You throw enough people into a double backflip off a 20-foot-high pedestal — to someone else on another pedestal who catches the flyer by the arms — and it just starts to feel normal.

Then you take a step back.

“And you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, this is really cool,’” said Sasha Rapacz, a performer in the cast of “Jangala,” St. Paul youth circus school Circus Juventas’s upcoming summer show.

“You get desensitized to the things you do a lot,” he said. “But it’s kind of fun to see something you have no grasp of on one side of the circus, and something you know through-and-through on your side, happening at the same time. … When it comes to putting together a show, there’s something so magical about the way circus comes together.”

Performers during rehearsals in St. Paul on July 16, 2024, for Circus Juventas’ summer show, Jangala, which runs July 26-Aug. 11. (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

Rapacz, who’s 20 and a studio art student at Carleton College, has been training with Circus Juventas since before he was in kindergarten. He performs in several disciplines in “Jangala,” including Russian Cradle, the circus act that involves tossing and catching aerialists as they flip through the air. (In that act, Rapacz is a catcher, not a flyer.)

“Jangala,” which tells a jungle fantasy story inspired by tales like “The Jungle Book,” “Tarzan” and “Swiss Family Robinson,” runs for 15 performances between Friday, July 26 and Sunday, Aug. 11. Tickets range from $25 to $55 and are available online at circusjuventas.showare.com or by phone at 651-309-8106.

This year marks the 30th anniversary for Circus Juventas, and the first flagship summer show produced entirely by the organization’s new leaders. After founders Dan and Betty Butler retired last fall, Cirque du Soleil alum Rob Dawson took over as executive director and longtime assistant artistic director Rachel Butler-Norris, also the Butlers’ daughter, became artistic director.

During a recent “Jangala” rehearsal, as performers were running through the show scene by scene, Butler-Norris was watching intently. Should this dance number take place on the other side of the arena? Does that fire jump rope scene — yes, real fire — look too busy at the same time as trampoline vault-mini?

Ezekiel Pranis-Ricci carries another performer while riding a unicycle during rehearsals in St. Paul on July 16, 2024, for Circus Juventas’ summer show, Jangala, which runs July 26-Aug. 11. (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

“It’s a little bit of this feeling every year: How is this going to come together?” Butler-Norris said. “It’s so massive; there are so many elements. It’s daunting, but the pieces are falling into place.”

Like all Circus Juventas shows, “Jangala” is complex and ambitious. The performance is a showcase of the school’s top-level students and includes several dozen different circus acts, from aerial silks to stage combat to wire-walking to unicycling.

Performers practice their unicycle act during rehearsals in St. Paul on July 16, 2024, for Circus Juventas’ summer show, Jangala, which runs July 26-Aug. 11. (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

When you break it down, though, it’s less complex than it seems, performers said. You learn to ride a unicycle. You learn small tricks, then bigger ones. Then you combine those into routines. Then you perform routines alongside other teammates.

“And then we just put that all together, Lego-style, and practice it until we stop falling,” said Olivia Fricke, 17, a unicyclist. “It’s a lot of falling.”

She’s been unicycling since she was about 5; her 14-year-old sister, Amali, is a unicyclist in “Jangala,” too, and their dad, Zacc Fricke, is Circus Juventas’s unicycle coach.

Sometimes, though, falling is the point. Sort of. Take wall trampoline, for instance — an act that involves free-falling out of a window, bouncing on a large trampoline and walking right back up the wall.

Lucio Pranis-Ricci, 17, wears pirate apparel during rehearsals in St. Paul on July 16, 2024, for Circus Juventas’ summer show, Jangala, which runs July 26-Aug. 11. Lucio appears in numerous scenes throughout the show including a stage combat and parkour scene where he plays a pirate. (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

The way you fall influences the way your body moves on the way back up, said Lucio Pranis-Ricci, 17, who performs in a variety of acts in “Jangala,” including wall trampoline.

He’s been training at Circus Juventas for about 13 years, he said. He knows, intuitively, what muscles to tighten to flip one way; what incremental leg movement can make or break a successful landing. But his high school physics class last year made him look at circus in a whole new light.

“We know how to do this, but [I didn’t] really know why we know how to do it, why any of it works,” he said. “We learn what moves to make to go in different directions, but the ‘why’ is also really interesting.”

For many performers, it’s this intersection between technical precision and entertainment that makes circus so appealing. Circus Juventas students have spent hundreds of hours perfecting acts that, quite literally, fly by onstage during shows like “Jangala.”

It’s hard work, but nailing an act in front of an audience is so exhilarating, Pranis-Ricci said.

“It’s fun to put an athletic thing into a different perspective,” Rapacz said. “Rather than athletics for achievement, it’s athletics for everyone’s entertainment. The people who are doing it are having fun; the people who are watching it are having fun.”

If you go

What: Circus Juventas’ summer show, “Jangala”

Description: During its 30th anniversary year, the St. Paul circus school is putting on a jungle fantasy-themed show jam-packed with ambitious acrobatic acts.

When: 15 total performances, including matinee and evening shows, from Friday, July 26, through Sunday, August 11

Where: Circus Juventas Big Top, 1270 Montreal Ave., St. Paul

Tickets: $25-$55; circusjuventas.showare.com or by phone at 651-309-8106

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