Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007 - (Page 42)

PAL SAILOR CIRCUS By Judy Pokras In their dazzlingly colorful costumes, dozens of garden-variety children and teens fly through the air, ride unicycles, and hang from hoops and ribbon-like swaths of cloth high above the ground, as they perform for the public 14 times a year in the largest youth circus in the United States. Sarasota’s PAL Sailor Circus started back in 1949, when Sarasota High School’s then football coach started a gymnastics class for his players after noticing how athletic and fit the children of local circus performers were. It was not long before that class became a circus, whose alumni include Sarasota’s Mayor Lou Ann R. Palmer. “Over the years, probably close to 15,000 kids in the Sarasota area have performed in the Sailor Circus, in front of more than a million and a half people,” says Jim Shirley, Sailor’s Director of Development. These children have performed all over the world, for the Emperor of Japan, the president of Peru, on the Today Show, and years ago, on one of the first TV shows, Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour. “They’re not professionals, but they do some very professional looking things,” says Shirley. Sailor Circus used to be run and supported by the Sarasota County School Board, whose Bahia Vista grounds the circus occupies. In 2004, when Jim Shirley joined Sailor, the Police Athletic League (PAL) took over its operation. The Sailor Circus has big renovation plans, including air conditioning and other essential upgrades. Once those are in place, it will be able to rent out its 31,000 square foot, 52-foot tall arena and a planned 7,000 gymnasium year-round for galas, concerts and meetings, to raise money to keep the circus going for many generations to come. The program runs during the school year, in old, un-airconditioned spaces. Kids arrive at 3pm and practice their routines until close at 8pm, every school day. “It’s a big commitment. I doubt there’s any other sports program in the area that puts in as much time as these kids do,” Shirley says. In addition to training and performing, the kids are required to clean the circus. “It prepares them for life,” Shirley says. The circus provides food and teachers to help kids with homework. The fee is $200 per child, per session, with two sessions per school year, but no child is turned away for lack of money. And Sailor accepts all children, as many as its volunteers have time to train—children from all schools, plus home-schooled children and those with disabilities. The volunteers worked with one autistic teenage boy for 42 : : arts and culture magazine

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007

Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007 Contents Extra! Extra! Modern Times Gallery Interview - Jopseph Caulkins Exhibitions Dodi Reifenberg and Bradley Wester Profiles Center Stage Carnevale Horse Feathers Grill & Lounge Dancing on the Stage of Life Gallery Guide Calendar of Events

Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007

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