FAQ: How is SANCA Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Dated: December 9, 2020

Yesterday, Governor Jay Inslee announced that SANCA cannot offer classes until at least January 4, 2021. As a result, all SANCA classes and camps are cancelled until then.  

Will SANCA survive this latest closure and the uncertain future?

Despite the many challenges the pandemic and closures have caused SANCA, the short answer is YES, we will survive. In 2020, the SANCA community has stepped up generously with record-breaking levels of giving. Individual giving has doubled from 2019 levels ($184,109) to nearly $400,000 this year. Overall, contributed income – which includes COVID relief grants, foundation giving, employer matches, and the federal government’s PPP loan (forgiven) – has reached nearly $1 million. That’s up from $466,088 in 2019.

This is incredible! SANCA’s supporters and students – all of YOU – have made it possible for SANCA to survive the pandemic’s closures and reduced operations. Not only is SANCA able to survive to now, it has built a reserve that will help us weather the storm even if pandemic restrictions continue for all of 2021. We are so grateful for this generous, loving community!

We still have work to do, though. SANCA’s earned revenue losses exceed $900,000 in total, and will likely continue to grow. So the overall losses are greater than the increased giving, but we have also done everything we can to reduce and eliminate expenses. SANCA will end 2020, somewhat miraculously, with a surplus.

SANCA still needs your help. Our Fall Appeal is ongoing through December 31. Your gift before the end of the year will support SANCA in this time of need, help us continue to offer online classes and limited in-person classes (when permitted and safe), provide scholarships to low-income youth, and support our incredible staff. You can support circus classes for our community at www.sancaseattle.org/give.

When will SANCA start offering classes again?

Governor Jay Inslee has announced that SANCA cannot offer classes until at least January 4, 2021. As a result, SANCA will remain closed until then. SANCA does offer a variety of online classes so you can stay fit during the closure. 

When can we enroll in Winter Session classes?

There is no set date for when SANCA will open enrollment for Winter Session. It is necessary for us to know that we can open before we start enrolling students, so it’s possible that we may not be able to announce enrollment until very close to the end of the current shut down.

What is the plan for the Up With a Twist event?

SANCA’s big glamorous fundraiser usually occurs in February each year. The 2020 event was a huge hit! Due to the pandemic, Twist is postponed to late summer or early fall 2021. SANCA leadership is waiting until later in the Winter or early Spring to make a determination if the event will be held in-person like always, or if it will be conducted as an online streaming show.

What safety measures are in place when the gym reopens?

To ensure the safety of our students, staff, and surrounding community, and in consideration of public health, SANCA has developed and continually updated new policies and procedures in regards to sanitation and social distancing to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Masks are required. No one will be admitted to SANCA without a mask that covers the nose and mouth. Masks must be worn inside the facility, even when working out. 

Learn about all of SANCA’s safety procedures during the COVID pandemic.

What else is SANCA doing to recover lost revenue?

SANCA’s leadership has been incredibly busy, even during full closures, as they seek out and apply for relief grants and other means of support. We have monitored and applied for just about every available avenue of support and relief funding, including the State of Washington’s recent offering to support restaurants and fitness centers shutdown by the recent closure.

If you are aware of other sources of support that SANCA should approach, please let us know by emailing Development Director Jeff Deveaux at [email protected].

If you have additional questions about SANCA’s financial status or wish to see financial reports, please contact Executive Director John Tannous at [email protected].

Dated: December 9, 2020. This FAQ will be updated regularly.

These coloring pages were created by the Circus Culture community of Ithaca and circusers of all ages to support the circus culture and extended circus family as we dance in the rain of this pandemic storm.

Want to add a page to the book? email [email protected] with your artwork.

Here’s to coloring outside the lines, in whatever form that may take!

BIPOC Youth Scholarship Fund

For Giving Tuesday on December 1, SANCA is asking for donations to support a new scholarship for BIPOC Youth. All donations received on December 1 up to $6,000 will go exclusively to this fund that provides circus classes and training to BIPOC youth in our area.

