250 events every year, a podcast and television series. The Warren Report promotes "slow culture" through commentary, outreach, events and education. Our principle: Smarter audiences make a better world! Additionally, Warren is one of the founding faculty of TheFilmSchool. For six years, Warren served as the Curator for the 1 Reel Film Festival (at Bumbershoot), before that, he worked with the Seattle International Film Festival. Warren has staged over 40 plays in New York, published five books, written countless magazine articles and recently completed a feature-length documentary, HUMOR ME. He is in pre-production for a new documentary, TAPPED OUT: SOLVING AMERICA'S WATER CRISIS. He is the host of Words & Wine and The Good Life, conversation series with A-list authors, and is a regular contributor to Seattle's NPR affiliate, KUOW.
Jenn Wrenn and Jenn Hill have been doing aerials for several years now, but just teamed up in early 2008. Their passionate personalities are reflected in their playful, high energy acts. One is a hyper-organized business woman by day, the other a free spirited and talented yogi - the audience gets the best of both worlds combined into a unique partnership and friendship of flipping, floating and flying through the air.
Comedian Eric Haines is a born entertainer. He is an award-winning comedian and multi-talented performer with amazing abilities as a singer, guitarist, banjo player, marionette puppeteer, unicyclist, juggler, and stilt walker. He has over twenty years experience as an all-around entertainer, including ten years as a professional comedian and experience in the professional fields of theater, children’s theater, school assembly programs, fairs and festival entertainment, school workshops and corporate entertainment.
Jenn Wrenn and Jenn Hill have been doing aerials for several years now, but just teamed up in early 2008. Their passionate personalities are reflected in their playful, high energy acts. One is a hyper-organized business woman by day, the other a free spirited and talented yogi - the audience gets the best of both worlds combined into a unique partnership and friendship of flipping, floating and flying through the air.
Tamara the Trapeze Lady started her aerial experience as a dancer with famed Seattle choreographer / dancer / inventor Robert Davidson. She began teaching aerial dance in 1995 at her own studio in Pioneer Square and has performed around the U.S. and Canada as well as Spain, Portugal, and Thailand. Tamara is based in Seattle and has been teaching circus style aerial at Versatile Arts for the last year, while continuing her own neverending journey of skill building with the amazing array of talented instructors that Beverly has sponsored at V.A.
Jonathan's interest in circus arts began in Mexico, where he became a roustabout in a small, family-owned circus. For several months Jonathan served as caretaker of the many exotic animals in the circus, including Maurice, the elephant, and Pepe, the hippopotimus. When he tired of pounding stakes and shoveling animal dung, Jonathan returned to Seattle and enrolled in SANCA's Aerial Intensive Program. He dreams of running away with the circus again, only this time as an artist.
Dick Grayson
Russell Hay is one half of the dynamic duo trapeze act, Dick Grayson and Mrs Peel. Breaking into the scene two years ago as an eager student at SANCA, he took to aerial like a moth to the flame and has since dived head long into the trapeze. He splits his time between SANCA and the Kirkland Dance Center, and is part of the Cirque De Kirk aerial troupe. His previous performances include SASS and Aerlift.
Geri began her love of circus arts with the flying trapeze five years ago in Baltimore at Trapeze School New York - Baltimore and various other rigs throughout the world. She became a more recent convert to the aerial arts about a year and a half ago when she began studying at Versatile Arts under the instruction of Beverly Sobelman. She has also studied with Eric Newton and Duo Madrona. When she isn't in the air she makes her living as a personal trainer in Issaquah. She has three boys who make sure her life is always busy and never dull.
Photo by: Malixe Photo
Vivian Yeung
Vivian has been training at Versatile Arts with Beverly Sobelman for a year and a half. When she's not training on aerials, Vivian is planning her next traveling adventure or eating good food or both, for all three are her true passions. She attends Evergreen State College and resides in Olympia when the summer is over.
