Oscar Benninga and Samantha Miel love getting the audience involved and putting smiles on their faces.
The two Lexington teens are touring with the Circus Smirkus this summer, a Greensboro, Vermont-based nonprofit that brings together 30 youth circus artists from around the country for a 65-show tour across New England.
“The best part is seeing that you’ve brought joy to people,” Benninga said. “You do something for them that makes them happy, that’s what makes magic for me.”
“It’s such a special experience that it’s a little hard to describe,” Miel said.
It’s the third summer on tour for Miel, an 18-year-old recent graduate of Cambridge School of Weston bound for Scripps College this fall, and the first for Benninga, a 15-year-old Lexington High School rising sophomore. Their paths to Circus Smirkus were different, but their shared interest in putting on a show brought the Lexington residents together this summer.
Miel initially got into performance as a gymnast. From her first classes at age two until finishing up her competitive youth team career earlier this year, Miel dedicated much of her youth to the sport. But attending a Circus Smirkus show when she was seven inspired her interest in circus.
Summers attending the Circus Smirkus camp led to her involvement with the troupe. Outside of Circus Smirkus, Miel hones her skills at classes in Wilton, New Hampshire at Flying Gravity Circus. The dedication is commendable—Miel travels an hour-plus each way three or four days a week. Luckily for her parents, Miel drives herself.
“I’ve definitely had to learn how to get all my school work done, be able to train that much and drive that much,” Miel said. “You find the balance eventually, but it takes some practice.”
Going into her senior year, Miel hoped to apply for circus school, perhaps in Canada. A bout with the flu over the winter closed that door, for now. She plans to study physics in college, which fits her STEM academic interests, and is also related to circus because of the physics of rigging.
Once a kid in the crowd, Miel now enjoys interacting with them at each show.
“My favorite part is trying to create that same magic that I felt,” Miel said.
In July 2021, Oscar’s mother, Pauline, brought him and his two siblings to their grandparents’ house in Knoxville, Tennessee for a few weeks. While many camps and activities remained closed in greater Boston due to the COVID-19 pandemic, options abounded down south. Oscar, then 11, had already taken dance lessons for several years at that point and signed up for a few classes at Knox Dance Worx.
Benninga kept going, and eventually ended up in an hour-long aerial skills class by mistake—due to a scheduling conflict with a dance class—that set off the path he’s on today. Benninga took group and private lessons back near Lexington and learned about the Circus Smirkus summer camp from an instructor at Esh Circus Arts in Cambridge. Benninga also takes partner acrobatics classes at Eastern Acrobatics in Natick.
A dancer for 12 years, Benninga takes classes in tap, jazz, ballet and modern and is a member of an a capella group and LHS honors chorus. Unicycling to school turns heads, too. A career in circus may or may not be the plan, but auditioning for circus school or finding professional gigs might be in Benninga’s future.
“I’m also spreading awareness that circus is amazing,” Benninga said, “but it’s like I bring this joy and magic to people from my own town.”
The Lexington teens reflected on their summer experience from a van in Spencer with a two-plus hour trip to Cape Cod ahead. Spending so much time with 28 other youth performers, plus more than double the amount of staff, creates “a big family,” Miel said, that learns how to work together.
“It’s a really wonderful learning experience of how you exist in a group where you’re together all the time,” Miel said.
“It’s like a job in the way that you gain experience working with a troupe, in home stays or being places that you’ve never been before,” Benninga said. “It’s a real circus. I’m not in a real job… but it’s the real deal.”
Circus Smirkus’s “Big Top Tour” runs through mid-August. The remaining schedule includes six shows over three days at Gore Place in nearby Waltham July 25-27, the closest shows to Lexington across the entire tour. Needless to say, they’re excited.
“For me, it’s easier to get into character when there are more people I know,” Benninga said. “I feel the urge to perform well for them. There’s a switch that’s flipped.”
The troupe films its Waltham shows, upping the ante for a smooth performance.
“Waltham is always a nice energy boost for the troupe as a whole,” Miel said.