Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Hentoff.
Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I found circus when I was 18 at State University of NY, Purchase in 1973. I fell in love. It had never occurred to me that I could do anything like trapeze, juggling, or unicycling. I started touring with a national youth troupe, The Circus Kingdom, during the summer. I co-founded the all-female juggling clown trio, Triplopy. I finished college and THEN I ran away and joined the circus full time and have not looked back since.
I owe my circus start to my first circus teacher and lifelong mentor, Warren Bacon. I also studied under renowned Russian coaches Nina Krasavina and Gregory Fedin who created my double trapeze act with circus partner, Kathie Hoyer. Gregory invented our signature trick, the Heel-to-Heel Hang, where I hung by one arm from the trapeze and Kathie hung by heel hang with her other foot touching her head while suspended in a ring that I supported by one of my heels. This trick has never been duplicated. I have performed as an aerialist, clown, juggler, unicyclist, trick cyclist, bareback-rider, small animal trainer, and fire-eater. I am the only person to be a founding member of both the Big Apple Circus in New York City and Circus Flora in St. Louis. Now, I am the Artistic/Executive Director and founder of Circus Harmony, an internationally renowned social circus school.
Originally from New York, I moved to St. Louis because my circus partner, Kathie Hoyer, was from here and convinced me being in St. Louis would make us centrally located so we could tour anywhere. We toured the United States and Canada for five years. My real passion has always been sharing circus through teaching. I have been teaching and performing circus arts for over 50 years now and have been using circus to motivate social change since I started the St. Louis Arches youth circus performance troupe in 1988. I created Circus Harmony in 2001 to expand circus opportunities for St. Louis youth.
In 2009, I was named both St. Louis Arts Innovator of the Year and Outstanding Arts Educator of the Year. I have taught circus skills to children and adults of all ages, levels and labels. I have used circus arts to build character and community for young people through programs like Circus Salaam Shalom which brought together Jewish and Muslim children, Far East Meets Midwest which combined Asian and Midwestern arts and artists, and Peace Through Pyramids, which started as a collaboration between the St. Louis Arches of the United States and the Jewish/Arab Galilee Circus of Israel which started in 2007 and ran for eleven years. In 2014, the first American Peace Through Pyramids partnership was started between children of Ferguson and children from Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School in St. Louis. That year, I was honored to be the first person to receive the American Youth Circus Organization/American Circus Educators’ Excellence in Circus Education Award. In 2018, Circus Harmony was given the Missouri Arts Award for Arts and Education and we began a Peace Through Pyramids partnership with Circo Social de Puerto Rico, bringing the joy and hope of circus to the hurricane ravaged island of Puerto Rico. In 2020, I was the recipient of the Youth Learning Institute’s Youth Development Practitioner Award and Focus St. Louis named Circus Harmony a What’s Right with the Region honoree for Fostering Creativity for Social Change. During the lockdown that year, we started an online Peace Through Pyramids partnership with Circus Circuli in the St. Louis sister city of Stuttgart that is now in person and ongoing today.
Currently, I am a founding board member of the American Circus Alliance, serve on the steering committee of the Global Alliance of Circus Schools, and am the youth and social circus advisor to the World Circus Federation. I wholeheartedly believe “Circus teaches the art of life” and while children learn to flip, fly, and fling in the circus, they also learn important life skills like focus, persistence, and teamwork. The flying children of Circus Harmony are the embodiment of Circus Harmony’s mission to help children “defy gravity, soar with confidence and leap over social barriers, all at the same time.”
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Just learning any circus art is a challenge. I grew up in New York City and I didn’t even know how to climb a tree until I was 10. When I got to college and took my first aerial class, I was not able to pull myself up a rope for even one pull. Even learning to juggle is a challenge. You drop a lot before you get consistent. Circus can be painful to learn. It’s not comfortable hanging by your ankles! Beyond the physical challenge, there’s the mental challenge– especially when you’re learning an aerial act or anything where you have to trust someone to catch you! I remember learning my first aerial act. We practiced at night after the shows in a semi dark tent and I would be climbing the ladder and literally saying to myself as I climbed each rung, I could’ve been a teacher, I could’ve been a social worker, I could’ve been a writer… But I wanted to do circus more than I was scared or uncomfortable, so I kept going. Back in the 70’s there weren’t all the circus schools and different avenues to join circus that exist now. A number of my students actually go to circus colleges before going into the professional world. These just did not exist back then.
In 1979 or 80, fell doing an aerial act. Deciding to go back up in the air and do the rehab and training to be able to perform again was its own obstacle. I actually went and trained with some Russian coaches, Nina Krasavina and Gregory Fedin. To say getting through circus training with a Russian coach is challenging would be an understatement!!
I started teaching circus in St. Louis under the umbrella of Circus Flora. In 2001, they decided to just focus on their show. I formed Circus Harmony in 2001 to be able to keep the St. Louis Arches going and to expand circus opportunities for other young people in St. Louis. Starting and running a nonprofit is not easy, but in America, that seems to be how most arts are funded!
