FLOTSAM! is a troupe of musicians, circus performers, and puppeteers traveling on a ramshackle raft, giving free performances in waterfront towns along the way. Since 2019, they have performed for tens of thousands of people across thirteen states and have traveled over 2,000 river miles.
Their tours have taken them from the Willamette River in Oregon to the Mississippi. In 2024, they completed their biggest tour to date, traveling the entire Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Paducah.
Coinciding with the 200th Anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal, Floatsam River Circus will be traveling the entire length of the canal and the Hudson River, giving performances in dozens of towns from Buffalo to New York City. In future years, they hope to bring our floating circus to the rivers and canals of Europe, and eventually all over the world.
Ambalancer is the performing name of Amber Gibson, a choreographer, gymnast, and balance artist from Taipei, Taiwan. She has studied circus since the age of 12 and is a recent graduate from the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts. Her performance skills have taken her all around the world, with engagements everywhere from Europe to Australia. Gibson is also a passionate educator, organizing circus arts summer camps for young aspiring artists back home in Taipei and abroad.
Danila Bim is a multidisciplinary artist from São Paulo, Brazil, known for her pioneering work in hair suspension and aerial hoop. With a background in dance and over 20 years of performance experience, she has brought her powerful presence to stages across the globe. Danila has been featured in productions by Cirque du Soleil, Teatro Zinzanni, Ringling Bros, and Palazzo, captivating audiences with her unique blend of strength, grace, and storytelling. Beyond the stage, Danila is a self-taught visual artist, designer, amateur trombone player, and a clown in the making. She is driven by curiosity, human connection, and love for creativity.
Sari Breznau is a music director, stage-craftsperson, and multi-instrumentalist known for her work with Future Fridays, Beats Antique, Cafe Nordo, Moonshine Revival Tent, Cherdonna, and the Singing in the Rain Family Choir. She was a long-time member of Seattle’s beloved performance collective, Circus Contraption and trumpeter/percussionist in the Balkan brass ensemble, Orkestar Zirkonium. She is currently music director of the UP UP UP Crane Truck Circus, and composer of the interactive musical “Venus and the Vixens.” A founding member of Flotsam River Circus, Sari will be rejoining the band to finish our tour after Labor Day.
Jacob D’eustachio is a uniquely captivating juggler – he’s a clown and sword swallower too! He has apprenticed to Swiss juggler, Kris Kremo, been one of the first Americans accepted to Canada’s prestigious École de Cirque de Québec, and performed in 15 countries on five continents. Highlights include clowning at North America’s oldest theater, winning a special prize at Moscow’s Nikulin Circus Festival, and performing for Adele with England’s Giffords Circus. Recent projects include his solo “Nerdy Gay Juggling Show” and California’s Flynn Creek Circus. He is especially proud of his work as a juggling and clowning coach to HIV-positive children in Cape Town, South Africa with Doctors Without Borders and the Zip Zap Circus. He’s ready for a new adventure with Flotsam River Circus, joining Flotsam from August 1-10.
Nicole “Nikki” Laumb followed a winding vocational journey to truly run away with the circus. What started on a goat farm in California after a term with AmeriCorps blossomed into a full-time life of performing, writing, directing, and perfecting the art of making her parents mildly concerned. Raised in Washington state and earning a degree in Journalism, Nikki specializes in character acting, Spanish web, and sideshow stunts. She has toured with The Venardos Circus, Circus Osorio, spent eight seasons with Flynn Creek Circus, and performed with the Bellingham Circus Guild as both a performer and co-artistic director. In 2022, she co-founded Shoestring Circus, a traveling show based out of Bellingham, WA, where she also pilots the marketing efforts. Being part of Flotsam has only fueled her obsession with possibility—because once you fall for the circus, there’s really no going back.
Miriam Hacksaw is a queer mixed Malayali-American fiddler, banjoist and rhythm bones player based in New Orleans. She tours nationally as a solo artist, as well as in the traditional music collective Blowgun, and was the founder of old time punk band Foraging and the Rattling Bones. Miriam is known for reinterpreting tunes from Kerala, India, passed down from her Malayali family through American fiddle and banjo, and has appeared on the old time podcast Get Up In The Cool with Cameron DeWhitt. Miriam and her sibling Rye released a demo of pan-american fiddle tunes recorded during the episode. Her debut EP “The Lupine” was released in fall of 2024.
Rye Oommen is a multi-instrumentalist and educator based out of New Orleans. They currently play pandeiro for the project Blowgun, drum kit for the Brazilian-MPB inspired quintet Lapis and 7-stringed guitar for the antifascist samba collective Samba do Povo. Oommen studied jazz performance for drums and guitar at Loyola University New Orleans ultimately receiving their BA in Latin American Studies. They also studied Portuguese in São Paulo, Brazil, and after completing their language program continued to live in São Paulo studying Brazilian music. Oommen is one of the co-founders of NOCMS (New Orleans Cooperative Music School) a worker owned cooperative music school in New Orleans. Oommen also tours and performs with their sibling, Miriam Hacksaw and joins them on Flotsam River Circus for this first time this summer.
Matty Semkowich is a fiddler, puppeteer, bike mechanic, activist, carpenter, cook, and general remover of obstacles. After years of freight hopping and punk boat floating, he settled in Asheville, North Carolina, where he helps run the Recyclery Community Bikeshop and teaches cycling workshops for local youth. With Flotsam, Matty helps pilot the boat, gets up to mischief with our youngest crew member, Otis, during the performances, and watches over all of the crew the rest of the time.
