In Northern California’s coastal town of Mendocino, a small but exceptional circus school has been cultivating remarkable aerialists and building a vibrant circus community since 2005: Mendocino Center for Circus Arts (Circus MeCCA).
The first thing co-founders Bones and Holly Newstead will tell you is that Circus MeCCA is extremely fortunate to operate in a way that would be difficult for most any other circus school. While I won’t dispute that claim, there is something deeply valuable to be gleaned from their approach. It may not be economically sustainable for others, but it is energetically and spiritually sustainable—and there is a lesson in that for all of us.
Because Circus Mecca operates as a volunteer-run nonprofit, less energy is spent on administrative overhead and chasing funding. Students pay an affordable tuition that goes directly toward core operating expenses like space rental, equipment, and insurance. The instructors are volunteers too, though Bones and Holly actively help them secure paid coaching gigs at other local studios. Mecca operates across two locations: one at Mendocino High School and an inland space at a gymnastics studio in Ukiah. Between both spaces, the school serves about 60 students. To keep the workload manageable, they intentionally maintain a small student body and no longer teach beginners in Mendocino. They rarely advertise—they already have to turn prospective students away.
This approach, Bones acknowledges, wouldn't work for every circus school. While limiting enrollment can be restrictive, it allows coaches and students to focus purely on the art they love while shielding them from administrative burnout. “We really love circus and sharing it with others,” Bones says—and you can hear that genuine care in his voice.
Mecca uses a structured skill-development curriculum with clear checkpoints and progressions that have produced exceptional aerialists. Yet what impressed me most is the self-motivation and communal ambition the studio fosters. Classes rely mostly on open-studio time with coaching, where advanced students train alongside newer ones, encouraging each other as they go. Learning happens in community—much like youth or traditional generational circuses—where immersion in the environment is just as vital as direct instruction. Driven by their own passion, many students reach extraordinarily high skill levels. As Bones puts it, “We love seeing students push themselves, and supporting them in doing incredible things.”
Ultimately, this intrinsic motivation—ignited by joy and love of the craft, and maintained by community—is what Bones wants his students to carry forward. Circus careers today are fiercely competitive. “I don't want to encourage anyone to pursue this as a career unless they are truly driven,” he notes. If students learn self-motivation, discover they are capable of doing hard things, and learn to collaborate, their time is well spent regardless of whether they “make it” professionally. Circus Mecca may not be a template every school can replicate, but its philosophy can inspire all of us in the way we do circus. You can keep up to date with Circus Mecca on facebook https://www.facebook.com/circusmecca/, or instagram https://www.instagram.com/circusmecca
