Easthampton school lets aspiring acrobats stretch
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EASTHAMPTON - Banking on the growing popularity of the modern-day circus, a new business aimed at teaching the age-old art of circus performing has opened in the Paragon Arts and Industry Building on Pleasant Street.
"Circus is hugely on the rise," said Henry Wheaton, who, with Chris Oakley, is opening SHOW Circus Studio this month.
Wheaton, 40, was speaking this week in the school's studio, where a trapeze bar, a lyra ring and a long piece of thin fabric - all tools of the trade - hung from the rafters against a colorful backdrop. There were mats stacked against the wall and a steel-framed cube that Wheaton uses in performances.
The school is housed in one large room. A desk is near the door, not far from the trapeze bar.
Wheaton graduated last year with a major in duo-trapeze, taking the professional track at the New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, Vt.
The school will offer, among other classes and private lessons set to start next week, Beginning Trapeze, Burlesque Basic Training, Burlesque Bootcamp, and Beginning Contortion, as well as other classes aimed at children as young as 4 and teenagers. SHOW will also offer private lessons in unicycle, diabolo, aerial doubles, juggling and aerial acrobatics.
Wheaton said his goal is to bring the evolving art form of circus performance to the residents of western Massachusetts.
He noted that the revolutionary Cirque du Soleil circus company and others have globally popularized "new circus," in which stories, themes and characters are conveyed through circus performance.
It is that form of circus that SHOW aims to teach and perform in the Valley, said co-owner Chris Oakley, 24, a Northampton resident who trained with Wheaton in Brattleboro.
"The circus community is a very close-knit communiy," Oakley said. "We're just trying to create more of that in the area."
Wheaton produced a show at the Northampton Center for the Arts late last month featuring Chris Oakley, a contortionist and several instructors, and also performed recently on the Amherst Town Common and outside the First Churches in Northampton.
Being visible helps draw potential students, Wheaton said. But it's also what they love to do.
"We're just performers," Wheaton said. "We like performing for people."
Wheaton said that anyone with an interest in circus, whether with prior training or not, is welcome at his studio's classes.
"Circus is just the most fun you can have," Wheaton said. "So many people that would never guess they could do circus can do circus."
Career change
Take Wheaton himself, for example.
The Westhampton resident is a former public school teacher who caught a Cirque show in Florida and was immediately intrigued.
"I started this whole thing when I was 37," he said. "It was quite a career change."
But Wheaton is not your average person in other ways. He raced in 24-hour, ultra-distance bicycle marathons for 19 years and also trained in mixed martial arts in Amherst for a year.
"I don't have any particular natural physical gift," he insists. "I'm really stubborn and willing to put up with a lot of discomfort."
Not everyone who takes classes in circus performance will end up doing it for a living, but Oakley said the craft offers physical benefits.
"It helps people build body awareness," he said. "It's great for people who like to be physical but don't necessarily want to be in a competitive sport."
Circus performers have calluses in strange places - the tops of the feet, the back of the neck. Wheaton demonstrated how he got the latter callus by hanging from the trapeze bar, head tilted back, using only his neck to support his weight.
When Wheaton returned from that Florida trip, wanting to learn more about circus, he could not find any classes in the area.
"There was nothing," he said.
He decided to try to fill the circus school gap in the Valley by opening his school.
Wheaton says he doesn't see his school as competing with his alma mater, but rather simply bringing circus to a wider audience.
He said that SHOW will likely refer promising students to the Vermont school for an intensive program geared toward a career in circus performance.
"More circus is good for everybody," he said.
He and Oakley, who will teach two of the classes, opened the studio in May. They chose the Paragon Building for its 15-foot ceilings, cheap rent and artistic vibe, Wheaton said.
Most of their instructors are former classmates; all have graduated from a teaching program in Brattleboro.
According to instructor biographies on the SHOW Web site, many have performed in circuses around the country and the world.
Oakley has studied circus across the country and performed at the International Contortion Convention in Las Vegas in 2006.
Burlesque dancer Trixie Little is the recipient of Las Vegas' 2006 Exotic World Best Burlesque Duo trophy and has performed at music festivals around the world as well as on television.
Wheaton said he plans to take one of Little's classes himself this fall to brush up on his acting capabilities.
Matt Pilon can be reached at mpilon@gazettenet.com.
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