Today we’d like to introduce you to Melinda Pavlata.
Melinda, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up a hippie child of the California 60’s, cartwheeling in the Pickle Family Circus with my guitarist dad and belly dancing professionally on Taverna stages in Athens, Greece with my mom. Making music and dancing was their calling and livelihood, and I was along for every detail of the unconventional ride. (My first crib was a little nest fashioned in my mom’s makeup drawer. My naps were on piles of coats behind the speakers of my dad’s rock concerts). My parents shared me equally after an amicable separation. Still, in diapers, I was lovingly passed around households (“The Little Suitcase” was my childhood nickname). My parents and grandparents were also intellectuals – charismatic teachers, labor leaders and communicators – so building, nurturing and guiding a creative community from scratch is part of my DNA.
As a young adult, I immersed myself in academia (while performing on the side.) I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College and, as a Ben Franklin Fellow, received a Ph.D. in medieval French literature from the University of Pennsylvania. I earned accolades and awards teaching in the Ivory Tower but yearned for the more creative, joyful-movement and bohemian-tinged milieux of my childhood. I met my husband Sacha Pavlata, a 5th generation Czech circus artist and member of the Flying Wallendas, while on tour with St. Louis-based Circus Flora. We dreamed of opening a studio where we would share our family legacies with students. Moody Street Circus is this magic home base, a beautiful space and a vital extension of our lives.
Our students learn challenging skills, tricks and proper technique in circus arts and belly dance but also how to be engaging and graceful performers. We help them understand that radiant presence, fluid transitions, and subtle details are what make performance art most enchanting.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The biggest challenges in running Moody Street Circus have been about structuring my time, knowing where to focus attention, setting boundaries and managing my energy. At one point when we first found our studio space we also imported a circus tent from France. That was a learning process! My attention was divided between producing and performing in circus shows and managing and teaching in the studio. That was impossible to sustain. We faced a lot of stressful bureaucratic hurdles trying to raise a circus tent in Massachusetts.
Each time was a transcendent experience that raised money for our cherished cause of ALS but also left me in shreds. I had invested all my money into a beautiful dream that was mostly sitting in storage. It became clear the tent needed to find a new home. We sold it and were finally able to put a down payment on a little house and devote all our energies to our students and Moody Street Circus studio. My communication tools are also in constant evolution – I don’t love the marketing side of running a studio and tend to rely on word-of-mouth reviews from past and current students to carry us along.
I’m happy about the authenticity of that method but also know I could do better. The way that I want to show up for my students means I have to be MY best self at all times – so – I am ever vigilant about replenishing my own energy reserves because our work is so (delightfully) physically and spiritually demanding. I try to eat well, sleep well, and not over-schedule myself. I gave up all alcohol because even a little sip drains me. I have a daily meditation practice and take time to pause, reflect and refresh at fairly regular intervals. Finding ways to laugh through the struggles has helped smooth all roads. And my fantastic students carry me along!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Moody Street Circus – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a family of seasoned entertainers and award-winning teachers who specialize in breaking down real circus skills and world-class belly dance chops with mindfulness, love, and laughter. We are proud of our multi-generational family legacies and break down challenging skills and useful trade secrets with our students. We teach ongoing classes and workshops. My co-founder and partner Sacha Pavlata grew up in a wooden circus wagon that crisscrossed Czechoslovakia by train in the 1950s.
He performed with his circus family in countless shows all over the world doing a group unicycle act, trampoline, and comedy. He has performed on horseback, high wire, and everything in between. He was a star of the Big Apple Circus in the 1980s and was the first to put up their tent at Lincoln Center in the 1980s. My daughter Zoë has grown up in the circus and belly dance worlds and is now also an accomplished circus artist and teacher of aerial arts in the studio. I am an aerialist and dancer who specializes in balancing a sword on a dagger gripped in my mouth whilst dancing beneath the blades. We love what we do. We are down-to-earth people and welcoming to all who come into our studio. We want to empower every student to challenge herself, find pleasure in the process of learning and practicing, be conscious in and of their body, attune to details, and to set and achieve goals they never dreamed possible.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to keep doing what we are doing. Eventually, we may look for a different type of studio space in which we can teach and also present more and bigger shows. As the students we have been training for years are becoming more and more skilled, we want to showcase their amazing talents to the public! I also want to build in more writing time and finish a memoir I’ve been “working” on for 20 years. It’s time.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.moodystreetcircus.com
- Phone: 781-893-2491
- Email: melinda@cirquepassion.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/moodystreetcircus
- Facebook: Moody Street Circus
- Other: http://www.daughtersofrhea.com
Image Credit:
Axie Breen, Bruce Mount, Mark Curelop, Gene Kissin, Samuel Lee, Najmat
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