DeKALB – NIU’s Circus Club began as an unofficial club in the spring 2023 semester. Within a year, the club went from being unofficial to being approved through the Student Government Association in the spring 2024 semester.
Circus Club focuses on teaching members different skills relating to the circus, such as juggling, acrobatics and unicycling.
Circus Club is currently in the process of switching from their current adviser, Benjamin Stone, an instructor in the School of Art and Design, to Michel Rodriguez-Cintra, visiting assistant professor in the School of Theatre and Dance.
Nam Pham, a junior illustration major and Circus Club founder, explained the reason for wanting to start the club.
“Two years ago, I decided to have a space where I could get some of my friends together and teach them juggling. And I decided, you know, it would be kind of cool to have that unofficially. So in order to get more outreach and more people knowing about that, I decided to make the club official with a constitution,” Pham said.
Circus Club plans to host future events and performances at NIU once time has passed and once other club members are interested in and comfortable with performing.
Pham said since becoming a club the practice structure has changed.
“We’ve had more structure to our practices and stuff. So before, we didn’t really have much structure with the practices, but now we actually have skills that we’ve seen building and the folks that come here also, interestingly, pick up those skills too,” Pham said. “So it’s like they buy into different sections like acrobatics, juggling, unicycling and stuff like that.”
As of Nov. 19, Circus Club has between six and eight members.
Students who are interested in being a part of Circus Club can either attend their rehearsals from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays in Gabel Hall 140 or follow their Instagram. Circus Club also has an email list where they send out information about the club each week, along with a GroupMe where they send photos and videos for the club. Students can sign up for the email list and GroupMe by attending the Circus Club meetings.
