Sarah Norden has a year under her belt on the Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour, but she’s just as excited for her second tour as an aerial acts performer and a clown.

After finishing her junior year at Maine Coast Waldorf School, Norden left last Saturday for training in Greensboro, Vt., for the Big Top Tour that includes no less than 66 shows, beginning on June 25.

“I’m just as excited if not more excited this year, because I know the ropes and I have tons of friends there,” Norden said.

Norden, daughter of Caroline Norden and Curtis Bohlen, has taken nightly courses at Circus Maine in Portland. This spring her classes included skills on the lyra, an aerial hoop used for acrobatics in the air, and tumbling and handstands. She recently performed at one of Circus Maine’s monthly cabarets, a comedy, musical, dance and lyra routine with Adam Sterr of Portland Ballet.

The Big Top Tour, in which she’ll be one of about 30 performers, teaches her to be supportive in an atmosphere of community, she said. She likes the opportunity to travel throughout the Northeast.

This tour will hone her circus skills, she said. She expects that next summer will be her final tour.

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Circus Smirkus has scheduled two shows, Aug. 2-3, at Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport.

“It’s exciting and bizarre to perform at home,” she said. “It was a clash of two worlds last year, but it was gratifying to perform before people I know.”

The performances at Maine Coast Waldorf School will be at 1 and 6 p.m. both days. For information and tickets, visit www.smirkus.org, or call 1-877-SMIRKUS (1-877-764-7587). Tickets also will be available at Royal River Natural Foods, U.S. Route 1, Freeport on June 15.

Sarah Norden, who just completed her junior year at Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport, is in Greensboro, Vt., to train for her second excursion on the Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour.


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