PHILLIP PSUTKA - President & Co-Founder
Phillip Psutka is the President, Director & Co-Founder of TriCity Centre for Circus Arts and the professional circus company Articus Productions. In addition to juggling and stilt walking, his main circus disciplines, Phillip brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his theatrical background, including show creation, writing, directing, acting, and stage combat. Originally from Kitchener-Waterloo, he has performed with the Stratford Festival, CBC Radio, Humber River Shakespeare, the Toronto Fringe, as well as the Toronto and Dundas Buskerfests. Through his experience with The Shakespeare School (Stratford Festival) and DuffleBag Theatre, he has worked with kids and young adults as an actor, director, and instructor.
He has helmed numerous award-winning productions, including: WEIRD (Playwright, Director, Fight Director), which toured to theatres, schools, and festivals from 2015-2020 and showcased at Ontario Contact 2018; ROUGH MAGIC (Playwright, Actor, Fight Director); SHIPWRECKED (Playwright, Actor, Fight Director); and THE LUMBERJACK SHOW, THE AERIAL PIRATE SHOW and CAMP ARTICUS -- Articus’ three critically acclaimed outdoor touring productions.
He is the recipient of the Rapier Wit Award (Fight Directors Canada), a Tyrone Guthrie Award (Stratford Festival), as well as several arts grants for the development and production of his original plays WEIRD and ROUGH MAGIC with Articus.
He is also the creator, host, composer and producer of the podcast Dark River: Spooky Stories of a Small Town, which features original haunting short stories about a fictional small town in Northern Ontario at the turn of the century, and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and many other platforms.
He graduated from the University of Windsor’s BFA in Acting program with Distinction and is an Advanced Actor Combatant with Full Distinction (FDC).
Instagram: @phillippsutka, @darkriverpodcast, and @articusproductions
LINDSAY BELLAIRE - Co-Founder
Lindsay Bellaire is the co-owner of the TriCity Centre for Circus Arts. She has been training in circus arts since 2010, when she began training under Jeff Coulter in Windsor, Ontario. Soon after, she moved to Toronto and began training at the Toronto School of Circus Arts, where she eventually landed her first teaching position. She then opened her own studio (with partner Phillip Psutka) in Muskoka, before moving to Kitchener-Waterloo in 2017 to manage the aerial program at Brass Butterflies. In 2018, she attained her Instructor of Circus Arts certification from l’Ecole Nationale de Cirque in Montreal and opened TriCity Circus here in Waterloo Region.
Lindsay’s first and biggest love is aerial silks, with their endless possibilities for wraps, transitions, and exciting new pathways. Her secondary apparatus is aerial hoop. She is also a classically trained actor, with a BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor, and she uses her theatrical training to create shows and acts that fuse theatre with aerial arts.
Lindsay also co-owns and performs with Articus Productions, a theatrical circus company that provides high quality circus entertainment for events and festivals, and produces shows that blend theatre and circus arts. She enjoys the camaraderie and relationships that develop through each show, knowing that each performer has their part to play while coming together to create an exciting experience for the audience. Although a brief tour to China with Creativiva was one of her most exciting (and challenging) experiences, she is most passionate about creating and producing shows and acts under her own company. Her most rewarding experience has been performing as one of the witches in Articus’ production, WEIRD.
Instagram: @articusproductions
ERIKA LUI - Studio Manager & Instructor
With a background training in Provincial-level competitive gymnastics in Toronto from the age of 14–17, Erika continued to explore many modes of movement knowledge, ranging from cheerleading to dance, to parkour and free-running, to rock climbing, after finding a home and heart within the circus arts in 2016. In 2018 Erika left Toronto to immerse within the circus world by completing a two-year, full-time intensive circus arts training program with ALOFT in Chicago, IL, USA. On returning to Toronto in 2020, Erika taught at Cirque-Ability before moving to Waterloo Region, and is continuing to seek work as a circus coach and professional acrobatic and aerial performer, with future aspirations to create full length ensembled circus shows that meld ideas within the realms of physics, neuroscience, mindfulness, and the human experience.
