The Moody Street Circus Family
Alexandre Sacha Pavlata
Click here to learn more about 5th generation circus performer Sacha Pavlata.
Melinda Melina Pavlata
Click here to learn more about Melinda Pavlata, Co-Founder of Moody Street Circus.
Zoë Isadora Heywood
Click here to learn more about 3rd generation circus performer Zoë Isadora (aka Moody Street Circus Kid!)
Sacha Pavlata getting ready for a high-wire performance with the Flying Wallendas. Photo by Gene Kissin.
Alexandre Sacha Pavlata is a fifth-generation Czech circus artist, aerialist and world-renowned circus arts teacher. He was born into Circus Humberto in 1949 and grew up with his circus family in a wooden wagon that crisscrossed the country by train putting on shows. The Pavlatas entertained audiences in countless towns throughout Czechoslovakia, crossing into Europe, Russia and North Africa. They presented their famous unicycle, trampoline and comedy acts under big tops all over the globe. From horses to high wire and everything in between, Sacha has performed nearly every kind of circus act you could imagine.
Read all about it! MSC co-founder Sacha Pavlata featured in 50-plus advocate!
Sacha has been on the faculty of the École Nationale du Cirque in Paris, the Big Apple Circus School, Circus Flora, Center of Creative Arts of St Louis, Sacha's Circus School in Missouri, and now his very own Moody Street Circus. He trained the cast of the original Broadway production of Barnum including Stacy Keach, Jim Dale and Reg Livermore from the Australian production as well as Michael Crawford's London version of the show, and he consulted for Cirque du Soleil for it's first budding season. Sacha trained stars Andre Gower and Nicole Eggert for the 1987 television special “Circus of the Stars.” He appeared in the Major Motion Pictures Annie and Big Top Pee Wee.
Sacha with Pee-Wee Herman
This was Sacha’s first speaking role in a major motion picture! He thought his accent would be a huge liability but it turned out to be perfect for his role as one of the charming Piccolapupula brothers.
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 famous 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.
Along with Ivor David Balding and Sheila Jewell, Sacha was a co-founder of Circus Flora and former director and founder of the Circus Flora Circus Arts School.
Together with his wife Melinda, Sacha imported a circus tent in 2005 and they created the Cirque Passion. They produced shows that raised money and awareness for ALS, and in 2009 established Moody Street Circus as a teaching studio base. Sacha and Melinda have performed at festivals, circuses galas and theatrical cabarets worldwide.
Sacha Pavlata was interviewed for a wonderful book by Bill Smoot published by Indiana University Press entitled Conversations with Great Teachers. "In the spirit of Studs Terkel's Working, Bill Smoot interviews master teachers in fields ranging from K-12 and higher education to the arts, trades and professions, sports, and politics. The result suggests a dinner party where the most fascinating teachers in America discuss their views of teaching and what makes their work meaningful to them."
Mr. Smoot asks Mr. Pavlata: "What effect does the two weeks (of circus arts camp) have on the children?"
Sacha's reply:
"Oh gosh. My classes have become so popular because it's challenging for the kids. They like to be challenged... When their parents come to pick them up, they [the kids] want to stay... They are happy, and they have such confidence. We have lunch, and sitting around me, they ask me questions: Where you come from? What have you done? And of course, I give them all the stories, how I grew up - because I'm five generations in the circus world. There is a magical change in them. There is a joy - it's just fantastic."
Sacha in Big Apple Circus
Sacha was a star performer on Cloud Swing and Tent Master of the Big Apple Circus in the 1980s. He was responsible for the near impossible task of raising the Big Apple Circus Tent at Lincoln Center the first time it ever went up there. He ran the Big Apple Circus School and trained the award-winning acrobatic troupe The Backstreet Flyers.
Sacha and The Flying Wallendas
In 1998, Pavlata joined The Flying Wallenda family to help them create their famous seven-person pyramid on the high wire. Sacha has worked with the Wallendas on the high wire around the world ever since. Sacha was part of the Wallenda Troupe when they won the Silver Clown at the prestigious Monte Carlo festival Festival du Cirque in 2003. He is the third man on the base in the photo.