SANCA is committed to the idea that circus is for everybody. We have given over $2 million worth of scholarships to underserved youth in our communities in our history. Recently, the COVID pandemic has forced SANCA to limit scholarships for the first time ever. But with your help, we can turn that around as we head into the new year.

The BIPOC Youth Scholarship Fund will provide full and partial scholarships to promising young individuals who want to learn and grow in circus. The Fund will provide classes to BIPOC Youth, as well as access to the youth performance troupe, Celestial Circus.

If the Fund is filled to the maximum at $6,000, you will help us provide scholarships to 5-10 BIPOC students for an entire year of circus. Please consider making a gift on December 1 to support this important initiative at SANCA.

Thank you!

“Training at SANCA has helped me improve my circus skills. It has also helped me to make friends who are diverse like me, find amazing coaches, find a place where people are nice to me, and accept me. SANCA is a place that feels like home!”

-Olivia-

Dear SANCA community,

I thought I was going to be writing a thank you letter this week —many of our SANCA community have responded with support for SANCA’s Fall Appeal and we were near to meeting our goal. But now COVID cases are spiking and the Governor has issued a one-month closure for SANCA and other training facilities.

This minimum one-month closure is going to cause losses of at least $55,000 for SANCA. We will lose the remainder of our fall and winter-break camp and tuition revenues. Even if SANCA is allowed to reopen by January, we will continue to experience severe enrollment capacity limits for several months to come.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt our artists, coaches, and families. SANCA has suffered nearly $785,000 in losses this year and could lose hundreds of thousands more as the crisis continues. Our staff are losing their livelihoods from the loss of coaching hours and the cancellation of events and performances.

Please send an urgent gift of $50 or more today.

I just spoke with a worried mother who was concerned about what this new closure will mean for her family if they are unable to continue the circus classes that keep them healthy and engaged during this difficult time of social isolation.

What I CAN promise our families is that SANCA will continue our online and live-streaming classes like Circus with a Stuffy Buddy, Circus Strong fitness and conditioning classes, juggling, handbalancing, and more for our community.

Your gift will support us in this work and help us make it through closure until we can come out on the other side of this pandemic. SANCA will continue to offer a safe space and supportive environment to students of all ages and skill levels, whether online or in person. I hope you will join us by giving what you can to help us continue this challenging and exciting work. We can get through this together.

Your action is needed now. Please, send your gift today.

With gratitude for your support,

John “JT” Tannous
Executive Director

To Our Beloved SANCA Community:

Governor Inslee announced today that all indoor fitness facilities must shut down, beginning Tuesday, November 17, through December 14. All classes, training, private lessons, and camps will be canceled for the remainder of Fall Session.

Our last day of classes and activities will be tomorrow, Monday, November 16. We will continue online classes during this time. Please visit our website to register for an online class.

If you have paid for classes or lessons that have been canceled, you may request to have your payments transferred to in-house credit to use when SANCA re-opens. You may also elect to donate your class credit back to SANCA to support us during the shutdown, which will put a strain on SANCA’s financial situation. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Please complete this form to tell us if you wish to donate your credit or claim it for future classes.

If you wish to make an additional donation to SANCA during our Fall Appeal, please do so on our website. Thank you for your support of circus for everybody.

Please stay safe out there! SANCA will return when it is safe and appropriate to do so.

John Tannous
Executive Director

Meet Beth Baker, a Member of SANCA’s Board of Directors   

Beth Baker joined SANCA’s Board of Directors in June 2018. She is a Graphic Design and Marketing Specialist who works with clients on visual design and brand strategies for marketing and promotion. She has a bachelor’s degree of fine arts in graphic design from the Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, New York. Beth flies in the SANCA Flying Trapeze Tent every week with the advanced adult flyers, and takes weekly static trapeze classes.

SANCA: How did you become involved with SANCA?

