Hilltop Circus

High Mowing is unique in that developmental circus arts is built into our movement curriculum. Developmental circus arts has three fundamental elements:

• Unique skills - The physical skills that serve as the basis for youth circus activities are unique to circus: juggling, acrobatics, equilibristics, clowning, and aerials.
• Collaborative approach - Youth circus is by definition non-competitive, departing from the team-versus-team tournament model found in sports and the access-by-audition model of elite performance arts groups, in favor of the “troupe” model where youth participate in the spirit of “all for one and one for all.”
• Radically inclusive - Youth circus is radically inclusive of all young people of every age, athletic capability, body size, developmental capability, socioeconomic status, academic standing, race, and gender.

“Preparing a circus provides an arena for positive social interaction and increased self-efficacy for all,” says Hilltop Circus founder Jackie Davis, EdM. “For example, circus skills develop bimanual coordination, balance, and postural control. And circus skills like juggling may also foster the executive function of attention.” (Executive functions are the mental processes required to plan, self-regulate, remember instructions, and more, which are vital to learning.)

“On the surface, these skills are just fun things to see and learn,” says Jon Roitman, High Mowing’s movement and circus teacher, as well as the Hilltop Director. “But they translate to much bigger life and social skills.

“I’ve been working in the circus field for decades,” Jon says. “And, over and over, I see children in circus programs grow their circus skills, executive function, persistence — with of course, strength, flexibility, and coordination.”

The first Hilltop Circus was held in February 1996. Each year since then, High Mowing middle schoolers have presented acts such as the following — and learned more than the skills themselves:

• Tumbling, human pyramids, and acrobatics, which build trust in peers and teaches individuals their responsibility to the whole.
• Juggling, where students practice eye-hand coordination, concentration, and persistence.
• Feats of balance on the unicycle, tightwire, rolling globe, balance board, and stilts — giving students opportunities to confront and overcome fear as well as to maintain composure in unstable situations.
• Friendly clowns, who offer the performers and the audience the chance to explore human emotions: waves of confusion mixed with cleverness, frustration with joy.
• Aerial acts on trapeze and aerial fabric, where students build physical and mental strength and endurance.

• Grade 1-3: Basic tumbling and acrobatics (practice that continues through all grades); bean bags, balance beams
• Grade 4: Flower sticks, diabolos, unicycling, simple vaulting
• Grade 5: Toss juggling (balls), rola bolas, rolling globes, vaulting with mini-trampoline
• Grade 6: Ring and club juggling, tightwire, partner acrobatics
• Grade 7: Review, poi, club twirling, clowning, performance studies, Hilltop Circus
• Grade 8: Review, human pyramids, clowning, performance studies, Hilltop Circus
• Grades 9-12: Students can choose circus as an elective and, throughout the year, have circus as a morning activity. For students who are especially drawn to the circus arts, High Mowing offers the Circus Studies Program