GOOD NEWS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

Cold Spring Shops, late summer of 2023:  "As long as there are acrobats, aerialists, equestrians, jugglers, and unicyclists there will be circus."

The Northern Star, as Thanksgiving gave way to Advent.

NIU’s Circus Club began as an unofficial club in the spring 2023 semester. Within a year, the club went from being unofficial to being approved through the Student Government Association in the spring 2024 semester.

Circus Club focuses on teaching members different skills relating to the circus, such as juggling, acrobatics and unicycling.

Circus Club is currently in the process of switching from their current adviser, Benjamin Stone, an instructor in the School of Art and Design, to Michel Rodriguez-Cintra, visiting assistant professor in the School of Theatre and Dance.

Nam Pham, a junior illustration major and Circus Club founder, explained the reason for wanting to start the club.

“Two years ago, I decided to have a space where I could get some of my friends together and teach them juggling. And I decided, you know, it would be kind of cool to have that unofficially. So in order to get more outreach and more people knowing about that, I decided to make the club official with a constitution,” Pham said.

Circus Club plans to host future events and performances at NIU once time has passed and once other club members are interested in and comfortable with performing.

Good.  There's always reason to find a circus and go to it, even if that involves an intrastate rivalry with Illinois State and their Gamma Phi Circus.  Who knows, some of the members might dig into the history of the itinerant circus, including the instructional value of the menagerie, and the interaction of humans and big beasts, and become advocates for that dimension of the circus arts.