BOSTON 'S ATLANTIC NEW ENGLAND REGIONALS JUDGES
Meet our awe inspiring judging panel filled with world renown performers and coaches!
Doug
Doug graduated from the New England Center for Circus Arts, and has since performed for Krystallpalast Varieté, Flynn Creek Circus, Urania Variete, Chicago’s Midnight Circus Cruises, Live305Entertainment, Westchester Circus Arts, Cirque Dreams, and Cirque. Doug received 2nd place in Aerial Rope at the 2023 VIVA Festival and received a speciality prize for duo straps at the 2023 NewComers Show in Germany. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business of Live and Performing Arts with a concentration in Touring Productions from Columbia College Chicago.
At age 20, Doug founded Cirque Us. Since then, he has worked in many onstage and production roles with a variety of companies. Doug is very passionate about growth, development, and “bridging the gap” between recreational students and professionals.
​
@dougcircus (IG)
Rachel Barringer
Rachel Barringer is a contortionist and aerialist based in New England. She performs on aerial hoop, mini hoop, silks, rope, multi-codes, and aerial straps. She is one half of DuoShadow with Caroline Wright, and they perform on duo hoop and duo braided loops. In 2023 DuoShadow created, co-produced, and performed HELIX, their first full-length circus show in collaboration with Circus 617 and Contemporary Circus Immersive Arts Center in Troy, NY. Rachel has performed nationally with Shanghai Circus, Boston Circus Guild, Santa’s Circus, Cirque De Light, CirqOvation, Moisture Festival, Nimble Arts, and more. She is also a founding member of Circus 617, a contemporary circus company based in Boston. Rachel is a senior coach at Esh Circus Arts, and she also coaches at Eastern Acrobatics and Circus and Commonwealth Circus Center.
​
@bendyladyray (IG)
Tyler Jacobson
Tyler Jacobson started circus nearly by accident when he was enrolled in the Great Y Circus as an after-school program in 2006. From an initial interest in handbalancing and contortion, Tyler quickly expanded his skillset to include lyra, silks, and hula hoop while maintaining a vigorous acrobatic–academic balance, completing both a double major in English and Spanish as well as a master's degree in Cultural Studies.
Tyler had an auspicious start to his professional career in 2017 with the national tour of Pippin as well as establishing himself as a fan-favorite monster at Queen Mary's Dark Harbor. More recently, he has been a regular member of Cirque Dreams Holidaze as well as multiple tours with Cirque Us, including One Man's Trash and Cirque Us Stories. Tyler is also an accomplished teacher, leading workshops across the country as well as serving as head coach for Circus Smirkus camp in 2024.
As an artist, Tyler treasures the unspoken connection between audiences and performers. He has combined his signature flair on stage with continued independent research on the epistemology of how nonverbal performing arts like circus communicate with their audiences.
​
@Tylerykwat (IG)
Maia Castro -Santos
Maia is a New England based circus artist and aerialist. She began her training at the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) when she was 9 years old and toured with the Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour from 2019-2021. After being named Valedictorian for Northfield Mount Hermon’s (NMH) class of 2020 and completing two years at Columbia University as a Cognitive Science major specializing in Human Computer Interaction, she realized that she would rather be professionally upside down. During Maia's time at Columbia, she was President of the Columbia Circus Collective (CCC), and performed and directed for the Fall Cabaret (2021), Circus Hamlet (2021), Spring Cabaret (2022), and Phobias (2022). She has performed with the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra, New York Circus Project, Cirque Us, Catamount Arts, Muse ABCirque, and more! When she is not touring or performing, Maia coaches in Burlington, VT at Murmurations Aerial Dance and Lines VT Dance Studio where she started an aerial program in 2024. Maia specializes in hula hoops, aerial hoop, dance trapeze, invented bar apparatus and dance pole.
