Press
Fox 10 News: Inside the Circus School of Arizona
Updated: Wednesday, 30 Dec 2009, 9:32 PM MST
Published : Wednesday, 30 Dec 2009, 9:32 PM MST
Want to run away and join the circus? These days, it’s a lot more work than becoming a clown. There’s a school in the valley, the Circus School of Arizona, can help you get started.
Andrea Robinson has the story.
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/only_on_fox/circus-school-12-30-2009
Published : Wednesday, 30 Dec 2009, 9:32 PM MST
—————————————————————————————————————
Live out your circus dreams at circus school
Sonoran Living Video Link:
http://www.sonoranliving.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=15347
Sonoran Living Link to the Following Article: http://www.sonoranliving.com/content/go/specialevents/story.aspx?content_id=5f5732f7-dd2c-46c5-9d88-5cd10ed9c8ca
Last Update: 8/20 3:01 pm
Have you ever dreamed of running away with the circus? Well now is your chance to find out if you would have been any good at it.
Sonoran Living Video Link:
http://www.sonoranliving.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=15347
Sonoran Living Link to the Following Article: http://www.sonoranliving.com/content/go/specialevents/story.aspx?content_id=5f5732f7-dd2c-46c5-9d88-5cd10ed9c8ca
Last Update: 8/20 3:01 pm
Have you ever dreamed of running away with the circus? Well now is your chance to find out if you would have been any good at it.
Students learn techniques in Rope (aka Corde Lisse/Spanish Web), Tissu (aka Silks/Fabric/Ribbons/Chiffon), and Static Trapeze. Attention is given to proper body alignment, critical techniques to safely execute tricks, conditioning, flexibility development and maintenance, and basic rigging.
Rachel works with students of all ages and experience—from first-timers to seasoned professionals; from aspiring circus performers to people wanting a fun, exciting, new way to get and stay in shape or to just have fun!
For more information, on Circus School of Arizona contact Rachel at rachel@circusschoolofarizona.com or 480-285-9635
Copyright 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
—————————————————————————————————–
Arizona’s Family–Channel 3; Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Video Link: http://www.azfamily.com/video/geaz-index.html?nvid=253829&shu=1AZ Family online article (the link follows the article):
Class lets students work out on trapeze
05:52 PM Mountain Standard Time on
“I tried circus at a Club Med when I was 9 years old and loved it,” Rachel Stegman said. “It was basically non-existent out here and I wanted to offer that opportunity to people who would love to do it just like I did. ”
Stegman is the owner of the Circus School of Arizona. She not only gives her students an opportunity to learn some of the same moves she performs in the circus, but her aerial arts class is getting people toned up.
“It’s giving your body an entire workout — arms, legs, abs, back, just everything,” Stegman said.
To get that total body workout, Stegman’s students do certain moves on the trapeze, a rope and even by hanging from a silky fabric.
“I’m definitely a little more toned,” said aerial arts student Terry Fong. “I think my abs have gotten a little bit stronger and just my core.”
Fong has been coming to Stegman for more than six months. Not only is she burning calories, but she is also doing things she didn’t think were possible
“This was a dream of mine after seeing Cirque Du Soleil,” Fong said. “I thought I could never do this, but Rachel meets you where you’re at and she works with you and gives you the confidence that you need.”
For two Valley high school students, performing cool tricks is only half of what they learn when taking one of Stegman’s classes.
“I’ve gotten a lot more flexible and my arms are definitely stronger,” said aerial arts student Leslie George.
“This has really helped me with my flexibility because you’re doing a lot of splits, and you’re bending your back and stuff,” said aerial arts student Estefy Ordaz.
Tara Furcini couldn’t agree more. Not only is she gaining strength, but she is getting to do something she loves.
“I love being in the air and seeing what you can do with your body and all the kinds of things you can accomplish,” Furcini said. “It’s amazing.”
“I just try to tell them just try it out,” Stegman said. “What’s the harm in trying out? If it’s not your thing, you get to say I tried this for a day.”
http://www.azfamily.com/health/weightloss/stories/phoenix_local_health_061108_trapeze_workout.21c30601.html ———————————————————————————————————–Ivanhoe Broadcast News: Smart Woman
http://www.kval.com/features/smartwoman/17297579.html Circus Workout
PHOENIX, “As a child I saw aerialists in the circus and wanted to try it and once I did I was hooked for life,” Stegman told Ivanhoe.
Rachel performs with this San Francisco circus. But now she also has her own place under the big top … her own circus school.
“Some of my students have become professional aerialists but most of them do it as a unique form of fitness or just to run away and join the circus for a day,” Stegman said.
Most days, Terry Fong has her feet firm on the ground, studying to be a naturopath … but today, she’s hanging by a thread.
“There’s definitely a fear factor, you just have to overcome it that’s how you build your confidence,” Fong said.
The workouts are intense, burning calories and building strength. “This is a total body workout, it works your arms, your legs & your core,” Stegman said. “You will work muscles you never knew you had,” added Fong.
So, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages … welcome to the greatest circus school on earth!
