Carla Church
(she/her)
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
(he/him)
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!
Hillary Flesher
(she/her)
Hillary comes from a background in competitive dance and has always had a creative flair.
She walked into her first aerial class in 2016 in Edmonton and has been hooked ever since.
Hillary loves trying out different apparatuses and has trained in corde lisse, silks, straps, hoop, unicycle and pole.
Her main discipline is corde lisse and she actively searches out opportunities to train with experts from around the world.
Recently, Hillary moved to Winnipeg from Regina where she was teaching aerial silks and corde lisse.
Hillary is really looking forward to teaching at PCA and joining this amazing community.
She hopes that she can inspire other aspiring artists to try out silks or corde lisse and incorporate circus into their regular schedule.
Karla Yanina
(she/her)
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!
Jamie Normand
(she/her)
Jamie Normand is an artist of many unique skills, born and raised in Winnipeg Manitoba. She has added different forms of movement to her fitness journeys, beginning with kickboxing, running and fencing, and then more recently, adding aerial arts after she fell in love from her first hoop class. Since then, she has expanded her hobbies to include silks, and pole, and has started her journey in handstands.
Having apprenticed as an instructor under Carla Cerceau, Jamie is very excited to start new aerialists off on their hoop journey with a fun, dynamic and challenging class that is great for anyone who is new aerial or specifically the hoop.
Kimberly Craig
(she/her)
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.
Rachelanne Kosatsky
(she/her)
Rachelanne Kosatsky grew up immersed in dance, ballet and jazz, and trained as a professional modern dancer, graduating from The Professional Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers in 2006. It was during the Professional Program that she was first introduced to Contact Improv Dance. After graduating she moved to Montreal, where she continued to immerse herself in modern dance, and also discovered the vibrant Contact Improv Community there. Rachelanne fell in love with Contact Improv Dance and continued to practice it in the dynamic community in Israel.
Rachelanne has now come full circle to sharing Contact Improv Dance in Winnipeg. She has independently taught a weekly class 2021/2022. Teaching has deepened her practice and has opened up important opportunities. A meaningful collaboration with Coach, Facilitator and Performer Alexandra Tataryn is ongoing with their exploration of Authentic Movement/Relating and Performance. Independent Dancer, and long-time performer, Ian Mozdzen approached her to co-create an Independent Dance Festival in the summer of 2022. They continue to dance together with their 2022/23 Series: IN/OUT DANCE, in which they seek to ignite inspiring locations in and out of doors in Winnipeg with the spontaneous unfolding of dance in the present moment. Stay tuned for upcoming workshops and performances.
Rachelanne is thrilled to be coming to her new dance home, Prairie Circus Arts, where she provides a weekly Contact Improv Dance Class for advanced and novice movers alike. Rachelanne’s integrative warmups and fun and gentle exercises enable you to find the joyful flow of dance and expression.
Sarah Teakle
(she/her)
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
Taryn Scott
(she/her)
Taryn Scott is a dancer, gymnast, and aerialist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has been training for nine years and teaching for five years. She has experience in silks, hoop, sling, trapeze, straps, and acro.
She has presented on many stages around the world, including two World Gymnaestradas in Finland and Austria. She has perform at many local corporate events and galas. She loves to share the art of circus with all those around her.
Taryn continues to train and teach at Prairie Circus Arts. She hopes to inspire a community of new artists in Winnipeg.
Tiauni Starr
(she/her)
Tiauni Starr is a Winnipeg based performer specializing in a variety of dance and circus art forms. She has been dancing for most of her life and has a strong passion for the art. During her younger years she studied ballet, jazz, and lyrical and after high school was introduced to the flow arts, which propelled her into her circus journey.
She currently performs on a regular basis at weddings, corporate events, fundraisers, and clubs, for a number of
different audiences. Catering each performance to the clients request; which can include fire, LED, stilt walking, aerial, pole, GoGo dancing, or shuffling.
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Tiauni actively teaches many different forms of dance. She currently facilitates classes at Poles Revolution, Drop In
Dance, and Monica’s Danz Gym, along with running her own workshops, private lessons, or classes for the flow arts, fire performing and stilt walking.
Certifications:
Hoop Dance Instructor - Hooplovers Australia
Exercise Theory - MFC
IFL - MFC
Group Fitness Leader - MFC
Zumba Instructor - Zumba
Beginner Pole Instructor - CPFA
Virginia Draghi
(she/her)
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)
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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!
