Devon

Devon tumbled her way into circus training and performing from the realm of competitive sports over 20 years ago, and has been coaching a variety of circus arts since 2008. A lifelong enthusiast of both athletics and performing arts, Devon began gymnastics at age two and joined her first choir soon after. She fell in love at first flight with flying trapeze as a child and dabbled in circus on and off until, after seven years of classical ballet training and a competitive gymnastics career that culminated in two NJ State Championship titles, an ACL injury forced her to switch gears. What better way to maximize transferable skills and reduce high impact joint risks than by getting off the ground entirely with aerial arts? Circus allows her to combine her gymnastics, dance, and musical backgrounds seamlessly, making the most of her musicality, physicality, and creativity. 

Over the last two decades or so, Devon has had the pleasure of performing up and down the East Coast and training at circus facilities all over the US, including the New England Center for Circus Arts, Circus Center (San Francisco), SANCA, Aloft, Sky Candy, The Circus Project, Circus Smirkus, TSNYLA, San Diego Circus Center, Nashville School for the Aerial Arts, Circus Place, Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and, most recently, Secret Circus. Her specialties include lyra (duo and single point), rope/corde lisse, silks, trapeze (static and dance), duo aerials, innovative/invented apparatus, acro dance, and hula hooping. The only thing that surpasses her love of training circus arts is her passion for educating others! She’s led workshops at various regional and national American Youth Circus Organization festivals and American Circus Educators conferences, guest lectured at Princeton University, and taught at Big Top Bridgewater, Secret Circus, Circus Minimus, Motion Gymnastics, West Windsor Arts Council, Emma Willard School, Waldorf School of Princeton, and, of course, Circus Place. 

Devon completed a NECCA-affiliated Nimble Arts aerial teacher training program while in undergrad, and went on to earn her Master of Arts in Teaching and her NY State Teaching Certificate. Her education degree and experience as an academic teacher, coupled with her decades of coaching experience in both circus and gymnastics, makes her a uniqely qualified educator. She loves putting her MAT and pedagogical expertise to good use by creating scaffolded lesson plans, differentiating instruction, and custom-developing drills to troubleshoot each student's particular challenges with any given skill.

In 2013, Devon began her tenure at Circus Place –– NJ’s first, best regarded, and longest running circus school for all ages until its closure in January of 2023 –– as a summer camp coach, and advanced quickly to lead coach, then Adult Program Director, Director of Curriculum & Professional Development, and, finally, to Co-Director of the school at large. As a leader and an educator, Devon prioritizes physical and emotional safety, technique and pedagogical best practices, and troubleshooting problems by breaking obstacles down into their more broadly accessible component parts. She is excited to carry on Circus Place’s legacy as she and Amelia tackle this new challenge together, all the while appreciating The Climb.