Saturday, July 24, is another great day in New London come to Fish Tales, Tugs & Sails
on Waterfront Park from 11 to 5,
see the Nathaniel Palmer exhibit at the Custom House,
dine in New London between 5 and 6,
stay for the CIRCUS on the Parade at 6 or 7:30,
then catch the concert at Hygienic Park presenting
Barefoot Truth with Raise the Rent!
A full day of free family activities
in downtown New London
culminates with Nimble Arts Summer Circus Saturday, July 24
New London, CT— Make a full family day of it in downtown New London on Saturday, July 24, when the City of New London presents the renowned Nimble Arts Summer Circus, free of charge, on New London's Parade Plaza, with performances at 6 and 7:30 PM. This small circus troupe from Vermont will surprise you with their internationally award-winning circus arts: trapeze, juggling, comedy, acrobatics. Prepare to be amazed!
The Nimble Arts Troupe. . . is not. . . just a bunch of jerks tossing themselves around on ropes & such, but rather a bunch of seriously excellent performers tossing themselves around on ropes & such.
--The Valley Advocate
Nimble Arts Summer Circus was founded by award-winning aerialists Elsie & Serenity Smith, formerly of Cirque du Soleil. Identical twins specializing in aerial acrobatics, their teaching & performing backgrounds include a 4-year tour on Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco, as well as Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus, Circus of the Kids, the New Pickle Circus, Pilobolus, the Actor's Gym, Circus Juventus, Umo Ensemble & Canopy Aerial Dance Studio. As performers they present a duo trapeze and duo fabric act, as well as various solos on aerial apparatus. Serenity also performs a partner handbalancing act with her husband, Bill Forchion. Bill, besides performing with Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Bros., & The Pickle Family Circus, has an extensive career as a stunt man and actor in film & television.
In 2003 the sisters founded NIMBLE ARTS their Vermont based trapeze & circus school that transitioned into the New England Center for Circus Arts in 2007. Among honors as performers and businesswomen, the sisters won a business plan competition in 2006 for their work with Nimble Arts within the Brattleboro community and have been invited to arts & business consultations with Governor Jim Douglas.
In October, 2008 and the twins received a Special Award at the Wuqiao International Circus Festival in China, an invitation-only competition. And in March, 2009 they won a Bronze Medal award for their duo trapeze act at the International Festival of Circus in Albacete, Spain! The two continue to teach at NECCA and work as Artistic Director and Executive Director of the growing school as well as perform regularly with their company, Nimble Arts.
Nimble Arts Circus performances are just one part of a full day of family-themed events in downtown New London. Circus performances follow FishTales,Tugs & Sails: A Children's Festival for Fun & Learning, which takes place earlier that day, from 11 AM to 5 PM, on New London's Waterfront Park. This nautically-themed family festival celebrates children's literature and the environment and is also presented free of charge. Also on July 24, be sure to visit a special Fish Tales exhibition: Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer: A Maritime Pioneer, based on the book about the Stonington captain who designed the first clipper ships and discovered Antartica, by Stonington author Candace Sanford, (Flat Hammock Press). Presented in conjunction with the Stonington Historical Society, the exhibition is at the Custom House Maritime Museum, which will be open without charge that day.
The next time Nimble Arts puts on another spectacle, be sure to attend for an awe inspiring & heartwarming treat. The performers give the audience gifts unique to small live performances: joy, renewal of spirit, faith in the rightness of the universe, inspiration, and awe at the greatness of human potential.
--Brattleboro Reformer
If you haven't seen their show, you should. This is the real deal.
--Jacques Rapide, Paris Times
High-resolution images available, email: [email protected] or call Susan at 203-444-2884
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from: Burlington Free Press, by Susan Green, Free Press Correspondent • Thursday, June 24, 2010
While growing up as the daughters of a tree farmer who ran a sawmill business in rural Massachusetts, Serenity and Elsie Smith knew how to dance on a log. Today, the identical twins soar above the earth.
The Smith sisters, 39-year-old Brattleboro residents, have a duo trapeze act in their own Nimble Arts touring company. They also operate the New England Center for Circus Arts, which teaches students of all ages — currently, ranging from 18 months to 85 — acrobatics, contortion, juggling, tight-wire and aerial skills.
Unlike their five other siblings, who became doctors and lawyers, the twins opted to work as itinerant artists dazzling crowds with derring-do. They paid their derring-do dues with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey — where Serenity met her acrobat husband, Bill Forchion — and also spent five years with the New Pickle Circus in San Francisco.
In 1997, along with their respective spouses, the Smiths were hired to tour Asia and the Pacific in Cirque du Soleil’s “Saltimbanco” production. “With Ringling, we were (each) just one of the showgirls riding elephants,” Serenity says. “At Cirque, my sister and I became the lead duo trapeze act.”
When that association ended in 2001, “we both wanted to settle down and call our own shots,” Serenity explains. “So we came to Vermont, where our dad had bought a farm in Guilford. We’ve got our own homes now nearby and a space in Brattleboro’s Cotton Mill Building, where we’ve been teaching for the past six years.”
A staff of 14 people help Elsie and Serenity share circus knowledge with about 200 local students every year and another 200 coming in from all over the world. Nimble Arts goes out on the road for two weeks every two months or so, generally performing at benefits and other not-for-profit events.
Serenity sees circus as “a tool for self-esteem. It’s about heart and soul.”
But probably not logs.
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