Star Tribune
Circus Juventas founders stepping away from Big Top in St. Paul
After almost 30 years and nearly 30,000 students, big changes are happening at St. Paul’s Big Top, Circus Juventas. Founders Dan and Elizabeth “Betty” Butler are stepping away from their renowned circus school.
“It gives us time to enjoy retirement while we’re still young,” said Betty Butler, the school’s artistic director since its founding in 1994.
Dan Butler, who talked of the heavy lifting that was required to see the school successfully through a global COVID-19 pandemic, said the couple have been thinking about stepping away for several years.
“When COVID hit, I was pretty tired. We actually thought it was over,” Dan Butler said. “The timing is just right.”
Never fear, circus fans, the trapezes and trampolines aren’t going still. The circus school’s year-round training program and its seasonal shows are continuing; Rob Dawson and the Butlers’ daughter, Rachel Butler Norris, have stepped into the school’s leadership roles.
Dawson, the new executive director, comes to St. Paul after many years as an acrobat and coach with the world-famous Cirque Du Soleil.
“I want to focus on [students’] experience here and on the experience of their parents,” Dawson said. “And I want to say just how honored I am to be taking on this role.”
Butler Norris worked alongside her parents as Circus Juventas’ national and international profiles have grown. While she said she is excited to continue the trail blazed by her mother, she admitted in a recent interview to having a few butterflies following in those footsteps.
“It’s very daunting to think I have to create something that lives up to it, of that same caliber,” Butler Norris said. “I have a good handle on what worked really well. I’m sure there will be some differences, but I’m curious to see what those will be.”
The elder Butlers will continue to help their successors during the next year, Dan Butler said. Nevertheless, stepping away is a bit bittersweet, he said.
“I’m going to miss the kids,” he said of the thousands of students who found confidence, passion and careers in the circus arts.
Said Betty Butler: “I’ll miss the creativity. I just love the creative process.”
Nonprofit Circus Juventas was started with the idea of inspiring artistry and self-confidence through a circus arts experience. Whether its students found a new calling, or a place where they felt they belonged, Dan Butler said Circus Juventas strove to empower its students with new possibilities.
“We’ve accepted kids from all walks of life and from all backgrounds,” he said.
According to its website, Circus Juventas alumni have gone to work at Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, the Flying Wallendas, Bello Nock, the Royal Hanneford Circus, Cirque Mechanics, Cirque Eloize and many other professional circus organizations. Danny Butler, Dan and Betty’s youngest child, is performing his professional inaugural season with Ringling Brothers.
According to the website, the Butlers met as teenagers in Sarasota, Fla., where they trained at Sailor Circus, one of the oldest circus schools in the country. They continued training as young adults at the Florida State University Flying High Circus.
In 1994, the Butlers returned to the circus after years away, starting Circus of the Star, an after-school program in Highland Park. In August 2000, they broke ground on a permanent home at 1270 Montreal Av. In July 2001, they opened the school’s new Big Top.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
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