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Sarasota Circus Arts Exhibit Heading to D.C.

BY BILLY COX – HERALD-TRIBUNE:
Sarasota’s Circus Arts Conservatory is set to play the most prestigious venue in its 19-year history — at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2017. As a new partner with the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the Conservatory’s temporary digs on “America’s front lawn” is expected to draw the attention of as many as 1 million actual and virtual visitors next year.   MORE

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Sailor Circus Presents The Greatest “Little” Show on Earth

By JENNA GREENFIELD – SARASOTA MAGAZINE
This spring, the Sailor Circus Academy is proving that big things really do come in small packages. The 67th annual Sailor Circus Spring Performance of the Greatest “Little” Show on Earth will feature more than 100 students as they showcase the unique skills they learned in the academy’s intensive after-school program. The performers range from ages 8-18, with an even wider range of talents, including acrobatics, high wire, unicycle riding, and more. MORE

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Sailor Circus Opens In Sarasota

By MARTY CLEAR – BRADENTON HERALD:
It’s billed as “The Greatest Little Show on Earth.” But it’s not all that little. In fact, the Sailor Circus Spring Performance, which opens Thursday in Sarasota features more than 100 circus artists. They’re circus students, but they perform the same kind of acts the professionals do, including trapeze and high-wire acts. The Sailor Circus has been around for 67 years… MORE

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Clap, Be Happy, Get a Coat

By Bill Church – HERALD TRIBUNE: Circus Sarasota and its headliner, Sarasota’s Bello Nock, are among the reasons our area ranks so high in the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Circus Sarasota is a fun, family-driven event that reflects well on our circus heritage. The best part? World-class performers hang around to sign autographs after the show.  MORE

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Review – Circus Sarasota’s ‘Red, White & Bello!’

By Kay Kipling – SARASOTA MAGAZINE:

If you still haven’t seen this year’s version of Circus Sarasota, Red, White & Bello!, under the Big Top at Benderson Park, you have a few more chances before the end of the run, Feb. 28. As always, it will be worth your while to see circus folk—performers who have dedicated their lives to doing things day after day most of us would never attempt—cheerfully risk falls, fire and poodle bites to bring you thrills. Sarasota’s own Bello Nock is both headliner—high atop the spinning Wheel of Destiny with daughter Annaliese—and clown, from the beginning of the show, where he places his entire body inside a giant yellow balloon…  MORE

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Regional Reviews: Florida – West Coast

‘Red, White & Bello!’ Review by William S. Oser – TALKIN’ BROADWAY:

February is always one of my favorite times of the year, because it is time for Circus Sarasota, under the auspices of The Circus Arts Conservatory. This year’s production is entitled Red, White & Bello! and is built around the antics of daredevil clown Bello Nock, Sarasota born and raised and he still lives here. Ringmaster, 15th generation circus performer, Joseph Bauer, Jr. introduces him as “my cousin” Bello. Bello has three features, the best of which involves him going almost completely inside a very large yellow balloon, while in another he pulls down a rope from its pulley and then works to get the rope back where it needs to be. He weaves in and out of other featured acts and is clearly the big star of the show.

The featured acts for the rest of the first act are… MORE

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Bello is a-Nockin’

By Liz Sandburg – VISIT SARASOTA COUNTY:  Bello Nock and Circus Sarasota do not disappoint to entertain children of all ages in “Red, White, and BELLO!” “How in the world can he do that?!” The man sitting behind me is incredulous. The rest of us are speechless as he blurts out these words, though we are all thinking the same thing. How? How can one man accomplish such unfathomable feats, such creative accomplishments, such death-defying maneuvers, such hilarity? Simple answer – because he’s Bello Nock. It’s just what he does … and this is only halfway through his opening act of “Red, White, and BELLO!” at Circus Sarasota.   MORE

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REVIEW: ‘Red, White and Bello’

Review By Carrie Seidman – HERALD-TRIBUNE: “Red, White and Bello,” Circus Sarasota’s winter show under the Big Top behind the University Center Mall, provides plenty of allure, for the uninitiated and the jaded alike. No sad animals, sophomoric clowns or second-rate showmen here; founders Pedro Reis and Dolly Jacobs are carrying on the circus legacy with style, class and an awful lot of bang for your buck (like 2 ½ hours worth). MORE

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Circus Sarasota Presents ‘Red, White & Bello’

By Marty Clear – BRADENTON HERALD:

Bello Nock has performed with elite circuses all over the world. He ranks Circus Sarasota as one of the best big-top circuses around, along with Cirque du Soleil and New York Big Apple Circus. So the man that Time magazine called “America’s best clown” said he’ll be among his peers performing with Circus Sarasota. “It is a wonderful show,” Nock said… MORE

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Black Tie & Tales

By Molly Schechter – THE OBSERVER: Sarasota attracts interesting people with interesting stories as demonstrated by the “Best Man’s Hat” winner at this years Circus Arts Conservatory gala on January 29.  The man is Preston T. Scott, a University of Virginia educated attorney whose original career was working for the U.S. government in environmental law…. The hat came to Sarasota as a gift to Scott after he organized the Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Festival featuring Bhutan in 2008. The exhibit, one of an annual series started in 1967, included the first American performance of the “Black-Hat Dance,” which dates from the early 17th century. MORE