Author Archives: Circus Smirkus
Skyler Leget
Skyler Leget, Big Top Tour trouper 2020 Skyler is 17 years old and is from Broomfield, Colorado. This is her first year as a Big Top Tour trouper, and although she can’t train with her fellow troupers in Vermont, she continues to strengthen her disciplines on trapeze and corde lisse. She looks forward to an exciting non-quarantined summer in 2021!
Serafina Walker
Serafina Walker, Big Top Tour trouper 2016-2020 Serafina is 17 years old and is from Greenfield, Massachusetts. She is a 5th year Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour trouper who loves her Smirkus family with all her heart. She loves to perform straps and is really missing doing partner and group acrobatics at the moment. During quarantine, she is learning how to sew and enjoys taking long hikes.
Maia Castro-Santos
Maia Castro-Santos, Big Top Tour trouper 2019-2020 Maia Castro-Santos is 17 years old, and she lives in western Massachusetts. Maia performed in the Circus Smirkus 2019 Big Top Tour, and she is hoping to return to the ring in the summer of 2021. Her main circus disciplines are lyra, hula hoops, and aerial fabric. Now that she’s graduated from high school, Maia has been enjoying her freedom by spray painting, writing music, and making Youtube videos. After her gap year, Maia will attend Columbia University.
Soleyman Pierini
Soleyman Pierini, Big Top Tour trouper 2018-2021 Soleyman, who is from Italy and now lives in Canada, practices many circus disciplines, including wire and slack rope walking, juggling, Chinese pole, unicycle, and mime, and is also a film actor and a magician. He loves to brighten people’s faces mixing his clowning and magic. Soleyman is also an instructor with Smirkus@Home and would love to teach you!
Eva Lou Rhinelander
Eva Lou Rhinelander, Big Top Tour trouper 2016-2020 Eva Lou Rhinelander is a rising 10th grader from Melrose, MA. She is a 5th year Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour trouper where she performs hula hooping, contortion, handstands, wire, and clowning. During the school year, Eva competes in dance and is a Level 9 rhythmic gymnast. She is also the world record holder for longest time hula hooping on her nose.
William Borges
William Borges, Big Top Tour trouper 2017-2019 William Borges is 19 years old and attends the National Circus School in Montreal. He is from Long Island New York and grew up doing gymnastics. He was a Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour trouper from 2017 to 2019 and loves to juggle his hats. One fun fact about William is that he is able to hold his breath for over 2 minutes.
The Damm Family
The Damm Family Timo Damm started at Circus Smirkus when he was just 3 weeks old in 2016, accompanied of course by his parents Ariele and Jan who were there to help some other bigger kids make a circus show called the Big Top Tour. In 2019, at the ripe old age of 6 months, Ilsa Damm followed in her brother’s footsteps when the whole Damm family returned again to coach the troupers in the Big Top Tour. Mom and Dad have their own careers performing all over the world dancing on the tightwire, balancing on a rola-bola, and juggling…
Troy Wunderle
Troy Wunderle, Artistic Director of the Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour Troy Wunderle is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of art, and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He is a former international performer with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. For the past twenty-four years, he has toured throughout the United States as a freelance performer and employee of Vermont’s own Circus Smirkus. His antics have been featured on the Disney channel, The Today Show, Martha Stewart, Chronicle, Fetch, Fox and Friends and Americas Funniest Home Videos. Troy is the founder of…
Willow Dixon
Willow Dixon Willow Dixon is a fifth grader from Newburyport, MA and Smirkus Camper. She began attending Theater in the Open’s Summer Arts Workshop in 2014 and since then has appeared in several productions, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Medea, Poe, and A Christmas Carol Panto. She is a member of Newburyport’s Joppa Dance Company and loves to practice circus arts. In her spare time she likes to skateboard, dance, and play with her pets which include a dog, a rabbit, and two lizards.
Kristina Shelton
Kristina Shelton, Big Top Tour trouper 2019-2020 Kristina is 18 years old and from Golden Colorado. She has been performing circus for most of her life. This is her second year as a Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour trouper. She performs with MOTH Poetic Circus. While the world has been shut down, she started taking online classes with the Community College of Denver with a major in nutrition.