Owned by life-long gymnast and international, Team USA pole competitor Sabrina Madsen, Savannah Cirque is staffed by a group of former and current gymnasts, dancers, and acrobats. The gym opened its doors in September 2017 and has been steadily growing since. Savannah Cirque has Silks, Hammocks, Lyra, Trapeze, Pole, and Acro classes. They perform around town and also compete in aerial and pole competitions. On Oct. 14, they will be performing at “A Night in the Garden.”

Madsen, born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the owner of the Savannah Cirque, began gymnastics at the age of ten months old, taught by her mother who had done gymnastics in high school. At the age of eight, Madsen’s mother put her in gymnastics classes, she was coached by Olympic gymnast Missy Marlo, an Olympian who competed in the 1988 Olympics. She continued gymnastics throughout high school and college, where she attended Southern Utah University. Afterward, she moved to Savannah.

“I had been working in a studio in that same spot across the street as a personal trainer and pole instructor. I was teaching pole classes, and I was doing personal training, and doing pole parties. The owner of that business, her husband, got a job in a different state. She was moving, so I just kind of did it as my own business. I thought about buying it from her and then just decided to start my own. We just took over the same space and bought some of the equipment from her, but with a new name,” said Madsen. “I had just finished grad school, two months prior, maybe even one month prior. I got a master’s in sports medicine and then got certified as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist which is why the strength coaches like college and major sports.”

Savannah Cirque is an expansion of First City Fitness, which Madsen started in 2013. They just turned nine on July 1. First City Fitness Started as a personal training and pull studio, then expanded to add Savannah Cirque. Sabrina Madsen, Samantha Siren, Katelyn Brush, and Veronica Jones, who instruct and take classes at Savannah Cirque, will be the ones performing at A Night in the Garden, the fashion experience and masquerade ball hosted by Connect Savannah.

“Samantha and I are both doing a silk act in that first hour. I know one of us is right after the fashion show, and then another one of us will be 30 minutes later. Samantha and I are both doing a silk act choreographed to a specific song. So that’s always fun. Then we’ll have two hours of ambient performing on the aerial lollipop,” said Madsen. “Samantha and I will be there for the first hour, and then Veronica and Katelyn will perform on the lollipop for the second hour. Then Samantha and I switch over to the rig again and do some ambience silk performing in that next hour. Then we’ll finish up with the aerial moon lyra hoop on the rig, some ambient stuff, and so we’ll finish up that last hour with some ambience. Katelyn and I will be the main acts for the last hour.”

Madsen still competes professionally. After joining the national US Pole Sports Federation in 2015, she competed for Team USA and went to her first world championship in 2017 in Lichtenstein, Germany.

“Believe it or not, even though I had been a gymnast and traveled all over the country with gymnastics, I’ve never been International. So that was my first time going international as an athlete in my 30s and I was just crying during the Parade of Nations. I was just so overcome I’m like, Oh my gosh, I never thought this part of my life was over and here I am still competing.”

The other performers are students and instructors at Savannah Cirque and compete.

“Veronica has taken classes from me for three years before she started training to be an instructor. She’s one of our pole instructors. So she’s a relatively new instructor now, but she’s been with me for almost four years now. Katelyn has taken classes for at least a couple of years, and I started training her earlier this year to be an instructor,” said Madsen.

Going forward, Madsen plans to keep competing and performing in Savannah, the United States, and internationally.

“I know I can’t be an athlete at this level forever. So I’m just really trying to do as much as I can and as long as I want to and my body sticks with me,” said Madsen.

Find out more at savannahcirque.com

– Cassidi Hinson

This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2022.