Tag: necca

When we first arrived in Brattleboro, we were charmed by the idea that we have a full-fledged circus school in town. I had dreams of the circus back in the day myself. Lee took a community class to learn the basics of German Wheel, and we’ve been to several NECCA performances.

A couple of years ago, the circus school announced its intention to move from its current digs in the old Cotton Mill complex to a brand new building over on Putney Road. While I lament the loss of funkiness, from the perspective of the school’s leaders I can certainly see advantages to a newer, brighter space.

As part of the capital campaign underway to build that new building, NECCA received this painting as a donation. It’s by Paul Stone, whose dental practice was located in our home for many years (before it was our home…). We see Paul from time to time, as he plays cards next door most weeks. He gave us the original blueprints for the building after he found them in his closet a year or two ago. Vermont has a lot of barn painters, but there’s something about his paintings… palette, shadows, who knows… that has appealed to us from even before we knew we were buying his building.

Soooo…. wouldn’t it be awesome if the painting ended up gracing a wall in Paul’s old building? So full-circle, so meant-to-be. Wouldn’t that be just the best pre-Christmas present EVER???

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I love a man in corduroy

Last night we went to NECCA’s annual Circus Spectacular fundraiser at the Latchis. We splurged on VIP tickets, which bought us a nice cocktail reception across the street at the Brattleboro Museum.

We ran into our contractor and his wife, and a couple of people L has met in her German Wheel class. Other performers and volunteers kept things interesting, as shown above. These two stole the show at The Flying Nut in December, keeping up a running commentary and proving that clowns don’t have to be scary, just snarky.

When we marched from the reception to the show, circus parade style, stopping traffic, and I was escorted by these two lovelies AND by the girl that brung me, let’s just say that a few other graybeards were thinking that maybe they too should invest in a chick magnet corduroy sport jacket.

The show itself was great, a hodge-podge of circus acts showing off the wide range of talent of the school’s instructors and students. The twin sister founders Elsie and Serenity did a great pairs trapeze act, L’s German Wheel teacher Zeb did a really neat duo act, and all sorts of other acts high and low kept things moving from start to finish. The clowns were funny, too, but for me the highlight of the show was the mime, who did three numbers, all really different, and all wonderful.

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