| Circus Smirkus | |
| Circus Name: | Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour |
| Country: | United States |
| Founder: | Rob Mermin |
| Year: | 1987 |
| Director: | Interim co-Executive Directors: Joshua Shack & Rachel Schiffer Big Top Tour Show Director: Stephanie Abrams |
| Traveling: | Yes |
| Tent: | Yes |
| Winter: | Greensboro, Vermont, United States |
| Website: | www.smirkus.org |
Circus Smirkus is a non-profit,[1] award-winning, international youth circus founded in 1987 by Rob Mermin. Based in Greensboro, Vermont, the mission of Circus Smirkus is to promote the skills, culture and traditions of the traveling circus and to inspire youth to engage in the circus arts.[2]
From 1990 to 2010, the circus has had more than 4,000 youths aged 10–18 in its summer camps.[3]
This annual camp was located at Sterling College in Craftsbury, Vermont through 2009. The camp relocated onto the campus of Lyndon Institute in Lyndon, Vermont in 2010.[4]
As of 2015, the camp moved to the Smirkus HQ, Greensboro, VT. A new campus was built 2014-2015.
Smirkus' performers and coaches have come from Canada, China, Colombia, United Kingdom, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldova, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, Zambia, ten Native American nations and 20 US states.[5] At the International Children's Festival at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in September 2000, Circus Smirkus was introduced as "the United Nations of the youth circus world."
Circus Smirkus has a summer camp that trains children in areas such as aerials, clowning/performance, acrobatics and juggling. Participants may also choose to train in other skills such as human pyramids, unicycling and stilt walking. The circus opened its Summer 2015 season at new, permanent facilities—a 135-year-old farmhouse on in Greensboro, Vermont.[6] The camp sessions offered throughout the season vary from one night overnight camps, one and two-week camps, and advanced camps, including Road Show, Intermediate Skills Intensive, Advanced Individual Acts, and Advanced Ensemble. Smirkus Camp also offers an all ages camp for Friends and Family at the end of the summer season.[7]
| 1989 | Guest troupe from Tbilisi, Georgia. |
| 1990 | Historic joint Soviet/American youth circus tour. |
| Smirkus performed in Yaroslavl and Moscow. | |
| 1991 | Smirkus was the first circus to perform on the island of Nantucket. |
| Latvian Youth Circus and Moscow Circus members joined the Smirkus Big Top Tour. | |
| Smirkus co-produced a Soviet/American youth circus-on-ice. | |
| 1992 | Guest performers from Russia, Moldova and Kazakhstan, and 12 performers from California’s Great Y Circus. |
| 1993 | Collaborating with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Russian performers and 10 Native Americans performed with Smirkus. |
| 1994 | Guest artists from Russia and Mongolia joined the tour. |
| 1995 | Guest performers from Russia, Mongolia and Hungary. Also the first exchange with Budapest Circus School. |
| 1998 | Guest performers joined the troupe from Russia, Israel, Mongolia and China. This was Smirkus's first exchange with the Wuqiau School and Chinese Acrobatic Arts Association. |
| 1999 | Alberto Zoppe's family from Italy joined the tour, performing with Percheron horses. |
| Marcel Marceau gave a benefit performance in the Smirkus tent.[13] | |
| 2000 | Indokids[14] from Indonesia joined the tour. |
| Smirkus performed with Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath. | |
| Disney Channel broadcast Totally Circus, a fifteen-part documentary about Smirkus. | |
| 2001 | Collaboration with the Chicago Boyz, and with Chicago’s Midnight Circus. |
| First Arab-Israeli circus kids from Jerusalem performed in the Smirkus tent as part of a joint peace program. | |
| Julia Child joined the Smirkus Board of Directors as an honorary member after her visit to the Smirkus chuck wagon. | |
| 2002 | Collaboration with the six-member Vermont bluegrass band, the Route Seven Ramblers, who performed live with the show for the summer tour. |
| First Nations dancers and cowboy rope spinners from the Southwest joined the tour. | |
| Smirkus Advanced Camp created a road show to tour hospitals and nursing homes. | |
| 2003 | Performers joined the tour from Sweden’s youth circus troupe Cirkus and Variete. |
| 2004 | Volunteers for Peace joined Smirkus with students from Spain, France, England and Poland. |
| Smirkus was featured on The Martha Stewart Show. | |
| 2005 | Collaboration with the Sandglass Theater of Putney, Vermont, produced a ringful of puppets, high-flying troupers, and miniature donkeys. |
| 2006 | Filmmaker Signe Taylor traveled with the Big Top Tour, shooting for a documentary entitled Circus Dreams which was released five years later in 2011.[15] |
| 2007 | Guest performers from Colombia and Mongolia joined the tour. |
| 2008 | Guest performers from Colombia and Ethiopia joined the tour. |
| 2009 | Guest performers from England and France joined the tour. |
| 2017 | A trouper from Zambia joined the tour. |
| 2021 | A trouper from Zambia joined the tour. |