THE BALLOON MAN

Dreaming of the circus: Brattleboro school trains students for unusual careers

 

from:  sentinelsource.com
By KAITLIN MULHERE Sentinel Staff
Sunday, May 26, 2013
BRATTLEBORO,VT — Xochitl Sosa-Campbell dangles upside down, the back of her knees snug around a metal bar.
Celeste Fry-Myhre springs up and grabs her partner’s hands. Muscles stiff. Eyes focused. Silent communication.
Then: Pop.
Fry-Myhre curls and twists in the air.
In a second, Sosa-Campbell clutches her partner’s ankle, both of them held up by the trapeze. They pause in preparation for the next trick.
Drums blare in the background, a beat for a juggling act. Another student spins inside a giant wheel, like a hamster. Others sit in splits, silently taking notes on their routines.
foto
Xochitl Sosa-Campbell on the single trapeze during a dress rehearsal by the students of the New England Center for Circus Arts for their shows at Landmark College in Putney.
The studio is not your average classroom.
Then again, these aren’t your average students.
When “pragmatic” and “sensible” are watchwords in an economy still crawling back from a recession, these students aim for dazzling, fantastical, mysterious, extravagant.
Here, in Brattleboro, they dream of the life of entertainers, equal parts athlete and artist.
These recent graduates went to school to be circus performers.
read more:
http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/dreaming-of-the-circus-brattleboro-school-trains-students-for-unusual/article_3c368751-0465-5ab1-8b04-e8f3bead2ef4.html