Kids on the Trapeze with the Greatest of Ease
Ladies and Gentleman! Orchard School presents CircOrchard, its 8th annual children’s circus, featuring the entire 60-strong student body performing clown antics, juggling, acrobatics, unicycling, stilt walking, and circus spoofs. The not-to-be-missed public show will be April 23 at 2pm at the Scotts Valley Cultural and Performing Arts Center. See ticket information below.
Over the years, audiences have been wowed by the expertise and creativity of the school’s young performers, as well as impressed by their confidence level and powerful stage presence. The show, under the direction of teacher and professional performer, Rock Lerum, is created fresh every year with the addition of new, kid-generated skits, and an ever-growing student skill level that infuses new energy and ideas into some of the old standards.
Lerum has been teaching at Orchard School since 1999 and won a Gail Rich award in 2003 for his work in the community. In 2007, he took nine of the school’s students to New York City where they rode 6-foot tall giraffe unicycles, danced on stilts, sang and clowned in the Good Morning America studios in Times Square, as finalists in a national contest for the Oreo Cookie Jingle.
Over the past decade, the entire school has packed up props, costumes, performers, music and sets to perform free shows, including a rendition of the Yellow Submarine Magical Mystery Tour and more recently, CircOrchard, at local schools including Gault, Calabasas, DeLaveaga, Ohlone and Pacific School.
You may have seen Orchard School students when they delighted the Santa Cruz Warrior’s crowds at halftime in 2014 and 2017 or when they performed with the Santa Cruz County Symphony as part of their family concert series, in the programs Here Comes the Circus and Under the Boardwalk, at the Santa Cruz Civic Center and the Mello Center in Watsonville in 2010 and 2012.
Orchard School is a small, non-profit, private K-6th school located on 14 beautiful acres in Aptos. The school’s mission is to bring learning to life with a comprehensive hands-on curriculum that celebrates childhood and focuses on the arts as well as traditional academics. The teachers are specialists in their field who share a commitment to make sure students get out in nature and move their bodies as much as possible.
To purchase tickets visit orchardschoolaptos.org. Tickets are $14 for adults, $7 for those under 12 and over 65, and free for children under 2. For more information, call or email: 688-1074, [email protected]
