Meadowbrook Waldorf School student Azriel Cochini-Beck attempts to juggle two balls while in a crouched position during a class yesterday at the West Greenwich private school involving circus acts such as juggling, stilt-walking, and unicycle riding. Below left, Blu Sky practices on a balance board, while Benjamin Wolfgang, lower right, attempts to stay up on his stilts. The circus acts are part of a "Movement and Games" course taught by Donna Mirza.

Bob Breidenbach / Bob Breidenbach

Meadowbrook Waldorf School instructor Donna Mirza, above left, helps middle school student Benjamin Wolfgang put on a pair of stilts during a class in circus acts at the school on Monday. Below, Pelle Persson practices his coordination as he works with a toy called a Diablo. Some of the circus acts will be part of a free workshop at the West Greenwich school’s Holiday Fair and fundraiser on Dec. 3.

Bob Breidenbach / Bob Breidenbach

WEST GREENWICH — Standing on blacktop strewn with maple leaves, eighth- grader Oliver Kirby gets physical in his gym class, perfecting his coordination by deftly juggling three sponge balls.

His classmate, Azriel Cochini-Beck increases his flexibility, arm and hand strength by swinging a weight-bearing nylon streamer with an elastic string tied to the end. A third classmate, Benjamin Wolfgang lumbers around on wooden stilts.

The students, and 11 of their classmates, weren’t using the typical equipment found in most middle school physical-education classes. Then again their instructor, Donna Mirza, a teacher at the Meadowbrook Waldorf School, a private school in West Greenwich, doesn’t teach your typical gym class.

To fifth-graders she teaches Olympic sports, such as javelin and discus throwing. To the first grade she teaches spatial awareness.

And to her seventh- and eighth-graders, Mirza teaches a class called movement and games, which focuses on a circus arts – juggling, how to ride a unicycle, stilt walking and balance work.

Mirza, a movement educator, will open the circus-arts lesson to the public and teach a free workshop at the school’s annual Holiday Fair and fundraiser, scheduled for Dec. 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. She will use the traditional circus art equipment – including small sponge balls for juggling, unicycles, an hour-glassed shaped yo-yo – called a Diablo – and the colorful nylon streamer with the weight and elastic string tied on the end, called a poi.

The workshop is offered to children in the fifth grade or higher and will be held outside, weather permitting, at the school’s 20-acre campus, on John Potter Road. The fair will also feature a holiday decorations craft workshop, storytelling, pony rides and a petting zoo.

Mirza hopes to prepare her students for a circus show someday. Currently the private school leases space at its location, but will be moving its campus to Richmond next year, where there will be more space to put on a show, Mirza said.

“Eventually as you teach the different skills you can teach them to connect the skills into a routine and then set it to music,” Mirza said.

Mirza, who has a degree in exercise physiology from the University of Rhode Island, still teaches many elements of a traditional physical-education curriculum, such as strength training, weights, aerobics and calisthenics. She believes that studying circus arts, which is offered for about four to six weeks at Meadowbrook, teaches balance and coordination as well as organized sports and that her students are learning something they can use in other areas of life.

“What they learn from the circus skills is the journey and not the end product,” Mirza said. “The practice and the perseverance and the struggle that come with learning the skills are lessons they can apply to other things in life.”

Benjamin, 13, who worked his balance skills using the stilts, thought about juggling and the joy and pain that went into learning how.

“Sometimes it can be a little annoying,” he said. “Juggling was hard and it takes a lot of practice. I can do it now and I’m proud that I can.”