Adam Woolley
Adam has been coaching acrobatic and circus arts around the US since 2009. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Circus Educators Association from 2013-2018 as the chair of the safety committee.
He joined the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts in 2015 as the Head Coach/Programs Director and worked over five years to double the size of the youth program. From 2017-2020 he worked as the Aerial Department Head for Circadium School of Contemporary Circus, the first professional training program in the US to be recognized by both a state-board-of-education and the FEDEC (Federation of European professional circus schools).
Adam is committed to the idea that elite-level achievement does not require harmful or exclusionary teaching practices, and is currently an M.Sc candidate at the University of Manitoba researching physical literacy, movement creativity, and pedagogy.
Anastasia Evsigneeva
Anastasia is a contemporary dancer, contortionist and circus performer. She is a graduate (2019) of the Professional Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers, with a BA Honors in Dance. She was born in Rostov-on- Don, Russia in an artistic family. Anastasia started teaching at the age of 18 (10 years ago) back in her hometown. The theatre she danced for needed to start running some classes to earn some money for existence, so she took the challenge to help the theatre with that. At first it was very scary for Anastasia to share her skills with others. The fear of teaching slowly faded as the confidence in her own skills and knowledge came along.
Since Anastasia moved to Canada, she has been teaching in many studios in Winnipeg, both circus disciplines (contortion & hand-balancing) and contemporary dance. As a coach Anastasia is highly interested in an individual growth of each student, and builds individual programs for her students to reach their goals.
Anastasia loves teaching at PCA because she feels she can fully apply her teaching experience. The friendly environment at PCA allows an artistic expression and a creative individual approach to teaching.
Anna Protsiou
Anna is a dancer and circus artist originally from Thessaloniki, Greece but currently living in Winnipeg, Canada. She graduated from the School of Contemporary Dancers with a BA Honours in Dance. Anna started training in contortion and hand-balancing in 2015 with Samantha Halas, previously a PCA member and coach.
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Anna has worked with many choreographers from in and out of the province and she recently became an artist in residence with New Dance Horizons in Regina. She has also performed as a circus artist for many gigs and private functions as well as for Frostbite Circus, One Trunk Theatre, Hit and Run Dance Productions, Les Productions Haut-Vol and more.
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Anna has an R.A.D certification from when she was dancing ballet and loves teaching dance, contortion and hand-balancing. What she enjoys the most about teaching is seeing her students progress and accomplish their goals as well as, learning more about herself through them.
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Anna loves training and teaching at PCA because of the welcoming environment as well the sense of unity and community within the diversity of the artists involved
Carla Cerceau
Carla Cerceau is a breathtaking aerialist and performer from Winnipeg, Manitoba who has been training aerial arts for 10 years. Carla's love and mastery of aerial hoop is shown through her strength, flexibility and grace as an aerial acrobat. Her wide-ranging circus expertise extends into aerial silks, handbalancing, partner balance/acro, fire manipulation, pole dancing, and juggling. She is a fixture at both Voguefit Canada and at Prairie Circus Arts.
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Carla has performed on several stages and events in Winnipeg including the Centennial Concert Hall, The Gas Station and Park Theatres as well as the St. Boniface Cathedral, and the Club Regent Event Centre. She was recently featured at the Assiniboine Park Zoo as part of Boo at the Zoo.
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Carla won first place and People's Choice at the 2017 North American Pole Dance Championships: Lyra Division.
Daniel Craig
Daniel started performing in 1994 and has since expanded his areas of expertise to cyr wheel, juggling, act composition and hand to hand acrobatics. He has trained at ArtCorps under Jerome Labaut and Natalie Adamiecka, at the New England Centre for Circus Arts under Bill Forchion, and had countless lessons and experiences with other coaches around the world.
He performed solo from 1994 - 2006 until co-creating a new duo acrobatic show which has toured extensively- to this date, Daniel has performed over five thousand shows.
Daniel is a strong arts advocate in Winnipeg and believes Prairie Circus Arts can become one of the many great studios in Canada!
Karla Yanina is a choreographer and dance instructor who accidentally fell in love with Traditional Bellydancing in 1997. She presented to a Tap dance class but the schedule had changed without notice, so she found herself swaying to the enigmatic sounds of Middle Eastern Music. Since then, Karla Yanina has trained with world renown dance instructors in Egypt, Lebanon, Canada and the US. She choreographed and performed for the Canadian Palestinian Association. She is one of the core group of dancers selected to perform at the very successful Folklorama's Egyptian Pavillion. She has been performing at various venues and theater stages since 1998.