Beth: I moved to Seattle in 2005 from the East Coast (Upstate NY) and had a desire to get back into the performing arts. Back in high school, I used to dance, do musical theatre, and color guard. I had mentioned to my husband about wanting to get back into a creative activity like that. He came across a two-hour flying trapeze class on Living Social, and thought it might be the perfect fit for me.

SANCA: Was there a challenge or barrier that you faced?

Beth: I’m naturally an introvert. The first few classes I took at SANCA I brought friends with me to make taking fly classes more comfortable. Eventually, I wanted to come to SANCA more and more often, so I was forced to get comfortable talking to other students and attending classes alone, not knowing who might be in my class that day. As time went on and I became a regular flyer, I got to be friends with the other frequent flyers, and we established our own friend group, which always makes the SANCA experience more fun! SANCA helped me become more comfortable with meeting new people.

Flying Trapeze is really about getting out of your comfort zone, embracing the fear, and challenging yourself. Once you finally get comfortable with a trick or skill, you switch it up to learn something new, and go through the whole getting comfortable and confident process all over again. It’s a new experience every single class. I love the work out and mental and physical challenges of wanting to be better at something. The community we have in the fly tent is really encouraging. We push each other to do our best and to do the things that scare us when it comes to flying.

SANCA: How has SANCA impacted your life?

Beth: SANCA has given me so much. A place of common-minded community. A place to better my physical wellness. A place to volunteer to not only better SANCA, but to help better the greater Seattle community.

SANCA: Do you have a favorite circus discipline?

Beth: Flying trapeze! Getting out of safety lines on flying trapeze was a huge achievement for me, as was taking my first advanced trick, a pelicano, out of lines.Also performing in SASS last fall on the high static trapeze bar was a major accomplishment. It was really scary and took a lot of work to feel prepared to perform. Although I had performed in the past this felt different because I pushed myself in my act to try harder tricks, and to perform them higher in the air.

SANCA: What inspired you to serve SANCA’s community as a Board Member?

Beth: After being a student for several years, I became interested in how I could help give back to the community. I saw opportunities where SANCA could grow, and how I could be an advocate for that growth. I thought my skill set as a professional graphic designer in marketing could help expand SANCA’s reach in the broader Puget Sound area. Additionally, I thought I could offer a unique perspective from the view of a student and parent of students.

SANCA: We’re facing challenges now with the COVID-19 pandemic. How has your view of SANCA’s role as an arts organization in Seattle changed or been influenced by this challenge?

Beth: As much as this pandemic has been an extreme challenge for SANCA as an organization, I believe SANCA has made significant strategic moves to ensure SANCA’s survival and eventual re-emergence. I don’t think my view of SANCA has changed much. I think we have always been a shining example of inclusivity and ingenuity, and we continue to be. I also believe our organization has used this time wisely to re-evaluate organizational priorities, with the hope that we will come out the other side of this pandemic stronger financially, more equitable, and as a continued leader in the Seattle arts community.

SANCA: Given the recent incidents of injustice and racism, and long-standing inequities that are profoundly affecting black and brown people right now, do you have thoughts on how the arts in general, and SANCA in particular, can support efforts for justice and equity?

Beth: Education. Listen. Constructive Dialogue. SANCA is doing the work, but we do have a way to go, as do a lot of other organizations. This is not a problem that is going to be solved quickly. Support cannot be just temporary and for appearances. To have justice and equity be sustained long term, it’s how we as an organization respond to and grow from mistakes made by the larger global community, or internally within our own organization.

Interview by Jeff Deveaux, Development Director

Circus is Evolving in the COVID Era with Reopenings and Isolation

7 months into COVID closures we’ve learned how to teach and perform from home, over Zoom and social media, and in some cases it’s made the world smaller — connecting people to those you normally wouldn’t get to work with, or see shows that may not come to your area. We’re all finding our footing as we return to in-person training after breaks and as spaces reopen with various changes to capacity and extra safety precautions. 