Photo by: Malixe Photo
Esther Elderman
Esther has over 20 years of choreographing, directing and performance experience that spans international stages and events. She is an Artistic Director and Co-founder of the groundbreaking UMO Ensemble. Esther strives to create a "fluid mix of circus and aerial arts" that is "elegant and expressive" Seattle PI. Committed to transcending the limitations of individual forms, Esther has made her mark in combining disciplines such as aerial circus and theatrical narrative to produce truly innovative work.
A title wave of dance, juggling, and crazy kung-fu acrobatics, NANDA fills the house with unrelenting skill and comedy woven into a sonic soundscape. The performance by these four friends has been evolving over the last 20 years when they met as toddlers in their hometown of Port Townsend, WA. Those four feral little hippy kids have grown into four enlightened ninja jugglers with the skills to win a revolution. NANDA is Chen Pollina, Kiyota Sage, Misha Fradin, and Tomoki Sage.
Is a unique performing artist with a diverse movement background in physical disciplines including modern dance, Bharatnatayam, Filipino martial arts, Commedia dell'Arte, yoga, gymnastics and stunt training. She is currently producing new works in Seattle, WA, where she is a company member of the Aerialistas, Seattle's original all-girl aerial gang. She also collaborates locally with members of Manifold Motion and Circus Contraption, and outside of Seattle with Kansas City-based Quixotic Performance Ensemble.
The Cabiri are a Seattle-based performance troupe that specializes in performative mythology, the retelling of stories from folklore and ancient mythology using dance, aerial arts, stilts, puppetry, and more. They have been performing these arts in the Pacific Northwest and throughout North America since 1999.
Dyno's specialty is vertical apparatus, including rope, fabric, and chain. His performances mix strength and grace to create rich and expressive characters.
Thanhdat comes from a small family in Vietnam and began his artist career singing, dancing, and theater after school. He found circus silk art interesting and began to learn aerial silk about 3 years ago and was taught by his jazz dance instructor at the Kirkland Dance Center. He has been in love with it ever since and probably loves it more than dancing! He loves performance on stage and whenever given the opportunity to perform, he is prepared to dance, sing or swing above on the audience on aerial silk.
Photo by: Unknown
Breakdancing Ninja
Daniel's priorities in life are food, shelter, and Breakdancing. He is self-taught (learned in a barn) and enjoys spinning on his head. Daniel has been Breakdancing for 10 years and teaching for 5. "I.ve learned one thing from teaching and performing; the people who have the most fun are usually the best!
Courtnee Papastathis began her aerial experience in 2002 with Lara Paxton, taking on her moniker of Zita the Aerialist after playing her in a film. She has taught at SANCA, and performed in Seattle, New York, and Vancouver as well as directing aerial for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival in 2008. Courtnee serves as board President and Executive Director of Vita Arts, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to sharing the transformative power of art with the disadvantaged. Zita currently performs at venues such as The Pink Door, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center with the Cabiri, Columbia City Cabaret, and Circus of Dreams.
Alyssa Hellrung and Laura Lee-Sabbe began working together as a trapeze duo at a prestigious performing arts camp in upstate New York where Alyssa was an instructor and the Director of Circus Arts for eight years and Laura was a camper in the intensive circus program for three years. Alyssa is now the Program Coordinator of the Sanca School of Flight, Seattle's first flying trapeze school. Laura is a freshman at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, CA and flies weekly at Richie Gaona's trapeze school. Laura and Alyssa are inspired by frozen yogurt.
Dana Sterling and Angela Langmann
Dana and Angela were first introduced to the aerial arts in 2006 and paired up earlier this year to form their duo fabric act. They both train at the Versatile Arts Cathedral and receive instruction from Esther Edleman. Angela's dance experience combined with Dana's belly dance background have been the inspiration for this piece entitled... "Wings on the Nile".
Photo by: Josh Yim
Bruce and Simmone
Simonne and Bruce have been performing throughout the Seattle area for the last four years. They have performed yearly for the Aerlift benefit for the children who live in the Guatemalan garbage dumps and they are members of the Aerial Army of Love. They perform regularly at the Little Red Studio and have their own studio and aerial arts school in West Seattle. Bruce and Simonne were semi finalists in the America's Got talent competition this year and have been invited to perform for the Emmy events in Los Angeles. Their sensual style and aerial talents are portrayed in a duo hoop routine.