Czech Circus Childhood
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.
Melinda Pavlata, Cofounder & Director: Moody Street Circus. (Axie Breen Photography.)
Melinda ‘Melina’ Pavlata, Ph.D. is a lifelong professional belly dance artist & circus performer. She is Co-founder & Director of Moody Street Circus, her family-run studio.
Melinda loves to connect people to the power and radiance of their own artistic, energetic and physical potential.
Melinda holds a Ph.D. in Medieval French Literature from the University of Pennsylvania where she was a Ben Franklin Fellow. She graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from Wellesley College and received a Diplôme d’Études Supérieures from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Her academic research centered around strategies of female authority and empowerment in literary works as wide ranging as Marguerite Duras and Christine de Pizan. This thematic interest carries over into her movement work. Her teaching also reflects her dedication to energy work; she is a student of Qi Gong, Tarot, breath work and Reiki.
CHILDHOOD IMMERSED IN THE ARTS
Melinda first belly danced with a live band at a Greek nightclub on Broadway in San Francisco at the age of 2 with a costume pinned to her diapers. From the age of 7 on she was belly dancing professionally on family-friendly tourist taverna stages in the ancient city of Athens, Greece at the fiery hip of her mother Rhea. In her teen years, she worked as a professional Greek folk dancer and danced duets at the top Arabic clubs in Athens with her sister Piper, before becoming a soloist in her own right and doing a full-length cabaret show with veil, finger cymbals, balancing swords and her tray of burning candles. Those were the wild and wonderful days of the 1970s and 80s in the Plaka, the magical ancient city under the Acropolis where the sound of bouzoukis mingled with the blaring grooves of rooftop discotheques, where Greek folk dance troupes crisscrossed the streets in costume running from tavern to tavern to dance up a storm. Born with a zest for life, becoming an honorary Greek only amplified Melinda’s high vibration life force energy!
Through Rhea, who was one of the original sword dancers of Troupe Bal Anat, Melinda hails from the powerful dance lineage of Jamila Salimpour.
Melinda, who as a belly dance artist goes by her Greek name Melina, dances from the heart, always with the spirit of inclusive community and celebration of life, with the beautiful energy of the ancient Parthenon and the goddess Athena forever lifting her dancing spirit.
In the circus realm, Melinda has performed as an acrobat, aerialist & dancer in The Pickle Family Circus, Circus Flora, Cirque Passion, Amazing Grace Circus, The Wallenda Family Circus and Moody Street Circus.
She has been invited to perform & teach around the world including Greece, France, Singapore, Taiwan, New Zealand and throughout the U.S. Melinda has been on the faculty of COCA in St Louis and Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires.
You can find Melinda on instagram as @moodystreetcircus, @cirquemelinda, @tipsfromthehip and @melinabellydancer
Melinda (age 9, far right) with her mother Rhea and sister Piper across from the Parthenon. Melinda grew up performing in the ancient city of Athens, right around the corner from where this photo was taken.
Melinda heeded a primal call to re-immerse herself in the creative and expressive life of circus and dance.
Melinda performing on lyra with her daughter Zoë Isadora. Photo by Bruce Mount.
Before rededicating herself full-time to her childhood arts of circus and dance, Melinda received awards for outstanding teaching at UPenn and, after her PhD, went on to work as an adjunct professor of French at Boston College.
Melinda & Sacha
Melina’s husband Sacha Pavlata, a fifth generation circus artist, was her first aerial partner. They first performed together for the Tzigan show in 2004 for Circus Flora. (Photo by Harald Boerstler).
They performed their trapeze duet around the world: in Singapore, with Cirque Passion, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Wallanda Family Circus in Taiwan, Amazing Grace Circus and Redbull’s Art of The Can exhibit in Boston.
Melinda Melina
Melinda grew up in Greece, and her Greek Belly Dance stage name is Melina. She has taught and performed around the world, including Singapore’s Victoria Theater, Circus Flora in St. Louis, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, The Wallenda Family Circus in Taiwan, The Omega Institute & The Baltimore Museum of Art theatre. She performed at the Karoun Restaurant for 30+ years until its recent closure. The photo is by Bruce Mount.
