04/19/2025
Thanks to Serenity Smith Forchion of American Circus Alliance & NECCA & State Senator Emilie Kornheiser for the official VT proclamation of World Circus Day ; DFC is honored to be included!
Statehouse Proclamation Celebrates Circus in Vermont and World Circus Day on April 19
On April 19, the State of Vermont and the world will celebrate World Circus Day! Representative Emilie Kornheiser is presenting the proclamation in collaboration with Serenity Smith Forchion, co-founder of the New England Center for Circus Arts, who initiated the connection.
“The world has been celebrating World Circus Day for 15 years,” explains Forchion who brought together 30+ Vermont circus companies and artists to initiate the proclamation. “The United States does not officially recognize circus as an art form, which makes it challenging when there is no box to tick when applying for grants, no entry point into the funding relationships. We thought it would be an important step to invite our state to recognize the prodigious influence circus has had here, and Emilie was instrumental to making a proclamation happen.”
It is hard to exactly trace the influence of circus on the state, but there are records from the mid 1800’s of the circus arriving by train in Burlington, Montpelier, Rutland and Brattleboro bringing international culture and diversity to the rural state. In Brattleboro, elephants were unloaded and walked across the bridge to perform on Island Park in the middle of the Connecticut River. The island was washed away in a series of floods in the 1900s, and circus faded due to competition from moving pictures and then television. However, circus has had a resurgence in Vermont - from Greensboro’s Circus Smirkus big top tour for youth, to New England Center for Circus Arts’ custom built trapezium that houses the top US school for aspiring circus professionals, to Wunderle’s Big Top Adventures offering in school residencies that inspire the spirit and foster the talents of all, and Circus Minimus offering community connection workshops using circus.
A few of the notable Vermont circus artists include Stephen Stearns and Peter Gould, proclaimed the Clown Jewels of Vermont, and identical twin founders Elsie Smith and Serenity Smith Forchion of Nimble Arts and NECCA have won many international awards for their aerial and directing work. They received the 2016 Governor’s Award for Excellence also awarded in 2008 to Circus Smirkus founder Rob Mermin, himself a European circus and television star before settling in Greensboro. Guinness World Record Holder Jade Kindar Martin grew up as a youth performer with Circus Smirkus before embarking on an international career as a high wire walker, and Jan Damm of Brattleboro recently completed a tour on the newly revamped Ringling Circus as the lead clown character.
The scope of circus companies and artists who entertain and use circus to offer empowering activities for youth and adults can be seen through the events being offered around World Circus Day. World Circus Day is the third Saturday of April each year, declared as such by Her Royal Princess Stephanie of Monaco who is an avid supporter of circus. 2025 marks the 15th World Circus Day, and as stated in the proclamation:
“The Vermont Statehouse hereby proclaims April 19, 2025, as World Circus Day in the state of Vermont (and). . .that the Vermont Statehouse recognizes and applauds the significant past and ongoing contributions of all Vermont circus companies and individuals to the state's cultural and artistic heritage and future.”
World Circus Day events across the state are indicative of the many circus artists and organizations that abound and influence the culture and economy of this little state.
NECCA launches Circus Springboard Show: Thank You For Waiting in Brattleboro before taking the show on a tour of New England including Rutland, Greensboro, Townshend and Keene. Workshops and classes with international draw bring thousands of visitors each year. www.circusschool.org
Nimble Arts is launching its LakeSide Studio series of circus and tree dancing workshops in Tinmouth, Vermont. www.nimblearts.org
Circus Minimus/Kevin & Erin O’Keefe of Brattleboro are on retreat at Kripalu Center juggling, creating partner acro sequences, walking on pipes, and celebrating World Circus Day with students age 7-77. www.circusminimus.com
Wunderle’s Big Top Adventures hosts their annual Circus Vacation Camp at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. www.bigtopadventures.com
Circus Smirkus is offering fans a free viewing of the 2022 Big Top Tour: On the Road Again show video on April 19-20. smirkus.org
The Diamond Family Circus kicks off a collaborative circus arts workshop series for elders and adults with disabilities in the rural Northeast Kingdom community of Island Pond, VT. https://www.nekcouncil.org/under-the-big-top
April 19 is opening day of the 5th annual online International Circus Film Festival, founded and directed by Diamond Family Circus cofounder and Northeast Kingdom resident Marisa Diamond: www.circusinternationalfilmfest.com/
Maia Castro-Santos will be holding a rehearsal at Lines VT Dance Studio for her students spring showcase. www.linesvt.com/kids
Upper Valley Circus Collective is running their Spring Session Classes in White River Junction, VT. More camps and sessions at www.uvcircus.com
American Circus Alliance founding members Ariele Ebacher and Serenity Smith Forchion of Brattleboro are running a membership drive to coincide with World Circus Day. The ACA is a service and advocacy organization dedicated to circus performance and production in the United States www.americancircusalliance.org
PRSM in the NE Kingdom offers an artist residency program to give a circus artist a place that will fully embrace them and help to actualize creations they are dreaming up. Applications at http://prsmvt.com
It is hard to measure how much circus happens in this little state of Vermont, but it is likely with the number of circus residencies, shows and camps that there is more circus per capita in Vermont than any other US state.