​
@maiacastrosantos (IG)
Alexis Hedrick
Alexis Hedrick is a Boston-based circus artist known for her powerful, captivating performances. Inspired by circus shows she saw as a kid in California, she left competitive gymnastics at age 11 to run away with— well, to carpool to— Splash Circus and then the San Francisco Youth Circus. She learned everything from aerial and acrobatics to juggling and physical theater, and fell in love with circus. Alexis attended the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) in Melbourne, Australia, specializing in aerial rope and cyr wheel. Since then, her globe-trotting career has included performing with Cirque Bouffon, P&O Australia Cruises, Shanghai Circus, AIDA Cruises, Flynn Creek Circus, and All Wheels Sports. Locally, Alexis teaches at Esh Circus Arts, frequently performs for shows and private events with the Boston Circus Guild, and in 2020 co-founded contemporary circus collective Circus 617. She co-created and performed in the collective's first evening length show, Gathering the Threads, and has performed in Circus 617’s ongoing collaborative series, Mixtape and Arias Aloft.
​
@alexis.hedrick (IG)
Mykelle Walton
Mykelle Walton is a multidisciplinary performing artist and researcher who strives to combine her intellectual and physical curiosity. In her primary discipline of aerial acrobatics, Mykelle has performed internationally through varieté shows, artistic festivals, and cruise ships in aerial hoop, hair suspension, and aerial straps. She frequently ventures out of the circus tent and explores other areas of performance including modern dance, durational performance, and devised theatre. Mykelle deeply informs her practice making connections between philosophy, critical theory, and aerodynamics. Using a foundation in metaphysics she transforms the critical thinking of philosophy into a movement based practice to create complex, layered work.
​
Originally from rural Idaho, she has been contracted with organisations such as V-Star entertainment, Animate Objects, AIDA Cruises, Virgin Voyages, Kaleidoscope Entertainment, and the New England Center for Circus Arts. She has taught all over the world including in Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Germany and France. She has been supported by the Massachusetts Arts Council, Easthampton Cultural Council, Idaho Arts Commision, Alexa Rose Foundation, and the Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance program. In 2018, she founded the Boise Circus Guild and is currently the artistic director. In 2025 she started a new circus project—SPEC— with her life and creative partner, Jennifer Thornquest, where they do circus research, education and production together. She holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College in Philosophy and is a candidate for an PhD in Philosophy at the University of Maryland. Currently her favorite pastime is hiking in the mountains with her wife.
Mandy
Mandy is an aerialist, dancer, and choreographer known for her innovative and genre-bending work. She is a founding member of contemporary circus company Circus 617, and has performed immersive works with Control Group and Rainbow Militia in Denver, with Sinecdoche Dance, SAWtooth Dance, Mike Kelley, and others in NYC, at the Kennedy center and across the front range with Frequent Flyers Productions, and as a guest circus artist at Darpana, India, and Casa Chango, Mexico. Mandy is the producer of Circus Mixtape, and co-founder of interdisciplinary performance group Hypha. This year, Mandy is an artist fellow in the FolkLab “These Hollow Hills” project in Pittsburgh, exploring her Appalachian roots as they relate to art, community histories, and the ecosystem. Mandy has created her own dance-theater work as the founder/director of Tree Project and Shapeshifter collective, which toured throughout the US. She has built commissioned choreography for many dance, theater and circus companies including Double Blind Productions, Submerge Theater, and others, and has been a featured artist at the Aerial Dance Festival, Excessive Realness Dance Festival, and Hupstate Circus Festival. She has been featured as an event aerialist, stilt walker, and tarot reader across the US with agencies including Phantom Circus, Handsome Little Devils, Aerial Acrobat Entertainment, and Cirque De Light. Mandy is a witch both offstage and on, and has even created her own circus-themed tarot deck. Offstage, you can find her coaching as a senior coach at Esh Circus Arts & Program Development Lead at Commonwealth Circus Center, as well as in the Circus Minor program at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She also shares her love of functional movement as the founder of body inclusive strength and posture service, All Our Bodies.
