Wilton’s Flying Gravity Circus will present its annual performance of “Starburst Circus” at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 28, at Pine Hill at High Mowing School.
Jackie Davis, a circus educator and mime artist who founded Flying Gravity Circus in 1999, says “Starburst” is always a mix of old and new.
“With our Starburst show, there are always some familiar elements which everyone will recognize and which make it cozy and fun, but we also always bring in new and different acts or we have familiar people doing different acts,” Davis said. “It is always full of surprises.”
Flying Gravity’s perennial hosts, David Graham and Tobin Renwick, will return as masters of ceremonies, known as the “Red Trousers.” Graham is also the producing director of this event.
Both Graham and Renwick are founding members of Flying Gravity and have been on the board of the nonprofit organization since 1999.
“David and Tobin are seasoned street performers who have a terrific rapport with the audience. They are absolutely jaw-dropping jugglers and they’re very nimble and fun hosting for the home crowd,” Davis said.
Starburst 2025 will feature special guest Dikki Ellis of Peterborough. Ellis, a professional clown and magician, is a 30-year veteran of the Big Apple Circus. Ellis was for 20 years the director of the clowns in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and toured the U.S. as a one-man show until his retirement.
“Dikki is a very seasoned magician and clown, and he’ll be doing magic and audience participation, and we’re so honored to have him back at Flying Gravity Circus,” Davis said.
Other special guests include three professional circus performers from New York City: juggler Book Kennison, clown Kyle Driggs, and tightrope walker Logan Kerr.
“Book will perform ring and umbrella juggling, Kyle will be doing table acrobatics and clowning, Logan is a tightwire artists, so we’ll have a tightwire on stage,” Davis said.
Three Flying Gravity alumni, Sam Roy, Samantha Miel, and Jacob Crow, will also be performing in Sunday’s show.
“They are all alums of Flying Gravity, and they are all in professional circus schools now, which is pretty special,” Davis said.
Roy, who has an aerial act, attends circus school in Quebec; Miel attends trapeze school in California, and Crow recently graduated from the Canadian National Circus School in Montreal.
Three of Flying Gravity’s advanced students will also be performing, along with a large group of “troupers,” students who participate in Flying Gravity’s circus troupes.
“Our program runs from ages 4 and 5 through 18 years old,” Davis said. “We won’t have the tiny children in this show, but we will have kids ranging from grade school to high school seniors. It will be kids with ‘good stage chops.’ We always have a few large acts with everybody on stage at once, which is just a lot of fun.”
Davis credits artistic director Jon Roitman, a founder of the Flying Gravity Circus and a faculty member at High Mowing School, for “making it all happen.”
This year’s show will be the first time the group has performed with a newly installed permanent aerial rig on the stage at Pine Hill at High Mowing School.
“We always had a portable rig before, and this will be more appealing to the viewers. It will open up the entire stage space to the performance,” Davis said. “We had a very generous donor through our partnership with High Mowing School who funded the new rig, and we are very grateful.”
Davis says the new rig will also make equipment changes easier between acts.
Tickets to the show, which is the Flying Gravity Circus’s principal fundraiser, are available at tickettailor.com/events/flyinggravitycircus/1923451.
On Feb. 26 through 28, the Hilltop Circus, the annual circus performance by the students of Pine Hill School, will celebrate its 30th anniversary with performances of “The Unexpected Journey.” For information, visit highmowing.org/about/calendar/hilltop-circus.