At schools such as the New England Center for Circus Arts, anyone can learn how to walk on stilts and act like a clown.
Acrobats flying through the air, jugglers tossing a blur of flaming clubs, clowns in their big, floppy shoes -- it's no wonder kids of every era have threatened to run away and join the circus. It's a magical antidote to boring everyday life, where no one flies, no one juggles and very few people wear quite as much lipstick as those clowns. Now you no longer have to run away. At these circus schools across the country, artists of excitement will teach you their tricks.
Circus Center -- San Francisco
The Circus Center wants "to inspire passion for the circus arts through training and performance," and the multitude of classes offered to both kids and adults promises to do just that. Founded in 1984 by the Pickle Family Circus and originally known as the San Francisco School of Circus Arts, here you can study Chinese acrobatics or Mongolian contortion, and then work on your aerial silk skills.
Absolute beginners build strength, flexibility and muscle control in both introductory and conditioning classes -- it takes a lot of stamina to haul yourself up a rope and then twist around up there doing fabulous tricks. Once you've got the basics down, move on to aerial skills. From there, learning the flying trapeze is only a matter of time and will. There's even a program for professionals training to compete in the international circus market. For those who take clowning around very seriously indeed, the Circus Center offers the only year-long clown training program in the U.S.
Philadelphia School of Circus Arts -- Philadelphia
If you're not ready to jump into a strenuous training course in trapeze, the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts offers you the chance to try it out with monthly Introduction to Aerial Skills workshops for the low price of $20 per person. They're pretty sure that once you give it a shot, you'll be itching to get your feet off the ground again.
Eight-week courses for beginning or advanced students are available on everything from the basics of rope, fabric and trapeze training to tight wire walking, unicycling and Parkour gymnastics (the kind of moves Jason Bourne might use to escape a bad guy). Kids from "new walkers" through teens can get their circus on as well, and best of all, the School does circus acrobatics parties. Talk about the best birthday ever!
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Slide show: Circus school stars
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