Wonder And Awe: All In A Day’s Work for Matica Circus
It might be too late to run away and join the circus, but you can consider hiring one for your retreat, wedding or block party. Matica Circus, the creation of Joel Melendez and Heidi Kirchofer, will show up and dazzle your company with their feats of unicycling, juggling, hula hooping, aerial acrobatics and fire dancing. You can hire a duo or go all out and bring in a troupe of five. You can also get Circus In A Suitcase, an interactive experience in which guests of all ages can try out a few circus skills for themselves.
Now based in Northwest Connecticut, Matica Arts was sparked in Palenque, Mexico back around 2000, when a young US traveler —Kirchofer — met a fellow free spirit — Melendez — from Venezuela “For a couple of years, I’d work for a few months in the US and then spend six months traveling,” says Kirchofer, “Then I decided to try to find a way to make money and travel at the same time, and I started playing music for people who were performing in the street.”
Photo credit: Riordan Galluccio
“I’ve always been good with people,” says Melendez. “I make friends wherever I go. I was always the kind of person who could draw a circle of people together, and then I learned juggling and just started adding the skills little by little. I love the circus because it challenges me and surprises me. It pushes me; I think people relate to seeing that.”
The pair ended up busking their way around Central and South America. “In the touristy places, it was actually worse, because the big hotels would see us as some sort of competition,” says Kirchofer. “In the US, well, we really don’t work as street performers here — there are a few spots, like Fanuel Hall in Boston, a few spots in New York City, Key West — but not much, so we’ve switched to doing contract work only.”
Besides the entertainment gigs, Matica Arts offers classes in aerial silks, lyra (aerial hoop), trapeze, circus and Capoiera, a Brazilian martial art, at their Thrive Movement Studio in Harwinton, Connecticut. The studio opened in 2014, but the duo had basically been teaching all along. “When we first moved to the States, we lived in the south end of Hartford, upstairs from a big family, so we started unicycling with the kids and then other kids from the neighborhood joined in,” says Melendez. “Actually, we did that all over Central and South America too — we had less equipment, of course, we were traveling with backpacks, but the kids who were selling jewelry or food in the street would stop and practice with us for a while.”
The backpack era ended when family obligations cropped up, but the memories are sweet and strong. “In Palenque we met these two clowns — I think the one was from Spain, anyway, they were both Europeans,” Melendez recalls, “And we just decided, hey, let’s go to the center and make a show! So we improvised a show with the four of us, and I loved doing that so much. It was fantastic. There was a dog that wouldn’t stop chasing the clown and barking; the audience was riveted, and he just flowed with it and was absolutely incredible working with this dog.”
Photo credit: Phyllis Meredith
Much of the focus nowadays is on passing along their arts. ”We have a teen troupe that we got a grant for last year and created a large production with, and it's just so positive for them,” says Kirchofer. “It was a pretty awesome show, and I’m trying to figure out how that can happen every year. All our activities kind of feed each other; hopefully there are opportunities for these kids when they get a little older if they want some professional work, but just creating the community amongst the teens feels like a good thing.”
Even younger performers can pick up some skills at Summer Circus Camps, and there are classes and workshops for all ages in Circus, Aerial Dance and Capoeira. Organizations can also commission a bespoke training in whatever most enchants: stilt walking, juggling, Chinese yo-yo, hula hooping, acrobatics and devils sticks are all on that menu.
The Matica team’s lives may be geographically settled, but it’s fair to say that no two days are alike when your job is the circus.
“The thing I have always been seeking is freedom, and I’m fierce about that,” says Melendez. “And there’s an integrity to this work — you have to be true to yourself and to the audience or it just doesn’t work.”
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