Kalan Sherrard (aka enormousface) is a slime mold who lives in a (w)hole in the void. xE has toured 60+ countries performing Ontological Anarchist Puppet Shows, organizing GarbageFest, and doing public intervention “Not-Happenings”. A founding member of Flotsam since 2018, Kalan is a Jim Henson Foundation grantee, a member of the Creatures from the Hole film and poetry Collective, and a student of Comparative Literature. New York Magazine decribes xErr as “NYC’s Most Avant-Garde Nihilist Subway Performer”. xE is currently working on a puppet production of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and is moving towards opening an Eco-Art Institute in Cascadia.
Camille Swift (aka Femme Fénix) is a Chicago-based circus artist, specializing in static trapeze, dance trapeze, and aerial sling, with extensive training in traditional arts (ballet, piano, oil painting) and a few less conventional ones (breakdancing, Japanese swordsmanship.) Her passion is creating acts that are highly skilled yet imaginative, expressive and visually striking. She speaks fluent French and has traveled to Paris and Montreal to train and develop her acts. Camille is also a visual artist, focusing in figurative oil painting, book arts, and collage. When not performing or creating, she works as a professional aerial coach, training her students in dynamic movement, efficient technique, building strength, flexibility and aerial awareness. She is joining Flotsam from Aug 1-10.
Justin Therrien has 17 years of experience in the entertainment industry with a focus on traveling tent circuses. He began his performing career as a juggler in Bellingham, WA, gradually expanding his repertoire to include sword swallowing, character work, comedy writing, magic, and object manipulation. He is a co-founder and tent boss of Shoestring Circus, a Bellingham-based traveling show. He has toured with Zoppé Circus, American Crown Circus & Circo Osorio, Circo Exelaris, The Venardos Circus, and Flynn Creek Circus. Justin played the principal role in 42 Feet with the touring theater company Cirque Mechanics and appeared on Broadway in Slava’s Snowshow. Justin was part of the original Flotsam cast in 2019, and we’re thrilled to have him back.
Jason Webley is a musician based outside of Seattle. Beginning as a street performer in the late 90s, Webley spent years traveling the world building an international cult following with his songs and stories. Armed with an accordion, a guitar, a porkpie hat and a plastic vodka bottle full of pennies, he has performed in over forty countries and released a pile of records. These days he is the captain and chief organizer of Flotsam River Circus. His qualifications include growing up fantasizing about floating down rivers on rafts, and being the only two-time winner of the “Boat Most Likely to Kill Pilot” award at the Camp Tipsy Rotten Boat Building Contest.
For more information on Flotsam River Circus, click here.
Flotsam River Circus 2025 Erie Canal and Hudson River Tour Dates:
Aug 1 – Buffalo – Wilkeson Pointe Beach – 7 pm
Aug 2 – Buffalo – Wilkeson Pointe Beach – 7 pm
Aug 3 – Buffalo – Wilkeson Pointe Beach – 7 pm
Aug 4 – Tonawanda – Gateway Harbor – 7 pm
Aug 5 – Lockport – Wide Waters Marina – 7 pm
Aug 6 – Medina – Medina Canal Basin – 7 pm
Aug 7 – Brockport – Harvester Park – 6:30 pm
Aug 8 – Rochester – Corn Hill Landing – 7 pm
Aug 9 – Rochester – Corn Hill Landing – 7 pm
Aug 10 – Fairport – Lift Bridge West Dock – 7 pm
Aug 13 – Geneva – Finger Lakes Welcome Center – 7 pm
Aug 14 – Seneca Falls – Bonafiglia Foundation Property – 7 pm
Aug 15 – Baldwinsville – Marble Island – 7 pm
Aug 16 – Syracuse Area – Willow Bay Park – 7 pm
Aug 17 – Liverpool – Onondaga Lake Park – 7 pm
Aug 19 – Oswego – Oswego Canal Lock 8 – 7 pm
Aug 20 – Phoenix – Henley Park – 7 pm
Aug 21 – Brewerton – Riverfront Park – 7 pm
Aug 22 – Sylvan Beach – Canal Wall – 6:30 pm
Aug 23 – Rome – Bellamy Harbor – 6:30 pm
Aug 24 – Frankfort – Frankfort Marina – 6:30 pm
Aug 26 – Canajoharie – Riverfront Park – 6:30 pm
Aug 27 – Amsterdam – Riverlink Park – 6:30 pm
Aug 28 – Schenectady – Gateway Landing Park – 6:30 pm
Aug 29 – Waterford – Lock 2 Park – 6:30 pm
Aug 30 – Rensselaer – Riverfront Park – 6:30 pm
Aug 31 – Capital District – Location TBA – 6:30 pm
Sept 1 – Hudson, NY – Henry Hudson Riverfront Park – 6:30 pm
Sept 2 – Saugerties – Tina Chorvas Waterfront Park – 6:30 pm
Sept 3 – Kingston – Kingston Point Beach – 6:30 pm
Sept 4 – Poughkeepsie – Kaal Rock Park – 6 pm
Sept 5 – Beacon – Long Dock Park – 6 pm
Sept 6 – Haverstraw – Emeline Park – 6 pm
Sepy 7 – Nyack – Memorial Park – 6 pm
Sept 9 – Hoboken, NJ – Hoboken Cove – 6 pm
Sept 10 – NYC – Bronx – 6 pm
Sept 11 – NYC – Location TBA
Sept 12 – NYC – Brooklyn Bridge Park – 6 pm
Sept 13 – NYC – Randalls Island
Sept 14 – NYC – Randalls Island
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