Sihka Ann Destroy presents The Last Carnival Acbrobats in Spark: a thearical cirque experience.
Follow the tale of a young girl who finds herself with the help of the spark of imagination. Lost in a dreamlike world where mythical creatures flip and fly around her, scare and inspire her, The Last Carnival Acrobats will take you on an epic journey. This experience is represented though aerial, acrobatics, contortion, and dance in a seamless piece that has been known to bring tears. Audience members will feel her plight as she will face things so many of us do in life: fear, hope, ego, inspiration, playfulness, and growth. This is a show not to be missed.
Meet the Carnies
The Last Carnival Acrobats current show Spark includes 13 different performers in a two hour circus adventure.
Sihka Ann Destroy
Sihka is the mastermind behind Spark. She combines her passion for circus, acrobatics, performing, choeography, costume design, and writing to produce shows The Last Carnival performs. She is also the owner of The Last Carnival circus school in Lawrence Kansas. Sihka has been performing in different ways since back in 2000. She traveled the U.S. as a street performer battle dancing, doing contortion, playing accorion, saxaphone, and spouting poetry for years before she started her official circus training. Sihka teaches and performs on aerial silks, lyra, trapeze, hammock, cloud swing, corde, partner acrobatics, and dance. You can see her performing on the cloud swing, battle dancing, and in a lyra duet for the show Spark.
And Jay Keim as The Ringleader
Jeremiah Koenig
Jermiah began his training in gymnastics and martial arts. And shortly after The Last Carnival circus school opened in Lawrence Ks, he continued his acrobatics training into the air taking up to six classes a week. After a year of this Jeremiah went back to his true passion, ground based acrobatics by traveling out to California for an intesive at the Circus Center in San Fransico. There he studied Chinese pole and hoop diving, handbalancing, flying trapeze, and teaterboard, among other circus arts. Jeremiah’s most impressive moves are his ninja kicks, crazy high jumps, planches, flips, and holding pretty ladies over his head. You can see Jeremiah perfoming dancing, hoop diving, showing off his crazy strength hanging from the top of rig by one hand, and clowning around during the show Spark. Not only does Jeremiah perform, but he does a lot of behind the scenes work. As creative director for Spark, he works closely with each act to help polish off things for the stage and create character movement that helps turn cirque into theatrical cirque.
Rose Riley Contortion
Rose is The Last Carnival Acrobats contortionist. She trains for her career in body movement six days a week up 3-7 hours a day. She is one dedicated lady. Her background includes dance, figure skating, martial arts, gymnastics, cotortion, and hand balancing. Rose has been training at The Last Carnival to perfect per partner contortion and handbalanicng skills. Rose’s most impressive moves are folding herself into a triple fold and working the handbalancing canes. You can see Rose performing contortion in Spark.
Patricia Murphy
Patricia is what ties the show Spark together. She conveys emotion to audiences without a word, but just the expressions on her face and through her dance. Patricia plays the main character of Spark, Lilly. You can find her doing a little bit of everything from dance, to magic, clowning around, getting tangled in the corde lisse, and performing moves with two others on one circular apparatus in the air. Not only does patricia shine onstage, but she designs the makeup for the show as well.
Rosemary Bloom
Rosemary is a versitile circus perfomer and instructor. She trains and performs in aerial silks, trapeze, and lyra. Rosemary also has for over ten years now been doing prop work such as hoop dance, juggling, stilt walking, and fire dancing. Her most impressive moves include her back flexibility and her ability to add characterization to her performances. Rosemary will be performing hoop dance/ hoop diving act with Jeremiah as invisible magic and can also be seen dancing performing silks as the essence of adulthood in the show Spark.
Willamina Lotus Sassaphrass
Willow is our youngest performer, at age 12. She began her circus training at age six and currently trains four days a week at her mom’s circus school. She has trained in partner acrobatics, aerial hoop, silks, static and dance trapeze, spanish web, aerial hammock, flying trapeze, and contortion and partner contortion. Her most impressive moves are hanging on a trapeze from nothing but her heels and turning herself into a circle. She will be performing partner acrobatic contortion, aerial hoop, and a aerial silks duet in Spark.
