[NAT SOUND OF THE CIRCUS CLASS
SYLVIA HERNANDEZ-DISTASI: OK now Bird’s Nest, pop your hips off and now you can come to sitting]
There’s a common childhood fantasy of wanting to run away from school to join the circus. But Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi did the opposite. She left the circus to start a school.
SYLVIA HERNANDEZ-DISTASI: We just pooled our money and decided to try this thing and it just took off right off the bat because with the popularity of Cirque du Soleil, people were really excited to try what they were seeing on stage so it just all kind of fell into place
The child of two circus performers and raised under the big top, Hernandez-DiStasi is the co-founder and Executive Artistic Director of The Actors Gymnasium, a Circus School and Theatre Company located right inside the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. In 2025, the organization celebrates its 30th anniversary of making acrobatics and aerial arts accessible to thousands of students in the Evanston and Chicagoland area.
JORDAN REINWALD: Aerial arts can encompass a lot of things, but the things that people are most familiar with are usually trapeze and silks.
That’s Jordan Reinwald, teacher and educational coordinator for the Actors Gym. She discovered The Actors Gym through her husband who is also an instructor at the facility.
Offering courses in contortion, trapeze, stage combat, and more, Reinwald says The Actors Gym offers something for everyone.
REINWALD: We have a wide range of students, so we have recreational students of all types. We’ve got moms, we’ve got Northwestern students, we’ve got people who just want to try something new. And then, we run the gamut all the way up to professional level circus artists.
Including many who start developing their talents right on Northwestern’s campus where Hernandez-DiStasi teaches the Theatre course Circus Movement for the Stage. The waitlist is often a mile long, but as professor Hernandez-DiStasi notes that for those who can manage to wrangle a spot, students find enjoyment from the unique and rewarding experience, and have often gone on to retake the course as well as additional classes at The Actors Gym.
HERNANDEZ-DISTASI: Everybody really wants to be there so they’re really throwing themselves wholeheartedly into this movement style that is scary and hard and sometimes painful and they’re just really dedicated.
[NAT SOUND OF CIRCUS CLASS]
Since 1998, the center has hosted youth summer camps, exploding their enrollment. Creating generations of dedicated performers who have followed the program through the Actors Gym’s teen ensemble and adult classes and 9 month intensive program, which are available and accessible to all who want to learn about circus performance.
HERNANDEZ-DISTASI: We have a huge scholarship program. So we give away a lot of classes and programming for whoever needs it.
Despite challenges, such as COVID shrinking capacity during the height of the pandemic, the Actors Gym has managed to remain a pillar of the Evanston and greater Chicago area community. Including Reinwald whose life the past 10 years has revolved around this block on Noyes Street.
REINWALD: I personally adore Actors Gym. I love it. It has my whole heart. It has been my whole life. I work here, I play here, my husband works here, my kids go to preschool right across the street. There’s an amazing community here. All my friends are here. I think the people who run the organization are amazing people who are really trying to do good in the world.
Something Hernandez-Distasi can’t agree with more
HERNANDEZ-DISTASI: We welcome everyone. We never turn anyone away for lack of need. Some people wanna perform and this is a good place for them. Some people don’t wanna perform, they just wanna learn skills, also a great place for them. So it really is where people find each other because of their uniqueness.
[NAT SOUND OF CIRCUS CLASS]
As The Actors Gym looks to its next 30 years and beyond, Hernandez-DiStasi, Reinwald, and co are excited to continue providing mentorship, community, and artistic excitement in their very own concrete big top on Noyes.
For WNUR News, I’m Sophia Casa