Melina’s Sword & Dagger Act
Melina’s renowned sword and dagger balancing act represents a fusion of the European Circus “point to point” balancing act concept and the American Cabaret style belly dance sword balancing tradition. She has performed this unique act around the world. The photo is by Dav Rue, taken during a goddess motion performance at the Victoria Theater in Singapore produced by Susanna Lawren.
Daughters of Rhea
Melinda Melina and her sister Piper co-founded the Daughters of Rhea dance company to honor their mother’s lifelong career in belly dance and to continue her legacy in their own ways. This photo by Cheryl Clegg is featured on the cover of the Fred Elias Ensemble CD “Elegant Music for Belly Dance.”
Melinda and Zoë
Melinda has carried on the family tradition with her daughter Zoë Isadora. This mother-daughter lyra photo by John Tremblay is from a tented show Melinda produced in 2011 at the Veteran’s Post 440 in Nonantum, MA.
Melinda in the Media
Melinda's writing has appeared on NPR's Marketplace and her essays on belly dance, economics and motherhood have been published in the Gilded Serpent, the Boston Globe, and Brain, Child magazine. Her scholarly articles on medieval French literature have appeared in the academic literary journal French Forum. She and her family have been profiled in The New Yorker magazine and the documentaries So Much, So Fast (2006),A Magical Life: Circus Flora (2004) and Runaway Circus (2011). She was a featured dance teacher on the MTV television show Made and appeared on the reality show Bridezilla when she was contracted to dance at a Bridezilla wedding. The bride was actually quite lovely. In 2018, Melinda was featured as Loren’s Bada** CHICK OF THE WEEK ON the TJ SHOW!
Circus Flora & Kripalu
Melinda was a featured circus artist in Circus Flora from 1997 - 2011, where she juggled, danced with elephants and stallions, performed on static trapeze and lyra, and choreographed dances for the production.
Melina was on the faculty at Kripalu Center of Yoga and Health and is invited around the world as 'Melina of Daughters of Rhea to teach her empowering, joyful style of belly dance.
Zoë Isadora Aerialist
Zoë Isadora (Wellesley College ‘22 - Graduated with honors in Psychology) is a third-generation circus artist who grew up in Circus Flora, Cirque Passion and at Moody Street Circus.
She has performed outstanding acts on nearly every aerial apparatus there is.
Visit her instagram @moodystreetcircuskid and follow her on Facebook as Zoë Isadora Aerialist to see past performances and training clips.
Zoë grew up brushing her teeth while hanging by her knees from the trapeze in her family’s living room. She first appeared in her mother Melinda's arms in the ring of Circus Flora when she was 9 months old with a beautiful hot pink sequined head bow that had been hand-sewn and given to her by the most generous woman in circus, Olinka Wallenda.
Zoë has since performed and produced shows for many events - both corporate, private and fundraising.
After learning the literal ropes from an upbringing in her traveling circus family, Zoë now manages and teaches popular classes in her family’s circus studio. She continues to perform & tour both locally and abroad and teaches aerial workshops across the globe.
Through the guidance and teaching of her mother Melina of Daughters of Rhea and step-father Sacha Pavlata, Zoë imbues the spirit of the circus world in her own aerial feats. She has been dubbed the “Aerial Dolphin” for her graceful flows and seamless dancing with any apparatus.
In performance, Zoë inspires audiences and brings them to another world through a hurricane of fabric (aerial silk), a whimsy of movement, and with an energy and emotion that can only be felt in person.
Zoë has performed her whole life. She has appeared in multiple seasons of Circus Flora in St. Louis, her family’s circus Cirque Passion and The Flying Wallenda Family Circus.
Since graduating from Wellesley College, Zoë has performed in Westchester Circus Arts’ production “The Legend,” Airotic Circus Cabaret Soirée, CirqueUs events and more. in 2023 she will be performing in the Cirque Dreams, Holidaze tour.