Katy Metson-Ward
Katie comes from a gymnastics background. In 2014 she left gymnastics to bring her skills higher into the air with at The Last Carnival circus school. Katie has trained in most every aerial apperatus there is, but finds silks to be her favorite to perform on. Katie’s strengths are no fear in trying out new moves from aerial drops and flips to being tossed high above someones head to land in foot to hand. Her most impressive act you will see in Spark as Katie will perform silks lifting Willow in the air beneath flipping her around by her brute stregth. You can also catch Katie perfoming partner acrobatics as a flame fairy and aerial hammock as a dragonfly called Hope as she playfully dances across the stage and into the air.
Leilani Chun
Leilani has been training at The last Carnival under Sihka nearly since the school has opened in February of 2014. She also has a background in theater, dance, and figure skating. Though her main focus is aerial hoop, she has training on trapeze, silks, hammock, cloud swing, corde lisse, contortion, and partner acrobatics. She has performed over a dozen events with The Last Carnival on multiple apperatuses. Leilani has become to be know for her grace and poise on stage, executing the most contorted and difficult moves with a smile on her face. Leilani’s most impressive moves are her needle pose and hanging from her toes. Leilani will be seen is Spark performing partner acrobatics, aerial hoop, and contortion dance fusion.
Sylvan Mitchell
Sylvan comes from a theatrical background, which shows with the way she can comand an audience. She began her cirque training at The Last Carnival in 2015 where her dedication quickly advanced her. She trains in static trapeze, lyra, partner acrobatics, contortion, aerial silks and hammock. She most recently started training in corde lisse and aerial chains. Sylvan’s most impressive moves are her insane overspits and her trapeze drops. Sylvan will be perfoming a lyra duet, showing off her strong woman skills with some partner acrobatics, and dancing on the trapeze during Spark.
Amy Schweppe
Amy comes from a background of fitness which includes track, dance, gymnastics, yoga, pilate, and CrossFit training. Her personal practice grew into teaching others how to find and hone the strength in their own bodies. Then one day a friend asked her to try an Aerial Silks class. Destiny struck and the next two and a half years is history. Amy loves being a student of circus and has taken almost every class there is to offer at the Last Carnival at least once. But her two passions are Aerial Silks and Acro Yoga. There’s nothing like climbing, flying, and falling on your friends to bring you closer together. Amy has been performing and teaching since 2015 with The Last Carnival. She also performs with another local Kansas troupe Voler: Theives of Flight. Amy’s most impressive moves come from her strength, you can watch as she hangs high above the ground by one arm. You can find Amy performing as part of the corde lisse trio in Spark.
Dianna Velasco
Diana first stumbled upon aerial arts in 2011 training with Aerial Space in Asheville NC and later with Johnson City Aerial Arts in Johnson City TN, but it wasn’t until she moved to the beautiful midwest in 2015 that she fully committed to her circus calling. Now, she trains multiple times a week with The Last Carnival Acrobats, as well ast Voler; Thiefs of Flight in Kansas City and Lucia Aerial Arts in Overland Park as often as schedule allows. Though silks are what first captivated her circus heart she also works with corde lisse and, most resently, trapeze. She hopes to someday pursue further training in flying trapeze and tippy lyra. A biologist by trade, when she’s not dangling mid-air, she is passionate about aquatic sciences, paleontology, and all things outdoors. You can find Dianna performing aerial silks and as part of a triple corde lisse act in the show Spark.
Kelsie Middaugh
Kelsie started dancing when she was 12 years old. She is now entering her third year at the University of Kansas, continuing her studies in dance with a double major in English. Last spring Kelsie choreographed a piece for the dance performance Alterity and this coming fall she is co-producing and choreographing for the show Coalescence. Currently, she is also an Intern with the cirque nouveau preforming arts company Quixotic, located in Kansas City. Kelsie has trained on the silks, corde, lyra, aerial hammock, static trapeze, flying trapeze, partner acrobatics, and most recently hand to hand with her partner Jeremiah. Kelsie is the dance choreographer for the opening scene of Spark. You can also see her monkeying around from corde to corde with her aerial trio partners of Spark, Amy and Dianna.
