James Schubert is the founder and director of The Acrofabulous Circus. He first became involved with circus arts in 1997 at The Actor's Gymnasium in Evanston, where he completed their Certification Program in 2001. He then began high flying trapeze with Julio and Gloria of The Flying Gaona's, and later became an instructor at their gym. Concurrently James trained with Sports Acrobatics Coach, Nourbol Meirmanov, and maintains his membership as a Sports Acrobatics team member. He also volunteered and worked instructing for CircEsteem and The Chicago Youth Circus for several years. Beginning in 2002, James began creating and directing a new children's circus summer camp for the Skokie Park District which has enjoyed outstanding success! James holds a degree in Germanic Studies from the University of Illinois as well as a BFA in Film Production from San Francisco State University. He has also been in several independent circus performances, vaudeville shows, theatre performances, TV commercials, dance collaborations and has an extensive history of musical performance starting from a very young age.
Alyssa Silverman-Bird loves to speak russian to her parrot while in a handstand on a trapeze. Well, not quite, but she is well versed in floor acrobatics including handbalancing and flexibility, thanks to her coach, Nourbol Meirmanov, and has a number of years of static trapeze training under her belt. She also speaks russian, and has attended both The Russian State Univeristy for Humanities in Moscow Russia, and Beloit College in Wisconsin. She is currently conidering a dual masters degree in social work and international relations.
Amy Chen received extensive ballet training as a child at the Royal Academy of Dance and Vaganova methods. She received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Michigan in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, and more recently a law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Amy began her study of trapeze in 2001, and also studies acrobatics with Nourbol Meirmanov. Amy has taught circus-arts with Circesteem, and The Adler Danztheatre and currently teaches for The Acrofabulous Circus, Joel Hall Dance Center and The Skokie Park District. In her free time, Amy is an intellectual property lawyer and breaths fire.
Laura DeGood began practicing circus arts at the Actor’s Gymnasium in 1996 when she was nine years old. While having a strong foundation in ground work (tumbling, unicycling, sports acrobatics, etc) she specializes in aerial work. Laura began flying trapeze at the age of 15 under the instruction of Julio and Gloria Gaona of the Flying Gaona’s Gym, and is currently a teacher there. She is now attending the University of California at Santa Barbara pursuing her B.A. in Sociocultural Linguistics and French minor.
Dharmesh Bhagat introduces juggling into his and others' lives as much as he can. He performs as a juggler regularly, and among many other things, has done performances with the Midnight Circus, Acrofabulous Circus, and Vaudeville Underground in addition to working as a freelance performer around the Chicago area. He has also taught for the Chicago Youth Circus and Circ Esteem.