Fast forward to now and the biggest challenge when you’re running a nonprofit is raising money. The great part of my job is working with the flying children. The necessary and actually more taxing part of the job is that I am constantly raising money either by writing grants, talking to people, sending out emails, or posting on social media. Circus Harmony is incredibly grateful for the individuals who support us and for the organizations that have given us grants including the Regional Arts Commission, Missouri Arts Council and many others.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Circus Harmony is unique because we offer recreational programming, pre-professional training, and are first and foremost a Social Circus school. Social Circus means that we use the teaching and performing of circus arts to motivate social change. The work started when I founded the St. Louis Arches youth circus troupe in 1988. Circus Harmony is now celebrating 25 years as a nonprofit organization! Our programs include our shows and classes at City Museum, Defy Gravity 101 basic circus classes in schools, rec centers, and other venues throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan area, Circus Science where we teach science concepts through circus arts, Architecture and Acrobats where we tell the story of significant landmarks in St. Louis through circus on video, and our Peace Through Pyramids program where we bring together children from different backgrounds and show them when they focus on what connects them instead of what divides them they can create something amazing.
I get to be like Peter Pan and I help children learn to fly! I help them fly physically, but it is more than that. They also learn to soar mentally, emotionally, and socially. When I say, “Circus teaches the art of life” I mean that they learn focus, persistence, teamwork, conflict resolution, overcoming their fears, presenting themselves in public, and life skills that will help them no matter what they do or where they go in the world.
One of the most meaningful projects I ever worked on was our Peace Through Pyramids partnership with the Jewish/Arab Galilee Circus in Israel! There is a wonderful book about it called ‘Watch Out for Flying Children’ and a moving movie called ‘Circus Kids.’ You can buy the book from the Circus Harmony website and see the movie on our YouTube page. Bringing these Black, white, Arab, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, American, and Israeli children together and watching them work together, form bonds that still exist today, and inspire all who witnessed them was beyond amazing and rewarding!
This year, on Thanksgiving, one of my former students put a video together with a number of Circus Harmony alumni all thanking me for the impact that I had on their lives. What more can a human ask for than to make a difference in the lives of others? What is even better is they have gone on to do the same! When I discovered the world of circus, I went to my teacher, Warren Bacon, and I said “This is it. This is what I want to do with the rest of my life. How can I repay you?“ Warren said, “I’ll tell you what my teacher told me: ‘Pass it on.’ ” And that is what I have been doing ever since. Now, my students are doing it by entertaining and educating others around the world!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I have a vast library both at home and at Circus Harmony of circus books. Circus artists have been incredible and innovative since the first juggler performed in a town square! In fact, I feel that the circus was the original internet bringing animals, people, and inventions into towns around the world. Did you know the circus introduced the lightbulb to many places in America? Just going to different circuses is inspiration and there are so many working these days in a variety of styles and venues. Ditto for learning about other circus schools.
A non-circus book that has inspired me since I was 10 years old is ‘Our Children are Dying’ by my father, Nat Hentoff, about a principal working at a school in Harlem and the work he did just showing those children what they could accomplish. Helping children recognize their own strengths and capabilities is my way of doing Tikkun Olam– the Jewish concept of repairing the world. Some people use medicine or music… I use circus.
My biggest inspirations are my current and former students. I so enjoy seeing the current ones working on and then accomplishing new skills. That TaDah moment when they get something is worth everything! It is also wonderful seeing old students teach the new ones. I love watching my alums as they tour the globe being amazing. I try to travel to see their shows. Claire Wallenda now walks wire with the Flying Wallendas who we get to work with every year on Circus Flora! I just went to Chicago to see Kyran Walton in Teatro ZinZanni and Keaton Hentoff-Killian launch his Company 29. I am looking forward to seeing Isabella Majzun, this January, who is in Cirque du Soleil’s new residential show in Berlin, Alize` and Kellin Quinn who is working at Palazzo in Nuremberg. Sidney Bateman went from Cirque do Soleil to the WWE and is now working as a motivational speaker and starting his own nonprofit to teach children that they are not limited by where they live but can chart their own life path.
She would not believe you if you told her this, but one of my biggest inspirations is my daughter, Elliana Grace. She came up through our program, went on to be the youngest human cannonball on Ringling Brothers and the first Jewish human cannonball in history. Elliana is currently the General Manager and Lead Coach at Circus Harmony. It is not easy being a mother and daughter working together and we do not always see eye to eye. Anyone will also tell you that working with teenagers is not easy. Elliana’s approach to teaching circus— especially to teens– is different from mine and I have tremendous respect for her and the work she is doing with our current flock of flying children.
Pricing:
- Circus Harmony operates on a sliding scale. Of course, we hope and need people to pay for their classes. But we don’t want cost to be a barrier— that’s why I do all that fundraising! Numerous young people are on full or partial scholarship in our classes at City Museum.. But we also offer free classes through the St. Louis City Department of Parks and Recreation, St. Louis Public Library, Urban League, Legacy Center, schools and other places! We encourage people to donate to our Flying Children Scholarship Fund on our website at www.circusharmony.org.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.circusharmony.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/circusharmony
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/circusharmony
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/circusharmony
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/circusharmony
