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> About Us > Board of Directors
Board of Directors
In Alphabetical Order:
Mark Harding
Circus Arts instructor, NECCA; Brattleboro, VT
Mark has been coaching, training and performing circus arts for the past 8 years. He studied clowning, flying trapeze and acrobatics at The San Francisco Circus Center, and was a certified USGA coach, levels 1 8. He has established and administered workshops for specialty programs and institutions throughout the nation, developing acrobatic and clowning opportunities for Chicago's inner city youth, and other programming geared to students with special needs. He has been teaching flying trapeze and acrobatics with Nimble Arts since 2005, and has recently created and begun performing a unique duo aerial act created with Nimble Arts. He continues to teach for the New England Center for Circus Arts when not performing. www.cirkadence.com.
Jennifir Bailes Hart
Dance Movement Therapist, Brattleboro, VT
Jen is a dance/movement therapist and mental health consultant working with young children and families in the Brattleboro area. In addition to her graduate training in dance/movement therapy and counseling psychology, she has been a lifelong student of movement-based arts, moving through ballet, modern dance, West African dance and yoga over the years, and arriving at Nimble Arts in 2003 to study static and flying trapeze. She enjoys performing on the trapeze and with the Brattleboro Women's Chorus, and can't wait to create a lyra piece in which she will perform while singing.
email: kikis_mailbox@yahoo.com
Arlie Hart
Visiting Professor, Vermont Community College, Brattleboro, VT
Arlie, after receiving his Masters degree in Experimental Psychology, joined IBM as a member of an interdisciplinary team designing usable software for the IBM mainframe computer systems. In 2001 he swung into the circus world, helping to start Trapeze School World which opened the first flying trapeze school in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2002, he designed and built his first flying trapeze rig which was installed in the first full-time flying trapeze school, Trapeze School New York, in New York City. That school's success led to the opening of a second rig built by Arlie in Baltimore, MD. He is very happy to bring his rigging and teaching expertise to Brattleboro, where he lives with his family, teaching at Vermont Community College and helping students learn the joys of flight on the flying trapeze rig during the summers.
email: arliehart@yahoo.com
Ted Lawrence
Founder, Slapstick Science, Hartford, VT
Ted is a full time performer and teacher who started his official circus career when he joined the Ringling Bros. 117th edition in 1986. He had been an avid student of clowning for many years, including 2 years with the Silent Company at UVM. His Ringling tour capitalized on his acrobatic skills as well as his funny skills, and he continued to study rigging, slapstick, tight wire and Risley during his two year tour. In 1994 Ted was the Juggling/Skills Coach for the Ringling Clown College, and he has continued teaching and sharing his love of the circus through the Van Lodostov Family Circus which is available to communities interested in encouraging personal growth to its youth (and adults) through circus training. Ted's teaching career started in sixth grade when he became a swim instructor at the local beach, was punctuated by a BS in Secondary Education wit double majors in Math and Physical Sciences from UVM, and continues today through the Slapstick Science tour he offers to elementary schools all over the Northeast.
(800) 728-8207
www.slapstickscience.com
www.vanlodostov.com
Mel Martin (Board Vice President)
Brattleboro, VT
Mel has been Vice President and co-owner of HowellMartin Marketing & Advertising in Brattleboro, VT for 23 years, and now works as a consultant to companies as a Certified Brand Strategist. He is active in the community, serving as a volunteer and/or board member with a variety of non-profit organizations presently including Youth Services, the Harris Hill Ski Jump as well as his position as Vice-President of the board of NECCA. Mel began aerial fabric and trapeze classes three years ago with Nimble Arts. He is passionate about flying trapeze, and has not ruled out running away with the circus one day.
email: mmartin@howellmartin.com
Margaret Minsky
Amherst, MA
Margaret is Chief Operating Officer of StyleCart, a web software company. Holding a PhD from the MIT Media Laboratory, she contributed research in the field of haptic interfaces (computational interfaces that simulate objects that you can touch and feel) as well as in computer graphics, educational technology, and human-computer interaction. She has presented invited teaching and lectures in the USA and Japan, as well as Program Committee service for conferences and publications in her field. She also founded a design/manufacturing company innovating pleated fleece clothing. Her previous positions include Research Director at Atari Cambridge Laboratory, and she was on the Board of Directors of Logo Computer Systems, Inc. She maintains an avid and eclectic life in her own body, having studied Modern Dance with Susan Rose, Pilates Movement with Kirk Smith and Jen Polins, and now hopefully life-long learning of Aerial Circus.
email: marg@media.mit.edu
www.margaretminsky.com
Britta Reida (Board Secretary)
Brattleboro, VT
Britta holds a degree in Psychology from Keene State College and has been working with children and families for 16 years as an in-home childcare provider, an Intensive Services Provider for children with autism through Rise, for Baby and Family, and as the Integration Facilitator for children with special needs at Winston L. Prouty Center. As a Steering Committee member of the Cape Cod group Circles for Change, she created and facilitated community workshops in media literacy, women's rights, violence prevention, and mentoring and created and facilitated empowerment for girls from low-income families teaching self-awareness, positive body image, healthy risk-taking and communication skills through drama and role-playing, dance and movement, art, journaling and other expressive arts.
email: britskye1@yahoo.com
Michelle Stines (Board Treasurer)
Brattleboro, VT
Michelle graduated from Keene State College with degrees in Biology and Chemistry. While she attended Keene State she was secretary in the National Honor Society for Biology Students and President of the Chemistry Lyceum, as well as an active member of Kappa Delta Phi, NAS. She has been studying trapeze and aerial skills for three years with Nimble Arts and NECCA. Michelle also is the Executive Board Representative for the IBEW Local 300, Unit 8 and a Pop Warner Cheerleading Coach.
email: michstines@yahoo.com
Henry Wheaton
Athlete and Educator, Westhampton, MA
Henry Wheaton graduated from Grinnell College in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in political science and studied education at Lesley College at the graduate level. He was a teacher in the Boston area for America Reads and the Hood Literacy Grant. Henry has also worked as a bicylce messenger, contractor, landscaper and bouncer. A competitive cyclist since 1987, he has raced in the United States and Europe. Henry began taking classes at Nimble Arts/NECCA in the winter of 2006 and is pursuing a career as a circus performer and photographer.
email: henrywheaton@comcast.net
www.myspace.com/henrywheaton
David Woodberry (Board President)
Choreographer and Production Manager, Brattleboro, VT
David worked in the non-profit world in NYC from '73-'86. He received grants and won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts three times, the NY State Council on the Arts twice, the Vermont Council on the Arts three times, as well as numerous private foundations. He served as the Executive Director of the Arts Council of Windham County from 1978-80, and in that role was awarded grants from the Windham Foundation and the Dunham Mason Foundation. As a performer, David toured Europe a dozen times, including a yearlong tour of Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach. David has been stage manager for the New England Bach Festival, the Brattleboro Music Center and the Brattleboro Arts Initiative as well as the production manager of the acclaimed Strolling of the Heifers, a statewide celebration of small farms of Vermont.
email: dpwoodberry@yahoo.com
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"[Circus Arts is] the only exercise class I've ever enjoyed. I did my second cartwheel of my entire life last month. It's been great!"
Janet, age 40
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