TEACHERS’ BIOGRAPHIES
LU YI – Master Teacher, Artistic Director
Master Trainer Lu Yi brings more than 50 years of experience to the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. For 33 years He was associated with China’s celebrated Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, first as a star performer, then as its Director. He was also vice-president of the Chinese Acrobats Association. During his long tenure with the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, Mr. Lu Yi has toured internationally, and his company was the first Chinese group to perform in western circus productions, notably with Circus Knie in Switzerland, and the Big Apple Circus in the US. He has also taught circus arts for Circus Oz in Australia. Mr. Lu Yi moved to the US in 1990 to become Master Teacher of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts at Circus Center, and he has collaborated with the New Pickle Circus for many seasons, before its merging with Circus Center. He has judged international circus competitions in Paris, Monte-Carlo and China.

XIAO HONG WENG – Associate Artistic Director
Xiao Hong started learning acrobatics as a kid with the celebrated Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe in China. There he specialized in chair-balancing, Chinese poles, and hoop diving, among other acrobatic forms, which he performed with the Troupe throughout China from 1977-1994. He also became a teacher for the Troupe in 1986. From 1994 to 1996 he performed in two shows for Princess Cruise Lines, Metamorphosis and Mystique, before joining the Dynamic Acrobats of China in The Incredible Flying Dragon Show. He has since performed at Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada, at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles, and in many shows and corporate events. Xiao Hong joined the Teaching Staffs of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts and the Clown Conservatory at Circus Center in 1999, and is a regular member of the New Pickle Circus.

JIM DONAK (C.A.M.T, MPNLP) – Trampoline Department
Since the age of 9, Jim has been fascinated by and studying the structure and movement of the human body. This has lead to a lifetime of studying anatomy, movement, and manual healing therapies. Age age 14, he began studying Chinese martial Arts, and at age 20, he started extensive training in the Alexander Technique. Jim's first introduction to circus arts was in 1980 when he began taking lessons on swinging trapeze. This quickly led to a great attraction to all things circus. In 1987 he began working for Circus Of The Kids, a traveling circus school, where his main teaching responsibilities were mini-trampoline, rope, pyramid building, and teeterboard. He performed an adagio Rolla Bolla act, a double trapeze act, and was catcher on the flying trapeze. He was also the assistant director and head rigger. After leaving COTK in 1991, Jim was trained in the coaching of trampoline. Beside his duties at Circus Center, Jim teaches at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley. He also maintains a private practice, which includes rehabilitative bodywork that integrates movement and orthopedic techniques with Tui Na and Thai massage, and he teaches educational workshops for Yoga instructors, body workers, dancers and others whose lives involve understanding the movement and structure of the human body.

JEFF RAZ – Director, Clown Conservatory
For the last 30 years, Jeff Raz, the founder and director of the Clown Conservatory, has performed nationally and internationally with circuses and theaters including Cirque du Soleil, The Pickle Circus, Song Circus, Lincoln Center Theater, Vaudeville Nouveau, Dell'Arte Players, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin and S.F. Shakespeare Festivals, TheatreWorks and Marin Theater Company. From 1996 to 2003, Jeff played the Jester at “Bracebridge Dinner” in Yosemite Park; he was the stage director in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, Jeff took a sabbatical to perform the lead role in Cirque du Soleil’s touring show “Corteo”.

Since 1990, he has written 10 plays, including adaptations of Oedipus the King and the Book of Esther and two solo plays ‘Father-Land’ and ‘Birth Mark’. His directing credits include Make*A*Circus and the Pickle Circus, a number of puppet plays for Lunitique Fantastique and “The Bright River”, a hip-hop retelling of Dante’s Inferno, at A Traveling Jewish Theater. His television work includes “Live From Lincoln Center”, Disney’s “The New Vaudevillians” and commercials for Ford, First Union Bank, Frulatte and others.

Jeff has taught physical theater and circus arts at universities, conservatories and arts high schools around the country. He worked for seven years with the Artist Diversity Residency Program at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. In 2001, Jeff helped create the Institute at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts based on the Lincoln Center Institute model of arts education. He is also the founder and director of the Clown Conservatory, a program that has trained some of the top young clowns working in Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Eloize, Ringling Bros. and other circuses around the world

PATTY GALLAGHER – Director in Residence, Clown Conservatory
Patty Gallagher serves as the Assistant Director of the Clown Conservatory, where she teaches Physical Theater & Balinese Dance. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She teaches in the Theatre Arts department at U.C. Santa Cruz and has also taught at the University of Performing Arts in Bali, Indonesia. She has performed clown and buffoon with Teatro del Cronopio (Ecuador) and trained in physical theatre with Grupo Malayerba, and she has studied Javanese and Balinese dance for over ten years. She has worked with Fool Time Circus, the San Francisco Youth Circus, the New Pickle Circus, and The Weird Sisters ensemble.

