Circus and Dance Spectacular JOY! Brings Trinity’s Bicentennial Celebration to the Stage

A multi-generational cast of Trinity College students and faculty, local high school students, and professional artists will converge on campus for a production of dance, music, circus, and pure JOY! in mid-October.

Directed by award-winning dancer and choreographer Tandy Beal, JOY! is a longtime stage spectacular featuring more than 25 acrobats, dancers, and circus artists that is tailored for the celebration of Trinity’s 200th anniversary.

“I’m ecstatic for our community to bear the fruits of our labor and feel the JOY,” said theater and dance major Ayouba Swaray ’24, who is one of 16 Trinity student performers. Many other students are working backstage and managing the wardrobe, lighting, front of house, and more.

Performances are free and open to the public and will be held at Austin Arts Center’s Goodwin Theater on Friday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 14, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., during Trinity’s Bicentennial Fall Weekend.

The cast includes faculty members Peter Kyle, associate professor of theater and dance and chair of Trinity’s Theater and Dance Department; Rachna R. Agrawal, visiting lecturer in theater and dance; and Brandon D. Couloute, visiting lecturer in theater and dance.

Kyle has previously collaborated with Beal, founder of Tandy Beal & Company, and helped to bring JOY! to Trinity. “I wanted to add some excitement to our community around the arts as we celebrate the Bicentennial,” he said. “The title JOY! sums Tandy up. She has such an optimistic view of life and the world, and despite all the challenges that we face, she really likes to emphasize work that celebrates community. We want folks to come and feel the value of live performance and of a community-building endeavor.”

Trinity students are being exposed to new skills and techniques through rehearsing and performing with professional artists, Kyle said. “But more than that,” he added, “they get to be part of this coming together of numerous different cultures and traditions, all to center the arts in the celebration at Trinity.”

Guest artists performing on the same stage as Trinity students in JOY! include longtime Tandy Beal & Company collaborators and Cirque du Soleil soloists Jeff Raz and Diane Wasnak, the award-winning a cappella group SoVoSó, hand-balancer and contortionist Fleeky Franko, hula-hooper Natasha Kaluza, and Ethiopian foot juggler Eht Hailu.

The cast also features local professional dancer Isaiah Artis, as well as high school dance students from the CREC Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Half-Day Program.

Alexa Melonopoulos Fleury, chair of the academy’s dance department, said that ongoing collaborations with Trinity offer valuable opportunities to student performers. “For young dancers, it’s an extraordinary experience to work with Tandy,” Melonopoulos Fleury said. “She speaks to them about being playful and joyful, but also fearless, to make the piece work. It’s exciting to watch our students work with professional artists; there’s a little bit of nerves, but we see them step up to the plate and grow through this experience.”

Beal agreed that the highly collaborative nature of this production adds to the joy. “One of the goals is to bring together a community of dancers, artists, professionals, and students, knowing that everybody is enriched by a deep collaboration. We each have something to learn, all the way around the table,” she said. “Drawing communities together is an extraordinary way to celebrate 200 years.” Because she and Kyle were in the same dance company, albeit different generations, they have a well-honed language that enriches this collaboration with great trust, Beal said.

“I love circus because it’s the quickest way to wonderment for adults,” added Beal. “We often think of wonder only as a childlike thing, but it’s not. We all need things to take us away from our daily worries, even for a moment, which I think this show has the capacity to do. It’s a family-friendly concert, and there will be something musically, as well as visually, for everybody. I hope people’s hearts are opened, I hope they laugh, and I hope they walk out wrapped in optimism, ready for another 200 years.”

In her career, Beal has helmed acclaimed productions on four continents. Her accomplishments include directing the Moscow Circus in Tokyo, staging shows for Carl Sagan’s SETI conference, entertainment for Monday Night Football for the San Francisco 49ers, corporate events for Pixar, Oracle, and LucasFilms, creating choreography for Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and for many of singer Bobby McFerrin’s world tours, acting as artistic director of the Pickle Family Circus for 10 years, and bringing to life 65 life-sized puppets for Frank Zappa.

Beal and two JOY! artists will offer talks and workshops at Trinity during the week leading up to the October 13 and 14 performances: Sunshine (García) Becker will lead a Circle Song master class on Tuesday, October 10, from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in Austin Arts Center’s Gruss Music Hall; Jeff Raz will lead a circus master class on Wednesday, October 11, from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. in the Performance Lab at Trinity Commons; and Beal will give a public talk about creativity, community, and collaboration called “Making Beauty, Making Sense, Making Waves” on Thursday, October 12, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Austin Arts Center’s Gruss Music Hall.

Tickets for JOY! are free; reservations are strongly advised. For tickets and more information, click here.