Running away and joining the circus has never been easier.
The Port St. Lucie City Council recently green-lighted a special exception for Momentum Aerial Academy to open at the St. Lucie West Industrial Park. Co-owners Billy and Angel Havik said Momentum will teach children and adults how to do the amazing feats they’ve seen at circuses.
“Try basically everything you see Cirque du Soleil do in their show,” Billy Havik said.
And he would know. Havik worked as a creative director for the famed entertainment company.
Momentum is renovating 550 NW Mercantile Place with plans to open in time for the next school year, the Haviks said in a phone interview after the City Council’s regular meeting on March 26.
“We’re opening this up to everyone,” Billy Havik said. “We start with kids at age 5 and go up to 80.”
Billy Havik teaches circus aerial acrobatics at Club Med Sandpiper Bay. Angel Havik has a degree in education and certification for circus instruction. Momentum is going to have an afterschool program that’ll combine their skills. Angel Havik said Momentum will provide transportation to the facility, homework assistance and physical activity. “All that will be left for the parents is great quality time with their kids,” she said.
Billy Havik explained that the couple has developed a tandem system of instruction and guidelines to help folks learn amazing aerial acrobatics.
“You’re attached in safety lines, and there’s a guy pulling the lines,” he said. “We don’t completely manipulate you, but we help you.”
It’s comparable to electronic bicycles that add power as a rider pedals. Some add power on a curve – the harder the rider pedals, the more power the bicycle adds to a point at which it backs off and allows the rider to do the work. The idea is, over time, the rider gains strength and needs less of the motorized help to maintain higher speeds. Billy Havik said the instructors manipulating the safety lines will do much the same. As trainees progress with increasingly difficult maneuvers, the trainers will add help until the trainees’ strength and skill make the assistance increasingly unneeded.
“The better people are, the less we do to help them with the safety lines,” Billy Havik said.
He added that the training process the couple developed is unique in aerial acrobatics training. “I’ve spent about two years doing risk assessment to where anybody could try these things,” he said.
Billy Havik said critical to Momentum Academy will be seasoned instructors working in conjunction with the physical assistance. “All these things are not just a little park where you run out and try to do things,” he said. “We assist you in a structured environment.”
At the meeting, Mayor Greg Oravec said he’s pleased the St. Lucie West industrial area has also become an entertainment and instruction area.
“You have all these entertainment uses,” he said. “I think it’s fun.”