Jason Williams (Dr. Calamari) and Evelyn Bittner (Acrophelia) are veterans of the legendary Seattle troupe Circus Contraption. They continue to perform their acrobalancing routines at festivals, public and private events around the Northwest and beyond. They relish telling a variety of surreal stories by combining partner acrobatic skills with characters that range from the hilarious to the macabre.
Bob Bozarth
Bob has been a Personal Fitness Trainer in the Seattle area for the last 12 years. He began doing aerial 7 months ago and enjoys the new challenges it provides.
Lara Lee Paxton Rasberry teaches and performs locally, nationally and internationally on a variety of aerial apparatus, including her signature anchor. She is the founder and director of the Original Aerial Girl Gang, the Aerialistas, an 8-member troupe which has been performing since 2004. She is also the founder and artistic director of Circus Contraption, Seattle's beloved, world-traveling, one-ring troupe. She and her students formed an outreach group "The Aerial Army of Love" in 2006 with the mission of using circus arts to benefit those in extreme poverty.
Jeremy January, the actor behind the silent vaudeville clown Chance Marmalade got his start on the Seattle stages back in 1992 with Seattle Children's Theatre. A graduate of the NW Actors Studio two year conservatory Jeremy has performed all over the city and has taken his one man clown show to Spring Fair in Roseburg Oregon and onto the streets of Seattle, Eugene and San Francisco. Chance Marmalade made his Seattle stage debut at the Jewel Box Theatre earlier this year. Mr. Marmalade's dream is to play the title role in Waiting For Godot.
Hot on the heels of Ariadne the Spider, Avianne Blackbird comes flying out of the murky depths of the imagination of Heather Van Steenburgh. When asked how she felt about performing on trapeze for the Circus of Dreams, Avianne crowed "Oh, I just love it! The flying, the perching, the soaring! It allows me to take my natural love of flight and song to help children. Hey, is that a cuttlebone?" Heather has performed in AerLift, SASS, Circus of Dreams and the Columbia City Cabaret and is approximately one half of the trapeze duo Dick Grayson and Mrs. Peel.
Vivian has been twisting and turning happily in Seattle for the past 4 years. When she isn't flying, you might be able to spot Vivian on the ground looking for beetles or Sasquatch footprints. Vivian currently lives in Seattle with her husband, David, and her ferocious chihuahua.
Unitardo and Leotardo have been performing since the 1850s. The piece being performed at Circus of Dreams was originally performed at the 1861 "Festivale Du Champions de L'Universe," where it was met with high acclaim. They believe that the trapeze is a universal languages that even 'Les Americans' can understand. To 'Les Americans' they are also known as Jess Silver and KT Treadwell. They have been studying with Beverly Sobelman at Versatile Arts for the past year and a half.
Photo by: Jon McClintock
Stella Frambois
Tanya comes from a wide artistic background. She has sang on TV, trained in the nation's best ballet schools, earned a design degree from UW, and played guitar and bass in a local band as well as records her own music. In her aerial work, she blends long graceful ballet lines, abnormal flexibility, and unique musicality with a fierce attack. She is a member of the Aerialistas under Lara Paxton.
Blazer has been a feature entertainer for the past three years. Contortion, competive pole work, and strange foot tricks. She loves to perform and nothing makes her feel better than hearing people gasp and ask each other how she just did that... This is not a talent that she was born with, she worked to get there. Proving that hard work can get you where you want to be. Dream big.
Viva and Violet, a real aerial riot, landed in the amazing Emerald City about a year and a half ago. Where they came from no one knows. Where they are going is yet to be know. And why they are here is still not understood. Sitings of V and V have been reported in Bellingham. They were most recently seen flying in Freemont with the Aerialistas. The inseparable duo are fascinated with Seattlites and are thrilled to be invited to the Circus of Dreams.
