DEBORAH TREFTS
Staff Writer
Dangerous and death-defying aerial acrobatics comprise the daily routine of exceptionally daring, strong and skilled circus artists willing and able to test their limits in order to amaze and enthrall children of all ages.
Circus Hall of Famer and Circus Ring of Famer Pedro Reis, for example, climbed 100 feet to set up the rigging for soaring aerial performances. And he “sometimes” performed his acrobatic feats without any safety devices whatsoever (no belts, no nets, etc).
See for yourself. There’s a video online of Reis performing his act, The Survivors, at the 1985 International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo — after having made his American debut in 1984 starring in “The Greatest Show on Earth,” produced by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
And there’s a video of his act Cloud Swing — from Grandma Goes West, a 1989 Big Apple Circus production at Busch Gardens — involving a giant swing that he said consisted of a 35-foot-long rope attached to steel bars.
Over time, Reis moved on from jaw-dropping big tent performances to concentrate on elevating the “mystery and magic of circus arts” as an impresario. Because of his leadership in the arts, he has been honored with a variety of awards and advisory positions.
At 3 p.m. Saturday in the Hall of Philosophy, Reis will give a lecture at the Chautauqua Women’s Club-sponsored Contemporary Issues Forum titled, “Sawdust in the Veins: A Circus Artist, Producer and Founder Shares.”
“I will talk about my life,” said Reis, who with his wife, aerialist Dolly Jacobs, co-founded in 2017 Florida’s only professional one-ring European style circus, the National Circus School of Performing Arts. “Later, we changed its name to Circus Sarasota.”
The daughter of the much-beloved clown Lou Jacobs, Dolly Jacobs took daring-do to the sky 200 feet above a lake, where despite being battered by 50 mph winds, she performed spectacular aerial acrobatics — without safety equipment — on Roman rings that had been suspended from a helicopter. Clearly, acrophobia and risk aversion do not run through her veins either.
“I’m not from a traditional background,” Reis said. “I started off at the local YMCA in Cape Town (South Africa).”
Like Chautauqua Boys’ and Girls’ Club back then, his nearby YMCA had a trampoline. Unlike the Club, however, the Cape Town trampoline was part of a flying trapeze school.
“It was started by Keith Anderson,” Reis said. “We went all over the world. It developed into a complete circus school with a low wire, a high wire …”
“I was about 11 when I got introduced to the exciting flying trapeze,” he continued. “There were 13 of us. We went to Europe as a troupe. To England, then Paris, then back to England, then Norway, then Sicily… I’ll talk about that. … The first act I formed when I was young was The Star Lords, instead of ‘Wars.’ Then came The Survivors.”
Reis will share stories about his circus life and career on Saturday afternoon. Having toured Europe and the United States extensively, he performed before many dignitaries, including King Charles (when he was the Prince of Wales), the royal family of Monaco and President Ronald Reagan.
With the addition of Sailor Circus Academy and Sailor Circus (“America’s longest-running youth circus”), Circus Sarasota became the Circus Arts Conservatory in 2013. CAC is “a not-for-profit performing arts and educational organization, dedicated to continuing the legacy of the Circus in Sarasota.”
Until 2025, Reis served as CAC’s president, CEO and artistic director. “In 1984, there were only four schools in the United States,” he said. “By 2017, there were more than 300 circus schools in the U.S.”
The Circus Arts Conservatory has sponsored numerous educational programs, both in and out of school.
“We would have circus artists going into schools, into the fifth grade, working with Florida educational standards,” Reis said. “We used Rube Goldberg. Science starts in the fifth grade. The students would see a giant Rube Goldberg floor. We were in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte Counties.”
CAC partnered with the Smithsonian Institution when the Smithsonian Folklife Festival honored the Circus Arts in 2017.
“We erected the Big Tent on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,” Reis said. “That was three years in the making. This September, Circus Arts has been invited back to D.C. to collaborate with the Smithsonian in three different buildings, including Arts and Industry and American History.”
Since 2024, Reis has been “developing multi-disciplinary artistic collaborations” through his new venture, Spirit of the Circus.
“My focus now is consulting and helping put together projects,” he said. His “most recent projects include the second annual production of Circus & The Bard, which closes this weekend at Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires” of Massachusetts.
“I never saw or conceived that I’d ever connect with Shakespeare,” Reis said. “But then I met (co-creator) Robin Eldridge. It’s for children and all ages. Every show is a standing ovation. The premise, the idea of it all, is introducing Shakespeare to people and students who have never heard of Shakespeare. They’re not doing a play. The actors speak the text of Shakespeare from many different plays, so the audience gets a taste of Shakespeare from different plays and poems. So it’s fun.”
Another project is “a collaboration with the Sarasota Ballet,” and a third is “an original circus musical that’s coming out in 2027.” Reis said that he went to the first reading and was impressed by how accurately the circus was portrayed.
“The focus of what I really want to achieve is to raise the perception of the circus in the U.S.,” Reis said.
