With all the commotion going on at the huge, new, under-development Barlow culinary and art center on the edge of downtown Sebastopol, some observers might call it a circus.
Hey, it takes a lot of work, and a lot of juggling, to bring together a project of this size and ambition, for what will be a 220,000-square-foot community center of arts, agriculture, food and wine in a defunct apple processing plant at the west entry to Sebastopol on Highway 12.
Yet now truly, Barlow can be called just that, since the latest tenant to sign a lease is Circus Arts Playground. Indeed, right there among other tenants like Rosso Pizzeria & Wine Bar and Woodfour Brewing Co. beer brewery and bistro, there will be people practicing for the long-romanced career that many have run away from home to pursue.
Operating under the slogan “A Place to Play Above the Bay,” CAP is an academy offering training and performances in all things related to clowns, magic tricks, and possibly even fire breathing and lion taming, if only the fire department and lions would agree to that.
As a bonus for people too nervous to take on a trapeze themselves, the 2,000 square foot CAP suite will include glass roll-up doors so passersby can watch the show.
The idea comes from founders Laura Barncard and Jhenya Agapova, both Sebastopol residents with long histories in dance and gymnastics. They had been trekking to schools in Oakland and San Francisco, and complaining about the drive to their North Bay friends, when the idea to open their own enterprise struck.
If construction and permitting goes smoothly, Circus Arts hopes to have its first students in tights by October.
Leading the classes will be a troupe of Sebastopol- and Santa Rosa-based teachers and performers who previously operated out of private homes and studios and were clamoring for a centralized space. Though study is geared toward an adult crowd, some kid classes will be offered, too.
Specialties will include clown, mime, juggling, acrobatics, tumbling, trapeze arts, hoop and silk choreography, fire dancing and hula-hoops.
For those hoping to work with trained bears, it will be BYOBear.
Details: Circus Arts Playground, 707-861-1064. The Barlow, 200 Morris Street, Sebastopol, 707-824-5600, thebarlow.net
Pingback: Whole Spice Expansion to The Barlow | Inside Sonoma