The Circus Ring of Fame Foundation™ 35th Annual Inductee and Award Ceremony
Established in 1988, The Circus Ring of Fame Foundation™ was created to formally acknowledge Sarasota, Florida’s rich circus history and honor the people who have made significant contributions to the performing arts and circus industry throughout their performance careers. The “Ring” now boasts over 150 inductees from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds, all directly connected by their incredible achievements and pioneering journeys within the circus arts. To select these individuals, honorees may be annually nominated by the public and then voted on by current members of The Circus Ring of Fame, several industry professionals, local historians, and representatives from the global circus community. Once a class is recognized, each inductee is honored with a bronze circus wagon wheel plaque placed among their fellow Ring members at Sarasota’s Saint Armands Circle. This year, as a special technologicaladdition to their awards, QR codes can be found on all the performer’s plaques, where visitors can scan and watch videos of the Ring’s members’ best moments.
On February 4th, 2023 in Sarasota, Florida, at the Circus Sarasota Big Top located at Nathan Benderson Park Regatta Center, the Annual InducteeCeremony commenced. As a past performer of the Sarasota circus scene, I was thrilled to travel back to my hometown for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the immense honor to meet with these amazing performers and hear their inspiring stories firsthand. In a public press conference event prior to the award ceremony, I was able to sit down with Jeanette Williams, Peggy Williams, Daniella Arata Quiroga, and Annaliese Nock and ask them about their empowering journeys in the performing arts and their thoughts on receiving their respective honors.
To begin, this year’s Circus Ring of Fame Class of 2023 inductees is decorated by the audience-dazzling and world-class hand-balancing duo Marco and Paulo Lorador, more commonly known as The Alexis Brothers. Within their 40 years of performing, these brothers have had their phenomenal duo hand-balancing act featured in “The Greatest Show on Earth” and Cirque du Soliel’s Mystère, where they performed for countless fans worldwide. Their fame and success have been globally awed and applauded, and The Circus Ring of Fame intends to cement their place in circus history by recognizing their unbelievable dedication to their craft and revolutionizing performance.
Honored next is professional equestrian, circus show producer, prominent talent agent, and ninth-generation circus performer Jeanette Williams. Originating from a long line of German circus owners and performers, also known as the Circus Williams, Jeanette has made many impacts on circus art throughout her career, and her contributions to the international circus industry are incredibly plentiful. “It’s the most exciting thing you can do in your life, but you have to love it to do it because you are very obligated, especially when you work with animals,” states Jeanette on her overall career journey in our interview prior to the award show. Following her successful work as an animal trainer, purchaser, and presenter of a wide variety of exotic species, Jeanette now serves her community as the founder and president of Entertainment & Circus Agency, LLC. This company is aimed at producing shows and providing work for circus performers all over the world. As Jeanette attests to her dreams and biggest wish for her agency, she says to me, “My hope is that the next generation of circus has the possibility to stay in this industry and succeed.” In recognition of her character as a prominent circus legend and agent of continued success and preservation within this industry, The Circus Ring of Fame is overjoyed to offer Jeanette a well-deserved spotlight within the Ring for her incredible work and unbreakable devotion to her animals, her fellow performers, and her craft.
The Ring’s next inductee has made decades of headlines as the history-making female clown, community outreach educator, and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Blue Unit performance director, Peggy Williams. Following her collegiate studies in speech pathology and deaf education at the University of Wisconsin, Peggy took a chance on a spark of inspiration and applied to join the first women’s class of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Florida. Post-graduation, Peggytraveled and performed with “The Greatest Show on Earth,” averaging over 500 shows per year, each entailing extensive makeup and many elaborate costume changes. In my interview with Peggy, she dotes on her days in the traveling circus, sharing with me her love for the sense of true community the circus brought to her. “Every place I went, everything I did, every person I got to interact with… everywhere we were, we were a village.” However, her trailblazing work did not stop with the on-stage performance; Peggy took her clown shoes one step further to bring circus and education to schoolchildren as the Education Outreach manager for CircusWorks, an academic curriculum for preschool and elementary school-age children that focuses on character development, community trust, and teamwork. As a thank-you for the lives touched and smiles given, The Circus Ring of Fame commemorates Peggy for her bountiful generosity and the steadfast goodwill she has brought to not only the worldwide circus industry but to the audiences and communities who have had the joy of experiencing it.
Of these honorees, the Ring’s final seat in the inductee class of 2023 goes to the overwhelmingly beloved circus priest, the late Reverend Father Jerry Hogan. During his life, Father Jerry served the “Circus Ministry,” a nationwide ministry program overseen by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and generously funded by the Catholic Church Extension Society of Chicago. This ministry sought to provide chaplain services, such as sacraments, and stand as a religious presence in this unique international community of performers. Following his many years of travels with the circus, his compassion and love for his circus community fervently persisted, pinnacling at the establishment of the Circus and Traveling Shows Retirement Project in Southwest, Florida. This project is focused on providing decent and affordable housing for aged and retired performers and circus workers, many of whom are Hogan’s closest friends and performance associates from his days traveling with the circus. Since his passing on May 5th, 2021, Father Jerry’s influence can still be easily seen and felt, and The Circus Ring of Fame is proud to immortalize all of Father Jerry’s irreplaceable contributions and legacy of tradition to the worldwide circus scene and honor his extraordinary life.
In addition to honoring these four incredible circus figures, two young performers will also be recognized for their achievements and receive an award. The Circus Ring Of Fame’s Generation NeXt award is bestowed upon performers who have significantly impacted the circus community and represent the exciting future of the performing circus arts and culture. These honorees include eighth-generation circus contortionist and first-generation hand-balancer Daniella Arata Quiroga and Annaliese Nock, the thrill-seeking and Guinness World Record-Holding “Dare Daughter” of daredevil clown and circus stuntman Bello Nock.
In my interview with these two extraordinary performers, Daniella describes her family’s extensive background in Flying Trapeze, contrasting Daniella’s interest in hand-balancing. “A lot of times I would be training by myself, and it does feel good that I’ve gotten to this point with such a strong dependency on myself,” states Daniella, whose incredible dedication to her discipline over her life so far has constructed her into a talented, strong, and independent performer. Annaliese, whose father and grandparents are honored members of The Circus Ring of Fame, speaks on her excitement about fulfilling her childhood dream of growing up to follow in the footsteps of her family and the gratitude she has for being able to have such a strong family history in the performing arts. Yet she rejects the idea that a career in the circus came easily or was “just a given” to her. Instead, Annalise recounts that her parents instilled the idea of never feeling “entitled or obligated” and the importance of independence and hard work. “My dad always said, if I wanted a career in the arts, I had to work for it.”
Alongside this year’s Circus Ring of Fame Foundation’s annual Inductee Ceremony, CircusTalk and the Ring partnered up to launch the first-ever CircusTalk Members’ Voice Award. The Members’ Voice Award recognizes a circus artist whose work demonstrates courageous expression, social relevance, and artistic and technical acumen. Out of an impressive pool of 25 amazing, multi-talented artists nominated from the CircusTalk community, iconic Cirque du Soliel acrobat, Wellington Lima, was named as the recipient of this prestigious accomplishment!
View the full-length recording of the Circus Ring of Fame Ceremony! Available in the link below!
All photos courtesy of Circus Ring Of Fame Foundation archive.
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