Circus, circus

Hannah begins the first of six performances tonight with Circus Juventas, the largest youth circus arts school in the country (if not the world), based right here in beautiful St. Paul under a permanent big top.  Like just about every other adult, I attended my first Circus Juventas performance with a somewhat patronizing attitude — oh, now we can watch children do cartwheels — and like just about every other adult, I was totally blown away.  They do it all, from unicycles to flying trapeze to some of the most remarkable juggling and aerial straps work I have ever seen, including at Cirque du Soleil.  The spring show starts tonight and will involve more than 600 kids over the course of two weeks.  Hannah will do Side by Side Trapeze and a Hip Hop-infused acrobatics routine.  Now that we are “Circus Moms” (well, Jane has actually joined the Rigger Dads — setting up cables and hauling mats throughout the performances), we can sit with the other in-the-know parents and talk about how we wish there had been something like this when we were kids.