Circus skills in school

By Sarah Schwager
INSTEAD of hanging out with friends at lunchtime, a group of students have been perfecting acrobatics, juggling, unicycling and diablo at Cranbourne Secondary College.
The students, who are in years eight to 10, have been working on their circus acts all year.
They recently put on a show to enthralled students and teachers.
Choreographer and drama teacher Simone Donald said she and home economics and physical education teacher Leigh Jordan have been running a course two nights a week after school, teaching the students various circus skills.
Ms Donald said the students had now honed their skills, which include dancing, balancing, poi and devil’s sticks, and had incorporated them into an original show.
In the performance, a girl wakes up into a circus dream world in which she is able to view the circus performers without them seeing her.
“The kids are amazing. They’ve been doing the rehearsal all in their own time, during lunchtime, after school and at home,” Ms Donald said.
“It’s been great watching their skills go from not being able to juggle balls to this. One boy even rides the unicycle.”
The circus group had another performance at an awards ceremony at the Frankston Arts Centre on 11 December.
Next year they plan to take their show to other schools and run a workshop teaching other students certain circus moves.
Ms Donald said she hoped they would then be ready to perform the show for patients at the Royal Children’s Hospital.