BRITTANY HOWLETT - Instructor
Brittany Howlett is a Toronto and Guelph-based circus artist, performer and teacher. She has trained all across the world, including France, the United Kingdom, the US, and Canada (mainly Toronto) for over 10 years. She has trained in a wide variety of aerial and ground disciplines that include aerial rope (corde lisse), duo trapeze, and hula hooping. Her primary disciplines are static and dance trapeze, and handbalancing.
A former competitive gymnast with more than a decade of dance training, Britt holds certifications in NCCP Women's Artistic Gymnastics Level 2, NCCP Trampoline Level 1, Respect in Sport, and First Aid & CPR. After successfully completing the Achieve Pre-Professional Program for circus artists at Cirque-ability in Toronto, she went on to teach at Cirque-ability for nearly five years, running the advanced trapeze program as well as the Kids Acro Performance Team.
Britt has performed original acts at arts events, shows and festivals across Canada and the United States, focusing primarily on static trapeze, dance trapeze, duo trapeze, hand-balancing and acrobatics. Some of her best performance experiences include Circus Sessions at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Crash/Mat Cabaret alongside a bunch of circus friends (Dunkirk, NY); Bloom Festival (Charlotte, NC); Legends of Horror haunted house (Toronto); and performing duo trapeze outdoors with her duo partner Tanya for Nuit Rose Festival (Toronto) and with FireFly Circus and Theatre (Edmonton).
Instagram: @trapezista7
LISA HEARN - Instructor
Lisa is a circus artist, performer and instructor that has been working within the GTA for nearly 5 years. With a background in a wide range of movement practices, Lisa was a competitive gymnast in her early years and is a certified yoga teacher. She has worked as a camp councillor and has over 5 years of experience leading outdoor sports activities for children; including canoe excursions, trampoline and climbing.
Lisa has been training in circus arts for the past 8 years and is well versed in ground acrobatics, aerial silks, lyra hoop, and freestanding lollipop lyra. She started her circus training in Mississauga at A2D2 cirque center and since then has trained with multiple instructors across Canada. She has been working locally as a lyra instructor in Guelph for the past 2.5 years and has also been teaching ground acrobatics and yoga. Lisa has combined her love of performance and travel and has worked with a circus collective in Central America as one of their aerial instructors at an artist residency, where she trained artists and choreographed acts for solo and large group performances.
Although her primary disciplines are Lyra hoop, aerial silks, and ground-based lollipop lyra, she is also a professional fire artist and works with many different props to deliver exciting and exhilarating fire shows. During her professional career, she has had the opportunity to perform ambient aerial acts alongside world renowned electronic music artists and has performed fire shows across the GTA for private events and parties. Lisa is an avid learner and is constantly working to acquire knowledge to help fuel her teaching career and improve the experience of her students. She loves the technical side of circus and you will often see her breaking down complex terminology into a simple format that is easy to understand and remember.
Instagram: @lisa_2626_
ABBY PARTRIDGE - Apprentice Instructor
Abby joined Tri City Circus as a beginner in fall of 2021 in aerial arts. She quickly realized that this was a strong passion and began training harder to forge a pathway towards performing. Abby joined the performance team and collaborated with her teammates to complete her first group act and a solo.
Abby comes from a background of gymnastics, cheer, and dance but aerial arts is where she wants to take her athletic abilities into the future. She was a participant in the first Duo Aerials workshop at the studio where she got to work with a partner on the same apparatus and learn all about balance and teamwork. Abby one day hopes to perform as an aerialist so she can showcase her passion.
NATASHA GARCIA - Apprentice Instructor
As a child, Natasha took ballet and jazz classes and has always enjoyed expressing herself through movement. She was first introduced to circus during an exchange in Quebec where she had the opportunity to participate in a circus workshop, trying different skills like juggling, riding a unicycle, and simple acrobatics. Upon returning to Waterloo region to continue her university studies in 2018, she came across aerial silks classes and couldn't pass up such an incredible opportunity. She immediately fell in love with the art and challenge of it and has been taking classes ever since.
In 2022 she had the opportunity to put together and perform a small aerial act, she found this to be an extremely rewarding experience that she looks forward to repeating in the future. Natasha has found a lot of joy through aerial arts and is excited to help others learn and progress in their aerial journey while experiencing the joy of circus arts.