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Raised In St. Louis, 4 Circus Harmony Alums Now Tour The World With Cirque Du Soleil

St. Louis Public Radio | By Evie Hemphill
Published December 10, 2019 at 5:11 PM CST
Circus Harmony's Jessica Hentoff (second from left) visited three of the organization's alumni in Vancouver last week to see them perform in Cirque du Soleil's "Luzia" show. She also took a group of current Circus Harmony youth to Chicago over the weekend to see another alumnus who is touring with a different show.
Circus Harmony
Circus Harmony's Jessica Hentoff (second from left) visited three of the organization's alumni in Vancouver last week to see them perform in Cirque du Soleil's "Luzia" show. She also took a group of current Circus Harmony youth to Chicago over the weekend to see another alumnus who is touring with a different show.
Circus Harmony's Jessica Hentoff (second from left) visited three of the organization's alumni in Vancouver last week to see them perform in Cirque du Soleil's "Luzia" show. She also took a group of current Circus Harmony youth to Chicago over the weekend to see another alumnus who is touring with a different show.
Credit Circus Harmony
Circus Harmony's Jessica Hentoff (second from left) visited three of the organization's alumni in Vancouver last week to see them perform in Cirque du Soleil's "Luzia" show. She also took a group of current Circus Harmony youth to Chicago over the weekend to see another alumnus who is touring with a different show.

Jessica Hentoff is quick to insist that the primary focus of Circus Harmony, the St. Louis-based organization she heads up, isn’t to turn kids into top-notch circus professionals. And yet the program has a track record of doing just that — even as it changes lives in other ways, too.

This fall, a total of four Circus Harmony alumni are touring with Cirque du Soleil, the largest circus company in the world. They include St. Louis natives Melvin Diggs, Sidney "Iking" Bateman, Terrance "T-Roc" Robinson and Chauncey Kroner.

Hentoff couldn’t be more proud of them — and just returned from Vancouver and Chicago this past weekend where she watched them perform. On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske talked with Hentoff about the success the program and its participants have seen. The conversation included comments from Bateman and Diggs.

Listen to the discussion:

Related Event

What: Fluente — An Underseas Circus Adventure

When: Various times Jan. 18, 19, 25 and 26, 2019 (tickets are $20)

Where: City Museum (750 N. 16th St., St. Louis, MO 63103)

“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill, Lara Hamdan and Tonina Saputo. The engineer is Aaron Doerr, and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Missouri News
Evie Hemphill
Evie Hemphill joined the St. Louis on the Air team in February 2018. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2005, she started her career as a reporter for the Westminster Window in Colorado. Several years later she went on to pursue graduate work in creative writing at the University of Wyoming and moved to St. Louis upon earning an MFA in the spring of 2010. She worked as writer and editor for Washington University Libraries until 2014 and then spent several more years in public relations for the University of Missouri–St. Louis before making the shift to St. Louis Public Radio.
See stories by Evie Hemphill