XIA KEMIN – Chinese Acrobatics
Xia Kemin began learning acrobatics at an early age in his native city of Shangai, in China, with the Shangai Red Acrobatic Troupe. He later moved to Nanjing where he became a member of the internationally famous Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, with which he performed all over the world as a clown, juggler and acrobat. In the US, he was featured with the Troupe in The Big Apple Circus Meets The Monkey King at the Big Apple Circus in 1987. Xia Kemin moved to California in 1992 to join the teaching staff at Circus Center. He has also performed his comedy-juggling act, “The Happy Chef” in many venues around the bay Area.

ELENA PANOVA – Director, Professional Aerial Program
Born in Murom, Russia, Elena Panova is a graduate of Moscow’s Circus and Variety College, where she specialized as an aerialist. Under the guidance of the famous training tandem of Tereza Durova and Viktor Fomin, she created a groundbreaking swinging trapeze act that has redefined swinging trapeze as it is performed today all over the world. Elena won the Gold Medal and at Paris’ Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in 1987, and the Gold Medal at the 1988 All-Union Circus Artists Competition of the USSR. For twenty years, she has performed in major circuses and variety shows on four continents, including the Moscow Circus, Circus Knie, Paris’ Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione, and the Big Apple Circus. Elena moved to the United States in 1991. She started teaching at Circus Center in 2004
 
HELENE TURCOTTE – Aerial Department Head
Born in the Province of Quebec, Canada, Hélène Turcotte is a graduate of the National Circus School in Montreal, where she specialized in aerial arts. Together with her partner Luc Martin they created a very innovative trapeze duet, " Mouvance", which is choreographed as a passionate aerial tango. Their wonderful act received numerous international awards, among which a Gold Medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris in 1989, and a Silver Clown at the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo in 1997. Hélène and Luc have been touring extensively in Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United States. They are regulars at San Francisco’s famous dinner-show, Teatro ZinZanni. Hélène has also produced several circus-cabaret shows at the Broadway Studio in San Francisco. She started teaching at Circus Center in 2002.

SCOTT CAMERON – Flying Trapeze
A native Californian, Scott graduated from U.C.Berkeley with a degree in genetics. In1986, he left the laboratory to become a catcher on the flying trapeze at Club Med. He has since worked as a consultant, performer and teacher in eleven countries, helping to establish and expand the international sport trapeze movement. In 1992, he joined the faculty of the SFCC where he designed the flying trapeze curriculum and served as head of the flying trapeze department before stepping down in 2001 to focus on his entertainment production company.

JENNINGS McCOWN – Flying Trapeze, Trampoline
Jennings was introduced to circus while attending Illinois State University, which had then a small campus circus troupe. There he caught the “circus bug” and, upon graduation, spent the next three years traveling and performing with various small circuses throughout the US. The next step was a brief two-year career at Club Med, teaching circus skills and flying trapeze – which eventually led him to Circus Center, where he joined the teaching staff in 1999. Jennings teaches flying trapeze and trampoline, and performs with Xiao Hong Weng a spectacular hand-to-hand balancing act that can often be seen with the New Pickle Circus and in various venues throughout the Bay Area.
 
JACK ASHBURNER– Flying Trapeze Jack holds degrees in Physics and Nuclear Engineering with a minor in Education from MIT. He started his circus career as a competative Gymnast while attending college. Since then, he has coached Gymnastics at the National School for Gymnastics in Pittsburgh, PA. He joined the Circus Center in 1995 as a Flying Trapeze student. He later studied hand balancing with Lu Yi. He is currently a member of the Flying Trapeze Staff.
 
Administrative Staff
Dr. Anne W. Smith -- Interim Executive Director
 
Peggy Ford -- Program Director
 
David Matchett -- Finance Consultant
 
Nancy Weiland -- Office Manager
 
Chris Weiland -- Receptionist
 
Laura Ricci -- Development Assistant

Jeni Johnson -- Managing Director, Clown Conservatory

Sabina Holberg -- Finance and Human Resources Assistant