At the “3 Rings” School of Circus Arts students learn the basics of circus arts and scene development through classes and lessons with Sergey Krutikov and other professional artists.
Lessons include juggling, rola-rola (balancing), unicycle riding, acrobatics, magic and, of course, the clown art. All of our lessons are delivered in a playful mode with individual attention to every student.
Juggling
Benefits of learning to juggle are widespread. Juggling increases one’s focus, patience, and coordination. Students learn to control their bodies and develop intuitive understanding of their mind-body system as a whole. Learning to juggle several objects is relatively easy, but it delivers significant boost to students’ confidence in both their physical and mental abilities.
Juggling balls form the skill’s foundation. We always start with juggling one ball only. Why? Because we have to understand how hands work, which is a very important part of learning our body’s coordination.
Juggling rings is the next steps after the juggling balls. It is a bit different, because the trick to the rings is to twist a ring in one’s hand while throwing it into the air. Just like with balls, we start with one ring and add more rings as students’ abilities and skills improve.
Juggling clubs are taught after learning how to juggle three balls. We start with juggling only one club with one arm only. Later, to make this trick more difficult and interesting, we add clubs one by one.
Rola-bola
Rola-rola is the element that develops bodily balance, coordination, and concentration. First, we learn to stand on the board and only then we add the roll under it. It is very important to teach this seemingly easy element by a competent instructor to ensure success.
Unicycle
Unicycle is riding on one wheel. Once mastered, it offers a lot of fun to the students, but it is a difficult element to develop. A teacher has to observe student’s potential and boost confidence to help learn this discipline. First, the student learns to balance on the unicycle; second, rolls back and force are learned. Both, first and second steps are done while the teacher holds student’s hand, not unlike you taught your kids to ride a bike! It is only then, still while holding teacher’s hand, a student may be allowed to ride. This element requires a strong willpower, focus and coordination to perform well. Good news is that learning to ride a unicycle actually helps develop these personality traits that are crucial in assuring life’s success.
Acrobatics
Acrobatic elements build strength, agility, and stamina. No matter what one’s role in circus, it requires some acrobatics. The basic of the acrobatics are very important for every circus artist: summersaults, cart will, hand stands. For children of the pre-school age, the acrobatics is taught as a game and in a less stressful manner than in traditional gymnastics classes.
Magic
Very often when we see magic, we wonder how the magician performs tricks and what the secret is. We will teach these tricks where right accessories are only a small part of magic whereas proper hand coordination is key to success.
Clown Art
Every circus must have a clown, and we teach our students an art of clowning. One may wonder about the point of learning clowning if it’s not going to be one’s career. What’s the use of it aside from entertaining and overall fun? Is it worth it? Our answer is resounding ‘yes’.
Clowns have an uncanny ability to control the audience, make them relax in one moment and engage and focus on clown’s actions in another. And at the same time, a clown is always focused, aware of his or her surroundings and mentally ready to perform the next trick. This ability to engage the audience while maintaining a laser focus on his or her activities makes the art of clowning an indispensable skill to develop.
“The clown – embodying human contradiction and frailty while epitomizing our greatest spiritual aspirations – is each of us at our worst and all that we could become if our best came through.”
Ronald McCoy, The Delight Makers