our Teachers & staff

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Juggling, Production, Act development and founder of JaJa Circus School. 

Mariano is a physical actor, clown, juggler, director and producer. He is a 10 year veteran of Cirque Du Soleil, and founder of the Trivenchi Social Circus School in Buenos Aires, Argentina that has been open for over 23 years. 

His knowledge and experience facilitate a safe, fun and creative movement space where movers and creatives of all kinds, including aerial artists, acrobats, dancers, hand balancers, jugglers, clowns, fire performers, musicians, visual artists, and flow artists can come together and learn from each other.  Come on over and let’s make some magic! 

Rope, Trapeze, Aerial Conditioning and founder of JaJa Circus School.

 Jodi Reiter is a multi-disciplinary aerialist, dancer, mover and creator that has worked for over two decades as an artist, collaborator and instructor around the world, including a decade in Franco Dragone’s “Le Reve.”  She finds purpose and nourishment through movement on stage, in the classroom as a teacher and student, solo and in community. Jodi seeks to find new movement daily while building a vocabulary guided by strength, consistency, skill, celebration and discipline. She is an enthusiastic cyclist, yogi, meditator, salsa dancer, reader, eater, gardener, mother and partner.  

Juggling and Performing Teacher Extraordinaire

Curtis Carlyle was born in 1980 in a lighthouse in Rhode Island. His  father was a United States Coast Guard engineer and his mother was a  championship rodeo horsewoman. Although he didn’t realize it at the  time, his uncommon family instilled in Curtis a sense of possibility and  discipline; a belief that anything can be mastered with practice; a  recognition of the importance of joy in work.  Curt’s journey as variety artist took off when the Coast Guard  transferred his father’s post to Portland, Oregon – home of the Reed  College juggling club. Under the tutelage of juggling greats Rhys  Thomas, David Lichtenstein, and Charlie Brown, Curt quickly learned the  performance trade and began shaping his infectious personality for the  stage. 

 Gymnastics

Coach Harmony grew up as a competitive gymnast and has been coaching recreational and competitive gymnastics for 14+ years. She is currently the head coach of the Platinum and Diamond XCEL team at Vancouver Elite Gymnastics Academy in Camas, WA. 

Fun Facts: She has a 1 year old son, loves cookies, and plays the didgeridoo.

Lyra, Silks, Contortion, Flexibility, Conditioning, Youth Classes

 Achillea’s movement background began with ballet and hot yoga, although nothing has come close to the passion circus arts ignited. After taking her first aerial class, she never looked back. Along the journey, she’s worked on flying trapeze, juggling, clowning, unicycle, and many aerial apparatus. 

Silks, Conditioning, Juggling, Intro to Aerial 

 Quin is a circus artist in Portland, Oregon who trains and performs aerial silks, giraffe unicycle balance, and club juggling 

Aerial Pole, Lyra

 MirCat is a tiny magickal being. She has been teaching Dance, Aerial, and Pole for many years. Her mission on this Earth is to cultivate healing and Self Empowerment through Dance, Circus, and Art. She is passionate about Movement Arts, Mental Health and the connection between the Body and the Mind. Through strengthening our bodies, we also build our mindset and Wellbeing.

She loves connecting with her students and finding new ways to adapt her teaching style to fit their needs. Her classes focus on strength, stability, flexibility, freestyle dance, choreography, and artistic expression through movement. 

Intro to Aerial, Trapeze, Rope, Silks, Lyra

Katie began training aerial in 2016, after being completely enchanted by watching the Odysseo Cavalia circus show. She was so fired up, she enrolled in aerial classes immediately and hasn't stopped since. She has had the privilege of training under many respected mentors in the circus world. Katie absolutely loves performing, and has had the pleasure of doing so many times all over Oregon. 

Fun fact: At age 6, she was recruited by a gymnastics coach to train for the Olympics. She declined in favor of piano lessons. ;) 

Lyra, Silks, Flexibility, Youth Classes

 Melissa began her journey of movement through aerial yoga and from there she realized that she needed to follow it in depth. Three years later she enrolled in a European circus school in Portugal where she studied circus arts for two years, learning technique and contemporary circus. She specializes in aerial hoop and silks. During her time in school she also learned  acrobatics, basic juggling, balancing, ballet and contemporary dance. 

Her journey continued to expand in Europe where she traveled through Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, visiting circus schools and learning European techniques and expansion of contemporary circus. 

Silks, Rope, Acrobatics, Youth classes

 Ashlyn moved to Portland from Charleston, South Carolina in search of mountains and new spaces to dangle from the ceilings. Her background consists of gymnastics, partner acrobatics, dance, aerial, and a whole lot of soul searching. She hopes to encourage others to express themselves, have fun learning challenging things, and to support them in their journey. 

Silks, Lyra, Flexibility, Open Gym Proctor

Aerial Chains 

 Aerial chains (in this configuration) is best described as a cross between silks and pole. While the chains offer some of the flexibility of silks, one can also explore the gravity-defying counterbalance of a heavily weighted "sturdier" apparatus.  Beginning classes focus on foundational concepts of chain work such as climbs, basic poses, strength building and body awareness/physics. Feeling edgy? Got some anger to work through? Want to scare your parents? Give chains a try!

Open Gym Proctor, Silks

Flow, Primal Flow

Sheba Hulsing is an organic multi-prop flow artist whose focus combines her dance background with flow prop manipulation. She started her flow journey at Oregon Country Fair’s 50th anniversary and has been hooked ever since. She has performed in the OCF Fire Theater and accompanied various PNW based musical artists. She specializes in the art of play and free flow expression. Sheba has an unconventional style and teaching practice that allows for engaging and explorative experiences. Her focus is on aiding other artists to access more provocative and expressive ways to move and perform. 

Poi

 Adam Hernandez began his flow arts and circus journey 6 years ago after experiencing the magic of watching fire performers at Oregon Country Fair. He has since been to multiple flow arts festivals and prop-based movement classes in order to achieve a better understanding of the essence of flow, simple teaching techniques as well as challenging tricks, and how to better integrate movement in an expressive way. He practices spinning poi, double staves, juggling, and contact staff primarily but you will see him pick up and try new props regularly. Additionally he is licensed as a Chiropractor in Oregon and hopes to highlight concepts that will allow for an understanding of anatomy and regional interdependence in relation to movement practices and how to keep one’s body well-tuned.