Every day for the past couple weeks, rehearsals for Circus Juventas’s upcoming summer show, “Lumiere,” have been intense.

The full cast and crew arrives around 4:30 and often doesn’t leave till after 10. Students in the youth circus school will perform a few-minute scene, flipping and juggling and dancing, then the adults spring into action.

After one scene, aerial coach Chimgee Haltarhuu shouts a few tips up to four performers suspended in the air on bungees, and choreographer Jarod Boltjes chats with dancers on the ground to help refine their movements. During another scene, as a trio of performers spin on German Wheel and Cyr Wheel, acrobatics coach PD Weisman gives “jazz hands” to remind them to maintain their theatricality.

A pair of Circus Juventas student aerialists hang from a massive chandelier during a rehearsal for the school’s Old Hollywood-themed summer show, “Lumiere,” on July 14, 2025. Alongside aerial acts — including the rare Wheel of Steel — the show also features a variety of juggling, dancing and acrobatics. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

Meanwhile, along the sidelines, artistic director Rachel Butler-Norris and executive director Rob Dawson check in with the lighting and sound designers, prop masters and artistic staff. The rigging team huddles to discuss the flow of moving safety mats, hooking up aerial equipment to the rafters and preparing for the next scene.

“At this point, all the acts are set, all the choreography is set,” Butler-Norris said. “It’s really just those little details that connect it all together so we have that seamless flow. It’s sculpting it, making it cleaner and clearer every time we do it.”

The show’s plot sees five kids zapped first from 1985 back to 1935, to the fictional Hotel Lumiere during the Golden Age of Hollywood, then subsequently through a portal to a Twilight Zone-style world they have to escape to return to their own timeline.

“Lumiere” runs for 15 performances between Friday, July 25 and Sunday, Aug. 10. Tickets range from $25 to $55 and are available online at circusjuventas.showare.com or by phone at 651-309-8106. Shows take place at the Circus Juventas big top arena; 1270 Montreal Ave.

The show’s vibe is inspired by the classic Tower of Terror ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Butler-Norris said.

“The first half (of the show) has all this glitz and glamor, and the second half is much darker and spookier,” she said. “I’ve always loved the Tower of Terror and was really inspired by old Hollywood, the Mission Inn and all that decor, the cobwebs in the lobby, these people in an old elevator that gets struck by lightning. Then we created our own narrative to the story.”

Performers rehearse on the Wheel of Steel for Circus Juventas’ annual summer show in 2021. (Courtesy of Dan Norman)

During the first half of the show, bellhop characters ride on luggage carts and toss suitcases. Aerialists swing from a massive chandelier. The climax involves the Wheel of Steel, a massive rotating apparatus that has not been featured in a Circus Juventas show since 2022.

“It’s a very technically high-skill-level act that no other youth circus does,” Butler-Norris said. “We haven’t had students that were at that level the last couple years, and now we have students who have been training really hard to perfect it. I’m really excited for people to see that act because it’s just mind-blowing.”

Everett Smith, 15, is one of six students performing on the Wheel of Steel during the show and has been training at Circus Juventas since he was 2 years old.

“I was skeptical at first, because I’d seen it and it was freaky, honestly,” he said. “It’s a little less freaky now. When you’re in the moment, you kind of forget how dangerous it is.”

The second half of the show features fire acts, which have become an impressive mainstay of Circus Juventas shows in recent years. In one scene, Jacy Johnson Becker, 17, spins a long staff that’s flaming on both ends, “like what Darth Maul has, if you’ve seen Star Wars,” he said. To learn to perform circus acts with fire, he said, coaches first guide students to feel comfortable extinguishing small flames, then larger ones, and meanwhile they learn to perform the acts without fire.

“Really, fire just makes it look cool,” Johnson Becker said. “But if you can do the trick without fire, you can do it with fire.”

Tilly Breimhorst, 17, who plays a main bellhop and performs in Russian Cradle, has been training with Circus Juventas for more than a decade. While her primary focuses are theatrics and dancing, she said, she appreciates that she’s constantly able to explore different acts and gain new skills.

“Our coaches here are so supportive of us,” she said, “and that makes it a lot easier to get skills down, because you know your coaches are there for you.”

Other performers agree.

“It’s just very rewarding, learning a new trick and having friends supporting you,” Smith said. “It’s fun to come out and do. You forget about a lot of things and just flip away.”

If you go

What: Circus Juventas’ summer show, “Lumiere”

Description: The St. Paul youth circus school, the largest in North America, is showcasing its top students’ skills in this show that blends Old Hollywood and the Twilight Zone.

When: 15 total performances, including matinee and evening shows, from Friday, July 25, through Sunday, August 10

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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A man was arrested Saturday morning after he fired several shots into windows between the front doors of the Sherburne County government center in Elk River, Minn., and entered the building, an official said.

The man was arrested outside the building as he was walking away holding a long gun, Sherburne County sheriff’s Cmdr. Ben Zawacki said. Nobody was injured.

The suspect has been booked at the Sherburne County jail and has been identified as Zha Vang, 51, of Elk River.

Several law-enforcement agencies responded to the government center at about 9:30 a.m. after the reports of shots fired.

An investigation is underway into whether Vang committed any other crimes before and/or after shooting at the building.

