Elsie Smith

Elsie Smith is a founder of NECCA, Nimble Arts and Gemini Trapeze. Together with her twin sister, Serenity, she performed for Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco for 4 years as a duo trapezist. Her performances have garnered the bronze medal at the Internat’l Festival de Circo and the Special Award at the China Wuqiau Internat’l Circus Festival. Elsie has taught and choreographed for many companies including Pilobolus, Cirque du Soleil, Circus Smirkus, Frequent Flyers’ Aerial Dance Festival, VivaFest and Sea World San Antonio. She has a Coaches Certification in trampoline and she and Serenity have developed a unique curriculum and teaching methodology for aerial circus arts. She is a founding member of the American Circus Educators Association’s Safety Committee and the American Circus Alliance. In 2016 the sisters won the American Circus Educators’ Award for Excellence in Education and the Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts from the Vermont Arts Council. In 2021, she served as a grant review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts.