Jo Montgomery, ARNP, Executive Director

Jo is a pediatric nurse practitioner at Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (a satellite of Seattle Children’s Hospital). She has worked for Children’s since 1983 as both a staff nurse and a nurse practitioner. Like many pediatric care providers, she has noticed an alarming increase in the rates of childhood obesity, and is looking for creative and practical ways to address the problem. Jo began gymnastics training at age 7 and returned to it years later when she met Chuck and members of a local circus. SANCA represents the fusion of her strong desire to improve the health and well-being of as many children as possible with first hand knowledge of the fun of acrobatics and circus arts.
 
Charles Johnson, Director of Programs

Chuck’s lifelong interest in circus began at age 10 when his grandparents took him to a circus show in Portland. He taught himself to juggle and began gymnastics training at 13.  As an adult, Chuck helped found the Cascade Youth Circus and has been involved in youth circus, gymnastics coaching and certification on a national level and has performed acrobatics and juggling professionally. Chuck is certified in heavy construction and stunt rigging and was part of the rigging crew for “Spiderman.”
 Foremost among these many talents is Chuck’s teaching style. He has a great ability to instill confidence and provide success to even the most timid beginner. Chuck’s teaching experience includes: Director of Acrobatics at Circus Arts and Acrobatics, Inc., Roseville, CA, coaching a cheerleading program of 350 students in Roseville, CA, teaching beginning and intermediate level acrobatics, in Portland, OR and teaching competitive, recreational and fitness gymnastics to all ages in the greater Seattle area.

Wendy Allen  was born and raised in California. She began gymnastics at the age of six and immediately fell in love. Twelve years later, after graduating high school, she retired from competitive gymnastics and coached team gymnastics for the next ten years while getting a BA in Film and Video and starting her own video editing company.  In 2009 Wendy was asked to teach gymnastics to a local after-school circus program. She loved it and quickly decided she wanted more circus! In 2010 Wendy moved to Seattle and fully immersed herself in the circus world. Now Wendy helps run the SANCA office, teaches tumbling, and is continually learning new circus tricks!

Zora Blade

Marta Brown  discovered circus at Oberlin College after a long career in competitive gymnastics, ballet, and modern dance. Taking short breaks to work on a degree in International Relations, she flipped, tumbled, and flew through her four years of undergrad.  Marta performed each year in the student-run OCircus! and taught adult tumbling classes on the side.  After graduating she moved to Seattle to teach and train at SANCA. She currently teaches students of  all ages and levels and coordinates SANCA’s offsite outreach programs. In her spare time she enjoys being thrown into the air by Coach Nick and Coach Erica in their Russian Bar act.

Carl Bystrom is shown here performing in our summer 2010 staff show. He has been a juggling instructor at SANCA for several years.

Carey Cramer Although a dancer and gymnast from the age of 3, Carey found circus relatively late in her life at Oberlin College in Ohio in 2008. After a one-month intensive in aerial rope she knew she had stumbled upon something wonderful. She spent the next 18 months at Oberlin with trips to Seattle to teach and train at SANCA, then transferred colleges, moved to Seattle permanently, and has been training intensively in aerial rope and teaching all ages at the beloved circus school since. Carey is now at Ecole Nationale de Cirque in Montreal, but we hope to see her in the summer of 2012.

Emma Curtiss

Sage Cushman

Jeff Deveaux is living proof that anyone, at any age, can learn new tricks! At the tender age of 33 he ran away from a high-paying technical job to join a circus school in New Zealand. Originally a juggler, he was soon captivated by the high-flying arts and specialized as a catcher for doubles and flying trapeze, but continued juggling and slack-rope walking on the side. After a brief but brilliant performing career in productions including Circus Under the Stars, A Woken Voice, Hotel, and Overhead Risk, and a more traditional theatrical experience as Nugget in Equus, Jeff "retired" from the performing life. Upon his return to Seattle, he became the first volunteer and assistant coach at SANCA teaching adult classes.

Joselynn Engstrom, a scientist by study, ran away and joined the circus in 2006. She enjoys playing on the static trapeze, dancing, stilt walking, acrobatics, and playing with fire.  She began her time at SANCA as a student in 2008, became a volunteer years later and now is lucky enough to get paid for doing what she loves - CIRCUS!  She has performed with many groups including the internationally renowned Dream Science Circus; Seattle's Circus Contraption & Orkestar Zirkonium; Michael Franti & Spearhead; the Moisture Festival; and fantastic shows at SANCA.  Joselynn enjoys making costumes, bubbles, making children laugh and eating yummy food.

Kristie Essary

Andreas Fetz began dabbling in circus arts began at a very young age with juggling balls, twirling devil sticks and whirling diabolos. Growing up in Montana, he didn't have any opportunities for circus training and didn't even know it was a possibility--so he threw himself into soccer, tae kwon do and other athletics. After discovering SANCA, he was able to fulfill his childhood curiosity of the circus and has been in love with the place ever since. He has studyied aerials, acrobatics, and tumbling, but now focuses on handbalancing, ever searching for more ways to express the noble handstand. A yoga teacher and certified personal trainer, he found the transition to teaching at SANCA was a natural one for him and finally, after hanging around the gym long enough, they let him.

Nick Harden got his start in circus in college at the Illinois State University Gamma Phi Circus.  He trained and performed in many acts including German wheel, Russian bar, unicycle, acrobatics, tightwire, and teeterboard.  He graduated in December 2008 with a degree in physical education.  However, he had been bitten hard by the circus bug, and knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his days in the circus arts.  He still enjoys performing, and is always striving to improve upon his circus skills and knowledge.  Nick is now the Assistant Program Director at SANCA.  He loves teaching and working with students of all ages, and looks forward to helping SANCA grow and thrive for years to come!

Alyssa Hellrung tried the flying trapeze for the first time at a Club Med resort in the Bahamas and it changed her life. In the fifteen years since that first flight she has trained in flying and static trapeze, trampoline, chinese acrobatics, and dance at Circus Center San Francisco, worked as a circus G.O. at Club Med Sandpiper, and spent eight summers working as a circus instructor, head coach of flying trapeze, catcher, and eventually Director of Circus Arts at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in upstate New York. In 2005, a few years after moving to Seattle for graduate school, she began training aerially with Lara Paxton of Circus Contraption and has more recently moved to SANCA to train with Kari Podgorski. Alyssa has been performing in Seattle as a static aerialist, mainly on solo and duo trapeze, for over three years. She received her Ph.D. in Women Studies in June of 2009 and is now the Program Director of the brand new SANCA School of Flight.

Tyler Henry

David Johnson is a part of our Fly Team

Elizabeth Landsman (Coach Izzie to her students), like so many others, discovered circus at Oberlin College, by way of OCircus!, the resident student circus troupe.  By her graduation, she had performed in and helped to design and produce more than six OCircus! productions.  After graduating she moved to Seattle to work at SANCA, where she now mostly teaches children under seven (who delight and amuse her to no end).  In addition to instructing young children in circus arts, she is also a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, and has illustrated Shadows, a young adult novella; publications for the National Association for the Education of Young Children; and a multitude of flyers, event posters, and tee-shirts.

Nicholas Lowery began his sideways stumble into the world of circus at Oberlin college, where he discovered the art of contact juggling. He quickly became embroiled in the student-run troupe OCircus! and performed in 5 circus productions while at Oberlin. During this time he also began exploring other circus arts, such as hula hooping, and had his first teaching experience sharing contact juggling with other students. When he completed his degree in mathematics, he found his way to SANCA, and couldn't believe his good fortune. He now splits his busy, exciting days between teaching classes, coordinating birthday parties, making music, practicing his skills, and exploring new areas such as aerial arts and Chinese pole.

Jasmine Manuel first discovered circus through the documentary Fire Within. After watching hours of Cirque du Soleil on video and DVD she finally decided to look for a way to do these things herself. With the help of the internet she found SANCA. Jasmine has since been a part of the Youth Performance Company and has had the pleasure of performing to audiences of all shapes and sizes. She specializes in tightwire and attends Seattle Pacific University when she is not working in SANCA's office or teaching wirewalking.

Jon McClintock's day job has him traveling all around the world so he is taking a break from coaching.

Jon moved to Seattle and was serendipitously swallowed up by the wondrous world of circus arts. He started aerial training with Lara Paxton in 2004, building on the strength and body dynamics developed while sport climbing. He continues the downward spiral into pancratic proclivities while training and teaching aerial rope classes at SANCA. While Jon’s primary focus is vertical apparatus, rope and fabric, he is a man of many circus skills and can wow you with his work on static trapeze, the unicycle, juggling and acrobatics.

Nickolai Pirak’s interest in circus began in 2000 when he saw a German Wheel act in Cirque du Soleil. Since then, he has studied German Wheel, juggling and object manipulation in Germany and here in Seattle. He works as an independent performer and is now the Director of the Youth Performance Co. at SANCA.

