Circus Arts at Cedarwood: An Update from Ms. Pearl
Cedarwood children don’t have to run away to join the circus — they just have to run to school!
In movement class, grades 2-8 are learning exciting circus skills. The challenges grow year by year, with new equipment and complicated tricks added to the program.
Circus class is a wonderful combination of inner and outer focus. There are many solo challenges that require bravery, physical attention, and practice. For example, to stay on the rolling globe takes many tries and commitment to take quick steps in a steady rhythm. But one must also be ready to teach and learn from classmates, as that is where the most progress happens. And keeping the room humming in a safe buzz of action, or putting tricks together in a routine, takes a lot of care and cooperation — every day I am amazed by my students executing all of this!
Circus and I found each other after a childhood spent playing sports. I wanted to try something new with theater, but when I enrolled in the drama department at college, I found it slow and dry. Then I met the clowns! When I went to circus rehearsal, we would do push-ups. I loved that mix of physical and creative: you train hard to achieve precision, and yet there is always a total possibility of what could be created next.
Our classes at Cedarwood have this magic about them. There are instructions and lots of safety guidelines, but once those are established, the students get to create and discover new moves and tricks.
Here are just some of the things you could ask your students about:
Second grade has been feather balancing and beginning to work with the rolling globe.
Third grade began this block by creating scarf routines and performing them. Now they are having their first go at unicycle and rolling globe.
Fourth grade started to work with the diablo (Chinese yo-yo) and rola bola (balance board); they’re also practicing their globe and unicycle skills.
Fifth grade will do all of the above, and is also having their first year of stilt walking. We use strap-on stilts, which can make the students close to 8 feet tall!
Sixth grade has begun all of the skills described above. Because they weren’t able to do stilts last year, many students are getting their first experience with them this year. They’ve also begun comic acting and skit creation (they’re hilarious).
Seventh grade is juggling! They, too, will get to work with stilts, rola bola, plate spinning, and rolling globe.
Eighth graders are choosing the skills they want to improve the most. They’ve been learning these skills through the years and now can return to them and push their abilities even farther!
Throughout the years, students at Cedarwood have performed for other classes and at assemblies, outdoor events, and even at off-site locations. This year will be a skill building year, sharing within their own class. But I know the circus will be busting back out of the gym as soon as we’re able to safely!
Curious about a Waldorf education for your child? Let’s connect!
Heather Pearl grew up playing in the woods, fields and waters of Connecticut. Basketball, soccer and track were her first sports loves, followed by ultimate frisbee and biking in her 20s. Heather moved to San Francisco to attend SFSU, and it was there she fulfilled her secret desire to study drama, which luckily led to her meeting clowns and circus performers. At a rehearsal one day where people were doing push-ups, running around and creating work to make people laugh, Pearl found her calling. In the city by the Bay, she performed solo, as well as with Clown Conspiracy, the SF Women’s Circus, Make*a*Circus and Clown Mobile. In 1996-97, Pearl attended and completed the Dell’arte International school of physical theater in Blue Lake, California.
In 1998, she moved to Portland and joined do Jump! extremely physical theater, with which she performed for four years and taught for seven. After leaving doJump!, she co-founded the nomadic theatre Company with Michael O'Neill. In 2001, Pearl received a call to help out at an after-school circus class at Portland Waldorf school.
Heather began substituting on a regular basis, and her interest in spacial dynamics grew. In 2004, she began her five-year, level 1 spacial dynamics training. In 2005, she was hired as the first movement education teacher at Cedarwood. Developing the Movement Education Program has been one of Ms. Pearl's greatest joys in life. An experience that continues to provide new challenges and inspirations, to always meet who the children standing in front of her are--and what they most need and will thrive learning! There are calm and sweet moments teaching, but never dull ones!