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DENVER — On Friday, the Twins fell victim to a pitcher, Kyle Freeland, whose 10 losses were tied for third-most in the majors. On Saturday, they lost to his teammate, Antonio Senzatela, a starter who has lost a league-leading 13 games.

A series against the Colorado Rockies that looked like it would provide a soft part of the schedule for the Twins has turned into anything but. The Twins lost their second straight game to the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night, this one a 10-6 defeat at Coors Field. With it, the Rockies, who are threatening the 2024 Chicago White Sox for the worst record in Major League Baseball history, won their first series at home all season.

Colorado broke open a tied game in the fifth inning after Zebby Matthews, fresh off the injured list, allowed a pair of hits to the first two batters of the inning, leading to his departure. Brock Stewart was summoned from the bullpen to replace him and after getting two outs, the first pitch he threw to Ezequiel Tovar ended up over the head of a leaping Byron Buxton beyond the center field wall.

The Rockies (24-74) pushed across another pair of runs an inning later and two more in the eighth with their 10-run outburst coming on a day in which the Twins (47-51) did little through the middle innings of the game.

After scoring three runs in the second — Ryan Jeffers doubled, Kody Clemens tripled him home, Carlos Correa’s double scored another run and Matt Wallner collected just his third hit with a runner in scoring position all season to bring in the Twins’ third run — Twins hitters saw fewer than 10 pitches in each of the next four innings.

Senzatela threw eight pitches in the third, seven in the fourth and just six in each of the next two frames. The Twins’ potential opportunities were squashed in two of those innings by double plays.

While the Twins did make some noise in the eighth — Clemens brought home two more runs with a double — their threat came to an end when Correa swung at a Tyler Kinley slider for strike three and in the bottom of the inning, Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman then hit a two-run home run to extend Colorado’s lead again.

Matthews, in his first major league start since landing on the injured list with a shoulder strain in early June, gave up five runs in the loss. The first came in the second inning. Two more came in the third, with Jordan Beck, who collected an infield hit on a ball that appeared to be rolling foul before catcher Ryan Jeffers picked it up, scoring on Ryan McMahon’s game-tying home run. The final two came after his departure, when Stewart gave up the home run that put the Twins down for good.

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ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Chris Klimpel knew she wanted to help people.

She’d previously worked as a teacher and in marketing before becoming a paralegal and joining Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s St. Cloud office in 2020. Klimpel said she didn’t have enough of an affinity for math and science to be a nurse, so she figured she could wade through pages of legal documents and footnotes to help people get the assistance they need.

Klimpel works with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s teams that help seniors and others with housing issues. The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to an attorney only in criminal cases, not civil cases such as divorce and eviction.

“If your landlord files an eviction action against you, and you go to court and they have an attorney and you can’t afford one — who’s going to win?” she said. “Low-income and people in need … are at a tremendous disadvantage because our world does not guarantee them an attorney.”

Klimpel and fellow paralegal Pam Manthei work to increase access to legal aid by driving around a 14-county radius in a Justice Bus, a mobile office used for consultations.

Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid is a nonprofit law firm that provides legal assistance to people with low incomes, seniors, people with disabilities, and others who need help. It has offices in Minneapolis, St. Cloud and Willmar. The affiliated Minnesota Disability Law Center has two additional offices in Duluth and Mankato, with an outreach coordinator in the Crookston area.

Among those offices, the nonprofit has four Justice Buses.

Since 2021, the buses have been used to connect with people who might not be able to make it to a Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid office. Manthei said they have worked with surrounding counties to identify good locations to visit.

“We’ve gone to a lot of senior centers and food shelves,” said Manthei, who works with seniors on addressing issues with things such as Medicaid and Social Security benefits. “I’ve even been asked to drive through a few apartment complexes so residents can get our information and know where to go for help.”

The bus and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid staff have also made stops at county fairs and other community events to raise awareness, said Manthei, who has worked at the nonprofit law firm for 30 years.

The Justice Bus, a blue Sprinter van, is covered with information about how to contact Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid. Inside, the van is climate-controlled and has Wi-Fi, a computer, a printer, and pretty much anything else needed for it to be a fully functional office, Klimpel said. It also has a wheelchair lift to increase accessibility.

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It took a decade for the buses to become a reality, thanks in part to former Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid Deputy Director Ann Cofell, Manthei said. It was made possible with the help of the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition.

“It was her dream to do that,” Manthei said of Cofell. “I know she invested. It was probably almost a decade’s worth of persistent, gentle, effective advocacy to get a tool so that we could get the word out and reach people where they need to be.”

As paralegals, Klimpel and Manthei meet with clients to discuss their legal questions, help them fill out paperwork, and connect them with a Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid lawyer who can assist them.

While Klimpel and Manthei cannot give out legal advice, their goal is to help make the process as easy as possible and ensure clients are able to get the support they need.

They help people who are not legally equipped to handle dire, time-sensitive issues, such as a notice to vacate an apartment.

“Legal aid is kind of like the legal emergency room, so if you walk into the emergency room with a broken leg, they’re going to see you and they’re going to set your broken leg,” Klimpel said. “They may not be able to take care of all the other things that you have going on … but they’ll be able to help because nobody expects you to know how to set your own broken leg.”