Under the big top at Waldorf
Ceryes Mordue, 12, top, and Jazmin Basmajan, 12, practice their tumbling stunts during a youth circus class part of Circus Waldissima at the Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm in Santa Rosa, on Thursday, March 8, 2012. (BETH SCHLANKER/ PD)
Saturday, March 17th, 2012
By HOWARD SENZELL
TOWNS CORRESPONDENT
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
When Summerfield Waldorf School students take to the air next weekend for the school’s annual circus, they will be inside a full-sized big top tent recently imported from Germany.
Students will perform on the ground and in the air on a high wire that has been stretched over center stage. Older students have been practicing on the trapeze and from aerial tissue, all beneath the tent that is 37 feet high and 72 feet wide.
It is the realization of circus founder Sieglinde Basmajian’s 20-year dream, purchased with $41,000 raised to make the 20th annual circus special.
Basmajian was born in Germany and grew up infatuated with circuses.
“In Europe, there are a lot of traveling circuses,” she recalled. “The tent would go up outside of town and everyone, especially the children, would get so excited. It was a magical atmosphere with all the performers in costume. I’ve never forgotten that feeling.”
Ceryes Mordue, 12, top, and Jazmin Basmajan, 12, practice their tumbling stunts during a youth circus class part of Circus Waldissima at the Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm in Santa Rosa, on Thursday, March 8, 2012. (BETH SCHLANKER/ PD)
Saturday, March 17th, 2012
By HOWARD SENZELL
TOWNS CORRESPONDENT
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
When Summerfield Waldorf School students take to the air next weekend for the school’s annual circus, they will be inside a full-sized big top tent recently imported from Germany.
Students will perform on the ground and in the air on a high wire that has been stretched over center stage. Older students have been practicing on the trapeze and from aerial tissue, all beneath the tent that is 37 feet high and 72 feet wide.
It is the realization of circus founder Sieglinde Basmajian’s 20-year dream, purchased with $41,000 raised to make the 20th annual circus special.
Basmajian was born in Germany and grew up infatuated with circuses.
“In Europe, there are a lot of traveling circuses,” she recalled. “The tent would go up outside of town and everyone, especially the children, would get so excited. It was a magical atmosphere with all the performers in costume. I’ve never forgotten that feeling.”
After finding a teaching job at the school, Basmajian asked administrators if she could work with the students to stage a circus. She now teaches part-time, is in charge of the circus and has three children attending the school.
Until this year, the circus was performed in the school’s assembly hall, and students learned circus skills as an after-school activity. It eventually became a class for grades 3 to 6, with children in third through sixth grades taking a circus class. Among the skills they learn are juggling and unicycling.
read more:
http://santarosa.towns.pressdemocrat.com/2012/03/news/under-the-big-top-at-waldorf/
No comments:
Post a Comment