Sarah Prochnau, putting her Master's degree in Ecclesiatical Medieval History to good use, now works at the circus school and her parents are really proud of her.

Rachel Randall  is excited to be back in the world of circus and acrobatics! She is a former competitive gymnast and performed with Professor Bud’s Mini Circus as a kid, yet her foremost passion is dance. She graduated from the University of Washington in 2007 with degrees in dance and anthropology. She also holds a Professional Diploma in Dance Studies from Laban Conservatory in London and has danced professionally in Washington, California, New York, Canada, London, and Ghana West Africa.  Rachel is currently developing her own company, RandAll Dance which she founded in 2009.  Stay tuned for upcoming projects and performance: www.randalldance.com

Chelsey Rea has a background of 16-years in competitive gymnastics, professional high diving, hand-to-hand and dance, and after she found the Imperial Flyers of Colorado in 2002, it soon became clear that circus was going to be the next path in chelsey’s adventures. Over the next 8 years she became a child at play, touring the States, Canada and Europe as an Aerial Acrobat.  In this time she had the honor of working and/or training with Peter Gold of Trapeze Experience, Jacinth Trembley of National Circus School of Montreal, Sam Alverez of Montreal, David Clarkson of Stalker Theater, nofitstate Circus, Circus Smirkus and most recently toured with the Flying Tunizianis and stilt walked for Cirque du Soleil w/ co-SANCA staff member Leslie Rosen. Currently, Chelsey is proud to be teaching at SANCA and is starting to call Seattle home. She has officially unpacked and has even bought a few plants.

Leslie Rosen teaches circus arts and hoop dancing classes at SANCA. Outside of the circus Leslie combines over twelve years of belly dance training with fire performance to create a fusion that is powerful and beautiful. She is a member of Pyrosutra (fire performance) and Raqs Serpentine (bellydance). She has spent the last five years bringing the two art forms together in her instructional DVD "Bellydancing with Fire.” Pyrosutra is one of America's oldest and most respected fire performance troupes with an international reputation. They have been featured at the Winter Olympic Games, Cirque du Soleil cast parties and Dance Spirit Magazine. Raqs Serpentine has had the longest running and most popular monthly bellydance show in the Seattle and celebrated its fourth anniversary in March 2008.

Erica Rubinstein studied neuroscience and dance at Oberlin College but more importantly, college was where she discovered the wonderful world of circus. At Oberlin she co-founded a tumbling club, directed a kid's circus class, and performed in and helped organize OCircus productions. She has also competed in, judged and taught gymnastics. Now she is happy to have found SANCA where she teaches circus classes, assistant directs the youth company, and is the outreach director. She also trains to be an all-around strong base and porter!

Emily Scherb is a part of our Fly Team

Spencer Stephens is a part of our Fly Team

Terri Sullivan already had a strong background in gymnastics and improv comedy when she met members of the New Vaudeville group, The New Old Time Chautauqua. Doing shows with them and performers like The Flying Karamazov Brothers as acrobat and choreographer inspired her to revisit her gymnastics roots and to expand into the area of circus performing. After taking adult gymnastics classes in Seattle, and training in flying trapeze and acrobatics at The San Francisco School of Circus Arts, she began coaching at The Seattle Gymnastics Academy where she founded the Summer Circus Camp program. When SANCA opened she was asked to bring her special combination of gymnastics, circus skills, and performing to their students. Terri, over the past 18 years, has also operated her own businesses the latest of which is the wildly popular Cuban coffeehouse El Diablo Coffee Co. located at the top of Queen Anne Hill.

Jeff Tretheway is a part of our Fly Team

Jacki Ward was recently awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, for which she will travel and train for one year, studying a variety of contortion traditions around the world. We hope to have her return to SANCA in 2012!

Ezra Weill

Orville Zharoff   grew up up on Kodiak Island, and worked in commercial fishing in Bristol Bay; the only thing that comes close to being as challenging to the Alaskan fishing life has been circus arts.  Through years of practice Orville has achieved skills in tumbling, juggling, and partner movements.  Polishing those skills and teaching circus arts have been a fun way of applying his nearly limitless energy. Orville’s experiences include cheerleading, Dance Drill Teams, performing and choreographing with Swing Dance and Ballroom Dance troupes, and teaching partner dances and partner movements for over 8 years.  His current passion is in all forms of Acro and is practicing/performing with his partner, Kelly Howard. Both of them can be found in the air and upside down all over town almost every day.