It's a whirl of color and movement, almost as if someone had held a prism up to the light at the Palaestra gymnasium in Farmers Branch.
Young Lone Star Circus students swing on trapezes, balance on balls and twirl hula hoops while wearing bright, form-fitting costumes, feathers and glitter in anticipation of performing in Celebration Le Cirque – A Holiday Circus Extravaganza. The show runs tonight through Sunday at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts.
During our visit less than three weeks before the big night, the air is redolent not with the anxiety that usually shadows such openings, but with joy. The children cheer at one another's routines. They hug. They praise. In between rehearsal numbers, they're back at their acts, tumbling, twisting and climbing because it's just so much fun. And that is very much a reflection of the spirit of Fanny Kerwich, the eighth-generation circus performer who founded the Lone Star Circus School and is directing the show.
"Cirque – you do it from your heart," Ms. Kerwich says. "You're breaking your back for an act of a few minutes. You're not doing it for money. You're not doing it to be famous. You're doing it because you love it. A lot of performers, they know the same tricks. We're working with the emotions. If you're a better person, it shows onstage. We work on the inside of a person because through the eyes, through the soul, you can reach the audience and reach the world."
Ms. Kerwich, 39, knows all about making choices for love. The French-born hula hoop artist, who will perform her own act in the show, left the traveling life of a circus artist to settle in Dallas after being wooed and eventually won by Mark Doyle, a lawyer who was smitten after seeing her perform at Barnum's Kaleidoscape here in 2000.
If You Go Friday at 7, Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts, 5938 Skillman St. 214-740-0051. www.dct.org. $38 to $42; $24 to $26 children. (Some performances were sold out at press time; call ahead to check availability.)
•For more information on the Lone Star Circus School at the Palaestra, 3550 Garden Brook Drive, Farmers Branch, call 214-564-9259.
But for Ms. Kerwich, living without the circus seemed like asking a fish to give up water. So, with her husband's support, she has worked to bring the circus here through her school and what she hopes will be an annual cirque show, where her circus friends from around the world can perform with and mentor her students.
That includes Russian juggler Vladimir Tsarkov, Peruvian aerialist Angelo Rodriguez, Mongolian contortionist Serchmaa Byamba, Argentine acrobats the Osorios and Dallas-based international clowns Slappy and Monday, who often feature Ms. Kerwich's students in their variety show at Slappy's Puppet Playhouse at Galleria Dallas.
And this, too, is how Ms. Kerwich can give her daughter, 22-month-old Gitana, a shot at becoming her family's ninth-generation circus performer.
Gitana, who is dressed for rehearsal in a sparkly blue costume, runs excitedly to the aerial silks, where she giggles as she clambers up the white folds. It's a big contrast to the behavior of her little brother, Garrett, whose biggest trick at 2 months old is sleeping through the night.
"It is my heritage," Ms. Kerwich says, as she slips a hula hoop gently over her daughter's outstretched arm and smiles, encouragingly, as she shows her how to spin it. "When I came here I wanted to have a place to train and to exist as an artist in a space where all languages, all religions can be together. And when I saw all these talented children, I felt it was sad that they didn't have such a place either."
She looks out at her students, whose constantly moving sequins, feathers and glitter tickle the air.
This wasn't how she planned her life. But she nods, pleased with the journey.
"I found an old picture of my mom I had never seen before," she muses. "She was wearing a cowboy outfit and juggling. Lea Dallas was her performing name. So maybe this was meant to be."