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Karla Yanina has been a dance instructor since 1999 and truly enjoys sharing her knowledge with others Her classes focus on safe body movements by paying attention to proper body alignment. She guides her students to focus on the muscles used with the aim of achieving proper technique and body awareness. She teaches the style of dance as it is enjoyed in the Middle East, its place of origin. She has taught at many studios and for many years at the University of Manitoba Frank Kennedy Center. She is now very excited to be teaching at PCA.
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Karla Yanina is passionate about Traditional Bellydancing and firmly believes on the health benefits of body movement to music. She credits this beautiful dance art form with keeping her a young 56 years old!
Karla Yanina
Kimberly Craig
Drawing from a background in competitive figure skating, Kimberly first started performing in circuses, theatres and ice shows as an aerialist for companies such as: Sea World, Aloft Aerial Arts, Midnight Circus, Cirque Volia, GOP Varietes, Krystalpalast Variete, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Princess Cruise Lines, Aerial Angels and Cirkus Prinsessan. Having a love of all things circus she picked up hula hooping, hand balancing and hand-to-hand acrobatics while training in Chicago (Aloft), Montreal (ENC coaches) and Vermont (NECCA). She spends a lot of time on the road performing duo acrobatics and comedy show with her husband (Dan Craig) as a headliner for Princess Cruises, Princess Cruises Japan, and countless street art festivals around Canada the World.
Kimberly is a co-founder of Prairie Circus Arts and loves to share her knowledge through teaching classes, workshops and private lessons. She is really excited to help you meet your goals by breaking down skills and focusing on strong foundations. She currently teaches classes in handstands and aerial silk.
Sarah Teakle
Sarah Teakle is a high energy circus performer from Winnipeg, Manitoba who has been training her main discipline, circus style hula hooping, for 9 years. Sarah fell in love with hula hooping after watching a youtube video when she was 12. She has been working towards mastering the skill ever since.
Sarah has been performing as a circus artist for more than 6 years. Known for her role in the Teakle Family Circus, Sarah is now focused on a solo performing career. She has performed at many events, including Winnipeg Fringe, Edmonton Fringe, St. John’s Busking Festival, and Boo at the Zoo Winnipeg.
When Sarah decided to make circus her full time career in 2019, she started training at Prairie Circus Arts. She absolutely loves the space and community it offers. She is now offering hula hoop classes and lessons to pass on her love of hula hooping and to grow the number of hula hoopers in Winnipeg.
Sarah is a Certified Hoop Love Coach
Virginia Draghi
Virginia's first encounter with pole was in 2010 in her home country, Italy, and it was love at first spin. Her busy job schedule as a stagehand in the music business kept her from training pole seriously, but when she moved to Canada in 2011, she decided to fully commit to it.
In 2015, after years of training, she entered her first competition and placed 3rd in the Semi-Pro division at the Canadian Pole Fitness Championship.
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But this was just the start: Since then, Virginia developed her signature pole style, which she taught to hundreds of students in her hometown Winnipeg, and across Canada. Her passion for pole space from Pole Sport, to Artistic pole, exotic pole, and all in between. Virginia currently teaches at (and co-founded) Prairie Circus Arts in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Certifications and training:
Vertical Dance Pole Fitness training (beginner)
Vertical Dance Pole Fitness training (intermediate)
Vertical Dance Pole fitness training (advanced)
IPSF Certified Judge (2016-Current)
IPSF Pole sports Coach (Current)
IPSF Code of points certification
IPSF Anatomy, Physiology and biomechanics certification
CPR/AED/First Aid certificate (current)
Awards:
2nd place PSO Scorpio Virtual Competition 2020, Championship Level 5 (pro division)
2nd place PSO Canada East, Championship 2019 Level 5 (pro division)
1st place PSO Canada East, Championship 2018 Junior/ Senior Level 4
4th Place Vertical Love 2016 Pro
3rd place 2015 CPFC semi pro
She absolutely loves the supportive and inspirational environment that PCA created. Every single artist brings a bit more to the space, making it a vibrant, fun place to be, for training AND for socializing. The talents that train here never stop amazing her!