If you would like more information, please contact:
Rachel Stegman Circus School of Arizona Rachel@circusschoolofarizona.com ———————————————————————————————————————————————–Good Morning Arizona Weather Segments
featured Circus School of Arizona on Monday, February 4th, 2008
Follow this link to see a video clip:
http://www.azfamily.com/video/gmaz-index.html?nvid=214459&shu=1————————————————————————————————————————————
Stormy Hudelson (left) of Tucson performs a sequence on a rope, Rachel Stegman (right) of Scottsdale winds and unwinds acrobatically with fabric and Nikki Filter of Paradise Valley works out on a static trapeze.
Three-ring workout
Trapeze, other circus arts the latest in alternative workouts
Lisa Nicita
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 22, 2007 12:00 AM
From striptease to belly dancing, fitness hounds are increasingly searching for something other than a treadmill to help trim their thighs.
Trapeze and other circus arts are the latest incarnation.
People in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York have for some time been flying through the air with the greatest of ease, while simultaneously sweating off the flab.
Rachel Stegman, a private trapeze instructor, hopes it catches on in the Valley. Tricks on a rope, fancy moves using two pieces of shiny fabric and poses on a trapeze are not just for circus folk anymore.
“It’s become a thing that is accessible to everybody,” she said.
Instead of counting out crunches or begging for “just two more” push-ups, Stegman teaches people the art of trapeze, fabric and rope, techniques like those you’d see at Cirque du Soleil.
It’s not really clear how many people are taking to the trapeze specifically, but it’s hard not to notice the variety of alternative fitness programs that now are being offered.
From pole dancing (once practiced only by strippers) to spy training (incorporating kicking, climbing and self-defense), it’s clear some people in search of exercise desire something different. Stegman has fewer than a dozen students in the Valley, but has dozens of former students throughout the country and abroad.
“This stuff is nothing unusual anymore,” Stegman said. “Coming here, I’m cutting-edge and new. I’ve only been around circus people.”
But trapeze doesn’t look all that taxing. All the aerialists do is swing, flip and catch, right?
The trapeze as exercise is different.
It’s not the Carrie Bradshaw version with the big, white net and the glorious, swinging freedom.
This is static trapeze with no net. Puffy mats are used instead.
There is only a single bar, about 6 feet off the ground, a larger version of what a parakeet might perch upon. The workout has to be creative, focusing more on strength and stamina.
Stegman often times her students, making a novice trapeze artist stay up on the apparatus for 20 minutes. If you try it, you’d quickly realize that even five minutes is difficult.
Remember the horrifying challenge of the rope climb in gym class? Very similar.
Catching the circus bug
Stegman, 32, knows the craft. She was trained by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.
You could say she “ran away” to the circus in her early 20s, where she perfected her moves from the trapeze to the rope, also known as a corde lisse.
She caught the circus bug as a child, during a family vacation to Club Med, where trapeze lessons were offered. In her teens, Stegman attended a performing arts camp in New York, and at 23, she decided to further her aerial education.
She is still involved with, and traveling for, Gregangelo & Velocity Circus, based in San Francisco. But she has returned to the Valley, her home, to open the Circus School of Arizona.
Nikki Filter, 34, and Stormy Hudelson, 56, don’t want to be in the circus. They just want the moves. As Stegman’s students, they stood and watched her in awe.
They saw her glittered, halter-neck leotard begin to disappear as she climbed and strategically wrapped her body with two flowing pieces of silky, cobalt fabric hanging from the ceiling. Each wrap, crisscrossing her midsection, her feet or her arms, brought Stegman closer to the ceiling at Aspire Kids Sports Center in Chandler.
She rents space from the gym to teach private and group lessons, amid a sea of pommel horses, trampolines, balance beams and puffy gym mats.
Methodically wrapped, Stegman let the excess fabric slide through her hands. Her rapid descent to the mat was a tumbling, acrobatic fall. At the last second, Stegman’s poetic drop through the weave of fabric was suspended. She was caught like an insect in a web. It was just what she wanted to do.
It was a snapshot of what one might see at a glitzy show in Las Vegas or a traveling circus performance. Hudelson applauded.
It was pretty, different - not to mention a workout. In just a few minutes, Stegman had worked up a sweat.
Bringing out inner child
Filter, a massage therapist, was ready to sweat. She wanted something different, a workout that would take her out of the gym and return her to her roots in gymnastics. The circus arts were a perfect fit.
“I hate the gym now,” she said. “It’s the machines, all the same thing. I love gymnastics, and this is a transfer for me.”
Filter hopes eventually to have the strength of Hudelson, who can easily climb the rope. Wearing an electric-blue one-piece suit, Hudelson hung upside down with the rope wrapped around her before unfurling and stopping just short of the mat.
It looks fun, and childlike, but exhausting.
“When I’m up there, I don’t feel anything,” Hudelson said of muscle fatigue. “It’s when I’m down.”
Filter used the trapeze bar to stretch and hang upside down, before moving from pose to pose, emphasizing technique like pointed toes. After a few minutes, she needed a rest. Filter said her friends and family have asked her to explain the type of workout she does. When she does, they are often left with more questions.
For Filter, it’s simple.
“It brings out the inner child,” she said.
Reach reporter at lisa.nicita@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8546
Interested in joining the circus? Or maybe you want to learn trapeze for fitness. Rachel Stegman, representing Circus School of Arizona and Gregangelo & Velocity Circus, can be reached at rachelsunnydays@msn.com.
————————————————————————————-
Trapeze Workout
Nicole McGregor
12 News Today