How Smirkus Saved My Life
Editor’s note: This post was written by a 2017-2018 Smirkus camper who prefers to remain anonymous but willingly shared this beautiful essay about Smirkus Camp. During the summer of 2017 I was in a dark place. I had just gotten out of an abusive relationship and felt worthless and unwanted and that I was a burden to everyone around me. I was lost and depressed and my OCD was getting the better of me. I had no idea of what I was going to do with my life except a vague “art”. This was all until I stepped foot at Smirkus Camp…
VIDEO: Audition for Smirkus
Applications and audition videos for the 2019 Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour and Advanced Smirkus Camps are due November 1. Make sure to start your applications early so you don’t forget anything last minute. Click here for more information.
Say Cheese!
Editor’s note: This story was written by Smirkus Camp Communications & Sales Associate Brady Rainville. Walking around camp with a camera in hand is a smile-filled experience. When one of the campers sees me peering at them with my lens, they start to showcase both their talent and their smiles. They briefly make eye-contact and pass along a message in just one quick glance. They are telling me to watch what they are about to do. With the camera on them, the spotlight is too. Knowing they now have mine, and more importantly, the camera’s attention, they look away from the lens…
Fun With Choice Time
At Smirkus Camp, the morning routine is a series of rotations for the campers to go over general skills of the acrobatics, aerials, clowning, and juggling disciplines. This time is for the campers to get a basic understanding of what circus is. Campers move from one tent to the next with their group learning and practicing the different talents and acts together The afternoon routine looks much differently, however. In the afternoons for the first week of Session IV for example, campers are given the opportunity of choice time. These special blocks are for the campers to work even more…
CAMP ROAD SHOW DATES
Did you know that our campers perform too? Smirkus Camp Road Show will have 7 FREE public performances. Come enjoy a display of circus skills including juggling, acrobatics, clowning, and more from our campers at Session IV and V! SMIRKUS CAMP JUNIOR ROAD SHOW: FREE PUBLIC PERFORMANCES Sunday July 29th 12:15 p.m. Lake Champlain Maritime Festival, Burlington, VT Tuesday July 31st 2 p.m. Powers Park, Lyndonville, VT Thursday August 2nd 10 a.m. Greensboro Free Library, Greensboro, VT SMIRKUS CAMP ROAD SHOW: FREE PUBLIC PERFORMANCES Saturday August 11th 12:15 p.m. & 3:15 p.m. Derby Line Day, Derby Line, VT Monday August 13th 9:30 a.m. Irasburg…
Boogie Shoes and the Smirkle of Happiness
The last night of Session III came to an end in epic fashion, with the Camper Dance! As the day ended, Campers filed into our big top, Mamma Mia, to celebrate our time together by showing off our dance moves. With smiles on their faces and passion in their soles, this was one of the last memory making moments for these campers. Lyrics were sung and the YMCA was performed and it was a great way for our campers to relax after spending a majority of the day prepping for the showcase the following day. When the music finally died…
What’s In A Name?
Arriving on the Smirkus Camp site you are greeted by an assortment of colorful circus tents. Inside these tents is where the magic of camp happens. On any given day you will find clowns working on their improvisation, acrobats learning new tumbling skills, aerialists hanging high on trapeze, lyra or rope, jugglers tossing their clubs, and much more. As a new member of the Smirkus Family, my first tour of the campus included an introduction to all of the tents. Smirkus is my first experience of the circus world, and so I was unaware of the tradition to name circus…
Cool Campers
With temperatures in the 90s all week it would have been easy for campers to become overheated, easily fatigued, and a little out of the Smirkus Spirit. Thankfully, this did not happen. Along with the constant reminders to campers to drink water, Smirkus provided plenty of fun water activities to keep campers as cool as their personalities. When the heat first started settling in on Monday, there were cold shaving cream filled trays and a hose on hand to provide both smiles and a break from the heat. Pie Day was a hit with campers and staff alike, all relishing…
Dinner Dress Up: Pirates vs Ninjas
After a full day of climbing silks, walking on stilts, and flying on the trapeze, it’s time for dinner. This is Smirkus Camp, after all, so not just any old outfit will do. In groups of campers and counselors alike, stealthy ninjas and rogue pirates arrive ready to fill up on some delicious evening fare. “Arggghhh,” they sneered, giggling as they held their hooked hands high into the sky. The ninjas were silent as their masked faces tip toed through the gravel path. Cabin by cabin, groups of campers streamed by, eyepatches, bandanas, tutus, trash bags, leotards, and so much more being looped and…
Why Do You Love Smirkus Camp?
“Why do you love Smirkus camp?” I asked them, walking up to the campers in the middle of their afternoon activity. First I asked a young boy hanging upside down from a railing, then his friend watching eagerly from the side. “Because it’s awesome,” he said, running off for more fun before I could grab his name. “I just like circus. Aerials, juggling, unicycle, basically everything,” Ruby laughed, throwing her arms up to motion to the area around her. After just one day on the grounds, she was hooked. I looked to the left to find more campers, ones who weren’t…