The owners of the school are looking for bigger space to accommodate all those who want to learn.
Luc Hallsey,10, practices his moves at the SHOW Circus Studio in Easthampton.
EASTHAMPTON - Henry Wheaton and Chris Oakley didn’t plan on opening a circus school.
But the pair, who met at a circus arts school in Brattleboro in 2007, decided to offer some classes to help pay for the space they had rented in the Paragon Arts building for training.
Wheaton was living in Westhampton and Oakley decided to move to the Pioneer Valley and they needed somewhere to work.
Soon the classes they were teaching paid all their rent and that 900-square-foot space became too small. They moved down the hall into a 1,500-square-foot space but soon outgrew that as well.
Now Show Circus Studio is a 2,500-square foot full-time circus school for children and adults. And the business partners are looking for land or a new bigger building with higher ceilings to accommodate the growing group who want to learn and keep learning.
The building’s ceilings are 15 1/2 feet tall, which is fine for youngsters and those started to learn. But for those who want to pursue the profession they need ceilings that are at least 25 to 30 feet high.
The two, who had no business experience or any desire to open a business, said they’re amazed at how the school has grown. Wheatley said despite the recession, they’ve been operating in the black six months after the school began drawing hundreds to each session of classes and adding classes as well.
Show Circus Studio offers classes in circus acrobatics and juggling and in aerials, which includes the trapeze and fabric among the circus arts.
The pair said they want to offer a community for people who love the circus and, as Oakley said, for students “to have fun learning and be healthy. (They want to) encourage the performing side of circus.” They do that through the performances that end each session of classes, much the way a musician would perform in a recital.
“We want to make sure we offer a safe and welcoming (place.)” Oakley said, “Safety is a big thing.”
The pair has been able to fill classes merely by word of mouth and draw people from all over the valley and beyond, with some coming from Boston.
During vacation week they were to offer a two-day winter program for kids but the storm cut that into a single day.
Still the 15, 6 to 12 year olds were having a blast learning how to become an angel on the trapeze or how to walk a tightrope.
Twelve year-old Daia Bromberg and her 9-year-old sister, Sadie, started taking classes and workshops there soon after the school opened in 2009. Seeing how much fun they were having, their mother Audrey Hyvonen took classes herself and now works as the office manager.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Daia Bromberg. She likes working with the hula-hoop and the trapeze. Her sister likes the trapeze. She also likes the fabric in which performers climb up like a rope and wrap themselves in it.
Luc Hallisey, 10, has also taken classes before. “I really like the fabric and the trapeze.” And when asked if he wanted to run away and join a circus he said “most days.”
Claire Michaels, 8, of Amherst was at her first class, a Christmas present from her grandmother. “It’s a lot of fun,” she said. She, too, likes the fabric “you get to wrap and tangle yourself.” She also liked walking the tightrope but she said “it was really hard for me.”
Both she and Luc have seen Cirque du Soleil. “Luc said, “It’s more fun to do it (than watch.)” But Michaels said watching “they’re very flexible. They have talents not a lot of people have.”
Hyvonen said the classes “pushes them (her daughters) physically. It challenges them physically and emotionally to overcome fear and work in balance with the group.”
The studio “creates a safe secure environment to explore those edges (of fear.)”
At the same it time “it’s really fun, they look forward to coming.”
They take classes during the week as well as the winter workshop.
Oakley, 27, has been training with the circus for 10 years. “I was always a physical child. My father was a musician, my sister an actor. I was trying to find my place. I like a challenge.”
Wheatley, who’s 44, was a public school teacher who didn’t take his first circus class until he was 37. “I couldn’t find a gymnastics school for adult males in Boston.” He ended up at the New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro and loving it.