Zoppe is back on the road with drive-in circus experiences in California. The whole show is viewable from inside the safety of personal vehicles. Seoul saw their first drive-in circus experiences also in September with a limit of 30 cars per show at the Seoul Street Art Creation Centre. 

Midnight Circus completed their yearly summer tour of Chicago parks without their tent to allow for more distancing to watch the action in the ring. Nimble Arts produced “Circus in Place,” a two-day outdoor festival last weekend, connecting circus performances to the land, including a narrative about how to read the land as told by a Vermont Land Trust Representative along the walk to the performance spaces. 

We’re starting to see shows with performers back in venues, streaming live video while it’s not yet safe to have audiences in the US. CircEsteem in Chicago live-streamed their gala of acts shot in the school, with all performers wearing masks and following safety protocols in mid-September. We can hope more shows like this will be announced as restrictions are lifted. In the past couple weeks, tours are being announced in countries with lower numbers of infections and performers have been called back to work. 

In other good news during the pandemic, Circus Smirkus ran all summer after having all participating families (60 campers for 5 weeks)  and coaches self-isolate before arrival and following safety precautions until the sealed bubble was certain it was COVID-free. By the later weeks they were able to relax distancing and masks to work on skills many people haven’t been able to since before the pandemic. Another silver lining of that bubble was the formation of the collective Search for Sumatra, a group of circus and theatre artists. They streamed their first production the first week of October and ticket sales were used to fund scholarships for minority students for Smirkus in 2021. The show will be rebroadcast via Circus Talk on October 31st.

article by Christine Denker

SANCA is changing its gym.  SANCA has made the decision to reduce our facility footprint to ensure our long-term sustainability and reduce operating overhead both during the pandemic and as we continue the reopening process and reinvent our business after the pandemic. While we will remain in the same location, we are moving out of the North Annex (the space with the Trampolines, tightwires, and more). The equipment in the North Annex will be relocated to the Main Gym and South Annex. SANCA will continue to operate its full slate of programming without interruption (see layout map below).

We will continue to strictly follow all King County guidelines for safe operations during the COVID pandemic. This includes staying well under the maximum number of students permitted in each space. Up to now, we have not come close to matching the maximum occupancy permitted in King County’s current reopen stage. Those guidelines allow us 18 students per bay, but we usually have five students to a bay on average but sometimes as many as ten students.

This move is considered, among staff and Board at SANCA, as a positive. It’s a much-needed reduction of expenses so that we can operate more efficiently in service to our students. During COVID, the reduction in rent cost is really important. The concern that many have had as we have considered this change over the past few months is: will this limit SANCA’s ability to grow once COVID is behind us?

The answer is that SANCA will be able to freely grow even beyond its busiest years prior to the pandemic. If anything, SANCA’s large space has been a luxury. It served its purpose of helping us find different levels of growth. However, it is simply more sustainable and smarter for SANCA to operate a little leaner. All of our budgets and plans for our new layout indicate that SANCA will grow bigger than ever before once we are out of the pandemic. We believe this is the best move to respect the resources SANCA has thanks to our students and many generous donors.

While the move means less physical space, it does not mean less circus. All disciplines of circus will remain at SANCA; we won’t lose any programming. The two best trampolines will move into the Main Gym. The tightwires will move into the South Annex (see map below). The third trampoline will move into the Flying Trapeze tent. Over the next year, we are raising funds to replace the exterior skin of the tent with a new insulated skin that will keep the space warmer and more comfortable in the winter months. That will allow the tent to host aerial, trampoline, and other circus classes when Flying Trapeze is not active. Click here to make a donation to support the Flying Trapeze tent upgrade.

Things will look different, but it will be the same SANCA. After all, the real magic at SANCA is about the people who make circus so joyful and addicting: our dedicated coaches, the phenomenal students, and our hardworking staff.

If you’d like to volunteer to help SANCA move equipment out of the North Annex, we need help on these dates and times: