Bishop Foley Student Flying High After Ferndale’s Agora Arts Group Performs in Chicago
(Guest View by Jenna Thibodeau, July 9, 2015)
Jenna Thibodeau will attend Bishop Foley High School in the fall and was a gymnast for 12 years before pursing aerial arts.  She has been attending Agora Arts since October and hopes to become a Dietician while pursuing her love for aerial. She and a group of students were selected to participate at the Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival. The event attracted circus performers from all over the country.  Here is her reflection of the experience…
I walked in to class on a Tuesday and Pia was very excited to tell me good news! The “Leaping Lemurs” class video auditions had been accepted and we were going to combine all of our strengths to perform a group routine in the American Youth Circus Organization (AYCO) show in Chicago!
This was really exciting news to hear because I don’t think any of us have ever done a real show out of our own studio or have even thought of doing so. We all knew it had to be perfect!
Our creative and talented instructor, Ms. Beth, had already begun picking music and brainstorming ideas. The next day Nina Geaorgeff, Laila Castillo, Nevada Castillo, Celina Yamamoto and myself all arrived at our studio, Agora Arts, for our very first Chicago show practice.
Ms. Beth had a lot of good ideas! Our song was “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked and we would be preforming on Aerial silks and Lyra. Week by week our routine all came together with the help of Pia, Ms. Beth, Mrs. Cheryl and Mrs. Taylor.
We each had our own part to play, but we also had to learn how to work together as a team. We all knew being in class together was fun, but now we had to learn to depend on each other to make a great performance. Learning new skills and practicing was very rewarding. Before we knew it, we were in Chicago ready to perform the next day.
The AYCO gave us free tickets to a circus show called Pedal Punk, which was really awesome to watch and get a peek at the theatre before it was our turn. Then, we went back to the hotel, swam, and hung out together for a while.
On Sunday, we had to be at the theater for a tech rehearsal. After the directors told us what was going to happen that day, we found a dressing room and Ms. Beth starting doing all our hair right away. It came time to run our routine; we all had some issues, and it did not go perfectly as we had practiced the weeks before. Nerves probably caused it because it was our first time on a real stage. It was not a performance that we wanted to show the public, that’s for sure.
Ms. Beth was really supportive and told us that it was a good thing to get all the mistakes out in rehearsal. While the rest of the acts were practicing, Ms. Beth began doing our make-up to reflect Glinda and Elphaba characters from musical Wicked. Then, we practiced curtain call and broke for lunch. None of us wanted to eat because we were so nervous but we didn’t want to pass out either.   Pia had delivered us sandwiches and grapes and we all ate together.   At one o’clock the show stared. We got to watch the first half because we were the first act after intermission. We used intermission to do last minute touch ups and warm up our bodies before we went on. I was pretty nervous at that point. We went backstage and got into our places.
Waiting for the curtain to come up felt like forever! The curtain finally lifted and the music started right away. When I took the first step, all the nerves went away and our performance felt perfect! It went smoothly, everyone was together and the audience loved it. Ms. Beth was vey proud of our performance, and to us that was a good feeling.   Overall, the show was an amazing experience. I couldn’t imagine performing with anybody else; they have become some of my best friends. This would have never been possible without Pia and Ms. Beth! They are some of the most kind and caring people I know.
 Agora Arts offers a variety of classes for children and adults including aerial arts, yoga, stretching, capoeira and even music classes.  Learn more about Agora Arts at http://playatagora.com.