Executive Director, Performance, Youth Circus, Aerial Acrobatics, Balance

Katherine began her career as a dancer and joined the circus in 2006, spending the next 10 years as a circus performer.  During this time she also began developing her circus and dance education program. She has had the great opportunity to perform and train with a wide variety of companies all over the world giving her a well rounded and strong base to create the curriculum and program that The Circus Academy of Tucson uses. Some highlights are that she has trained and done workshops with Circo Picolino in Brazil, The New England Center for Circus Arts, Pilobolus, Streb, and Air Dance Moscow. She is an active member of the American Circus Educators. She has her Master’s of Social Work and is a current student in the Master of Public Administration program at ASU. Her favorite thing about teaching circus is watching children learn that through hard work and dedication the impossible becomes possible! 

Head Instructor, Aerial Acrobatics, Conditioning

Annie Mielke is an aerial dancer and circus artist with 20 years of aerial training and performance experience. She began performing at a young age with nationally recognized youth circus program Circus Juventas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She began teaching alongside Katherine in 2012 and helped found The Circus Academy of Tucson after graduating with a Business Degree in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from the University of Arizona. Recently, she spent two years in Austin, Texas, working with aerial dance company Blue Lapis Light. Her love of circus stems from the mix of creative expression and athleticism it involves, and she loves sharing these aspects of her art with her students!

Youth Circus, Aerial, German Wheel, Contortion, and Tumbling

Growing up in Massachusetts, Britney trained as a gymnast at a young age and started competing in her early teens. In her 20’s she began her yoga practice while living in Hawaii. She then traveled around the world and took a yoga teacher training in Thailand. After traveling she settled in Easthampton, MA where she joined SHOW Circus Studio and was coached by Margaret Butterfield and others. She then moved to AZ and went on to train at Circus Academy. She is certified in German Wheel through Wolfgang Bientzle and Kintortion Level 1 founded by Anya Shevelyuk. Currently she trains contortion under her coach Ash Rexford of San Francisco Circus Center. Britney is pushing the limits to what she thought was possible.

Youth Circus, Camps, Aerial

Marissa started her aerial experience while living in California in 2021, shortly after the pandemic. She then moved to Tucson in 2022 and has been training at our studio ever since! Primarily training in silks, she has done multiple showcases and performances. She is passionate about working with children, and enjoys coaching both youth circus camps and aerial classes, as well as instructing at birthday parties and other events. She loves the community at the studio and getting to know everyone who comes in the door. Marissa is continually pursuing to expand her knowledge of all circus skills so that she can share the joy that they bring to her with others!

Youth Circus, Camp, Beginning Silks

Isabel grew up in Tucson and began taking aerial silks classes in 2013. In 2016, she began teaching as a junior counselor at CAAAT, where she discovered how much she enjoyed sharing her love of circus with others. Since then, Isabel has taught circus as an instructor at CAAAT to students of all ages through classes, birthday parties, school programs, and summer camps. She loves creating a supportive, encouraging environment where students of all backgrounds can build confidence and learn new skills. In addition to teaching, Isabel enjoys performing and has experience performing aerial silks, lyra, and trapeze. She left Tucson to pursue her bachelor’s of psychology and now she is back at the U of A pursuing her master’s in counseling. She is excited to be back to continue inspiring students to explore the creativity, challenge, and joy that circus arts have to offer.

Advanced Silks, Lyra, Theater, Act Building, Performance

Raven Alvarez grew up in Arcata, California where she began her aerial adventures at 9 years old with Humboldt Aerial Collective. She continued training throughout middle and high school, later training with Synapsis in Eureka, California. She moved to Sells, Arizona for college, majoring in Tohono O’odham Studies. After two semesters, she took a break to apprentice with Flynn Creek Circus. There she gained new motivation and inspiration to continue growing her knowledge in the performing arts. Upon her return to Arizona (and school, now studying Natural Resources at U of A) she found the Circus Academy of Tucson. There, she developed her love of teaching and worked to broaden her skill sets. She loves the community that circus provides and looks to spread that community as far as she can.

Dance

Maddie grew up in dance, and became a mentor for younger dancers at her studio when she was in high school. She began both taking aerial lessons and teaching dance while in college at NAU and fell in love with both. During the pandemic, she moved back home to Tucson and jumped right back into aerial once gyms opened back up, returning to the thing that brought her endless joy in school, and began teaching dance again a few years later. At her day job, Maddie is a bird expert and zoo keeper extraordinaire!

Beginning to Advanced Silks, Summer Camp, Stilts

Hazel has been doing classes at the circus academy for 8 years. She started out with silks, and fell in love with it right away. After that was trapeze, which she also loves! She has a lot of fun working with kids, and seeing people find the passion for circus that she found as a young kid. 

Clowning, Theater, Kid’s Circus, Young Children

Contortion, Lyra

Juggling and Props

Liam grew up in St. Louis and performed with Circus Harmony, before moving to Tucson and joining our program as a youth. He is one of the best box jugglers in the world, a graduate of the Circadium professional circus program, and has performed and attended juggling festivals across the globe, including with the Zoppe Family Circus.

Aerial Acrobatics, Juggling, and Stilts

Sierra was one of our youth students who grew up through the program in middle and high school. She went off to get her degree in graphic design and trained and performed with the Bellingham Circus Collective. She’s back in Tucson working as a designer and teaching with us!