Moody Street Circus
Moody Street Circus is the Waltham, MA-based world-headquarters of Sacha and Melinda Melina Pavlata's Cirque Passion school of Circus Arts as well as Melina's Daughters of Rhea Belly Dance Company. Sacha and Melinda are delighted to be able to share their circus know-how with kids of all ages at Moody Street Circus!
Alexandre Sacha Pavlata is a fifth-generation Czech circus artist, master aerialist and world-renown circus arts teacher. He grew up with his traveling circus family in a wooden circus wagon which crisscrossed Europe and North Africa presenting their famous unicycle and trampoline act under big tops all over the globe. From horses to high wire and everything in between, Sacha has since performed nearly every kind of circus act you could imagine, including touring with the legendary Flying Wallendas as an integral part of their breath-taking seven-person pyramid on the high wire.
Sacha's circus heritage goes back 5 generations on both sides. His mother, Hungarian-born Anna Dubsky, came from a long line of Risley Act performers (the acrobatic foot juggling of people), and his father, Czech-born Karl Pavlata, descended from a family of aerialists known for their great physical strength and versatility in the air.
In addition to performing in his family's act as a child, Sacha grew up helping put up and take down circus tents and master all the rigging under a Big Top. His technical expertise on the circus lot is legendary throughout the world, and he is known especially for his careful attention to safety.
Sacha taught at the Conservatoire National du Cirque in Paris from 1975-1979 and performed as a member of the Bertini Unicycle Troupe with Cirque Bouglione, a French circus. As a member of the New York City-based Big Apple Circus in the 1980s, Pavlata performed the Cloud Swing and a world class Russian Barre act. He also brought the Bertini family over from Europe to perform in the Big Apple Circus ring. While starring with the Big Apple Circus, he was master teacher for the New York School of Circus Arts. Sacha was also the technical mastermind behind putting up the Big Apple's Big Top tent in Lincoln Center.
Sacha has trained such stars as Andre Gower and Nicole Eggert for the 1987 television special “Circus of the Stars.” Additionally, he consulted for Canada’s Cirque du Soleil to train new acts for the 1986 season.
Sacha was featured in Paul Reuban’s “Big Top Pee Wee” and was the circus arts instructor for the film. He trained the original Broadway cast of Barnum including Stacie Keach, as well as the cast of the national touring company, the Australian company, and Michael Crawford’s London version of the show.
Sacha is a co-founder of Circus Flora in St Louis and former director and founder of the Circus Flora Circus Arts School. He served as master circus teacher for Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis and residencies during Circus Flora’s National tours. He founded the circus arts school Sacha's St. Louis School of Circus Arts and currently directs Cirque Passion’s School of Circus Arts for children of all ages.
Melinda Melina Pavlata, Ph.D. is a 2nd generation circus and belly dance artist. She is a teacher, choreographer, juggler, aerialist, writer and former scholar of medieval French literature. Melinda is a Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Wellesley College. She holds a D.E.S. from the University of Geneva in Switzerland and, as a Ben Franklin Fellow, earned a Ph.D. in Late Medieval French Literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.
Despite Ivory Tower accolades and a deep commitment to higher learning and scholarly excellence, Melinda experienced the primal realization that her childhood arts of belly dancing and circus were more personally rewarding than teaching in the university system, so she dedicated herself full-time to the free-lance performing, teaching and writing life, dedicated to the principle of spreading positivity in the universe through a variety of physical arts.
Before flying through the air from the Ivory Tower to the Circus tent, Melinda was an award-winning teacher and professor of French Literature and Culture at both UPenn and Boston College. She co-founded the international Daughters of Rhea belly dance company with her sister Piper and mother Rhea (Melinda’s stagename in the belly dance world is “Melina of Daughters of Rhea”), and is also co-founder of Cirque Passion and the ALS Therapy Development Institute.
Born to a musician father -- (Phil Marsh - Guitarist with Country Joe and the Fish and Bandleader of the Pickle Family Circus) and gypsy-artist belly dancer mother (Oriental Dance Trailblazer Rhea of Greece) during the late 1960s Berkeley, California cultural revolution, Melinda exited the womb into a vibrant life of belly dance, folk music, eclectic creative arts & circus rings.
Currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, Melinda Melina tours the world performing in theaters, festivals, circuses and galas with husband Sacha Pavlata. In 2007 Melinda traveled to Auckland, New Zealand and Taipei, Taiwan where she made her debut on the platform (not the wire!- she leaves that to the funambulist experts) with the legendary Flying Wallendas. Melinda (as Melina of Daughters of Rhea) is also invited to dance, art and yoga centers around the world to teach her inspiring “Wild Hips, Gypsy Heart: Belly Dance as Self-Empowerment” seminars -- from Athens to Singapore to Kripalu Center of Yoga and Health in the Berkshires.