Booking Information

Typically 20-30 children are featured in a performance. During the performance, they showcase a variety of circus arts skills: rolling globes, Chinese stilts, unicycles, bolo boards, juggling: balls, rings, clubs, devil sticks, diablos, spinning plates, and more. The culminating routine features the whole group, each performing atop a six-foot unicycle.

Performance Duration: Approximately 60 minutes in length, which can be adjusted according to time constraints.

For questions and performance information/fee, please Ellen Benson – Director of the Gym Dandies Children’s Circus

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The Gym Dandies Children’s Circus – Highlights

  • Performing since 1981.
  • Recognized as an exemplary program for children by the Maine State Arts Task Force 1984.
  • Nominated for the National Education Association Excellence in Education Award in 1991.
  • Since1981, more than 2000 Scarborough school students have been members of the group.
  • The Gym Dandies is the largest continuously operating children’s circus in the United States.
  • Winner of The Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness “Contest for Communities Award” 2000.
  • Featured on ZOOM, the nationally televised PBS children’s program, in 2001, 2003 and 2004.
  • Eighty Gym Dandies represented the State of Maine in the National Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 2000.
  • Selected as the featured performance in the Montreal, Quebec Cycling Festival May 2002.  This is the world’s largest cycling event.
  • One Hundred Gym Dandies represented the State of Maine in the National Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 2004.
  • Sixty Gym Dandies performed atop six-foot unicycles in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2005 in NYC, the largest and tallest unicycle ensemble to perform in this event.
  • The Gym Dandies once again represented the State of Maine in the National Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C.on July 4, 2006.
  • The Gym Dandies Children’s Circus represented the Scarborough community and the State of Maine in the Parade of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. on April 12, 2008.
  • Winner of the Specialty Unit competition, West Virginia Strawberry Festival Parade, April 2009.
  • Winner of “The Peoples Choice Award”, Maine Lobster Festival Parade, August 2010.
  • Represented the State of Maine in the Philadelphia, PA Independence Day Parade, July 4, 2011
  • Represented the State of Maine in the 100th Anniversary of the Parade of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2012
  • Represented the State of Maine in the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Parade in Washington DC
  • The first unicycle unit and only non-regional participant in the 2014 Columbus Day Parade in New York City
  • The Gym Dandies once again represented t the Scarborough community and the State of Maine in the Parade of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 2016.
  • Once again represented the State of Maine in Philadelphia, PA, for the Independence Day Parade, July 4, 2018.
  • The Gym Dandies were the first non-marching-band school group to perform for guests of Universal Studios Orlando, FL, June 24 & 25, 2022.