Watch Circus Performers Soar Inside A Logan Square Church

By Gwendolyn Purdom in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 1, 2016 7:49PM

Instead of a big top, the circus performers and aerial artists at Aloft Circus Arts now have a big church. The school moved from a Fulton Street loft into the 109-year-old former First Evangelical Church in Logan Square over the weekend and kicked off their first classes in the new space on Monday. Founder Shayna Swanson needed a place large enough to accommodate classes and studio areas and a ceiling high (and sturdy) enough to handle flying trapeze and other equipment. The 6,000-square-foot historic church, she says, was just the place:

"I walked in and started crying," Swanson told Chicagoist Tuesday. "When I first saw it I was like, 'This is it!'"

Earlier this week, our cameras captured acrobats practicing using trapezes, lyra hoops, aerial silks, ropes, trampoline walls and more. Watch, above, and read our story on Aloft's big move and check out our photos of the artists in action,here.