Hillsborough Township's events calendar has a 15-minute entry for 10:00 a.m. on Friday, November 13. It's a ribbon cutting for The Climb Circus Arts, and the township describes the business in one sentence: "operated by a team of women that have been doing circus together for over a decade."
That decade matters. The Climb is not a new business coming into town. It's what became of Circus Place, the Hillsborough school that opened in 2011 and closed in January 2023. The people now running it are that school's former directors, coaches, students and parents, and one of its original owners. Their new home is Pinnacle Health and Fitness at 30 Brower Lane.
The School Hillsborough Had First
When Patch profiled Circus Place in October 2011, it called the school the first facility in New Jersey dedicated to circus arts. Other circus workshops and camps existed in the state, but this was the first permanent school for it. Patch reported that it started as a partnership between Craig Quat and Josh Williams, performers with the troupe Band of Jugglers, and Ed and Sharyn Brandman of Bridgewater. Quat had been mentoring the Brandmans' two sons in juggling.
The school offered circus classes for all ages, including students with special needs. Patch described the approach as exploration and creative play meant to build skills and a sense of community. According to The Climb's own history, Circus Place taught hundreds of children and adults over the next decade, and some of its students went on to join troupes, tours and college pre-professional circus programs.
The school closed in January 2023. The people who had taught and trained there kept it going under a new name.
A Staff List That Reads Like a Circus Place Alumni Roster
Nearly every person on The Climb's team page has a Circus Place connection, and several held senior jobs there:
- Amelia Wieger, co-founder, executive director and head coach, worked at Circus Place for nine years. She started as an assistant teacher and worked up through lead teacher, camp director and youth program director to co-director of the whole school. Her specialties include silks, rope, lyra, hula hooping, diabolo, stilt walking and group acrobatics.
- Devon, co-founder and guest instructor, joined Circus Place in 2013 as a summer camp coach and later became adult program director and then co-director. She has coached circus since 2008 and has taught workshops at national youth circus festivals and circus educator conferences.
- Jessica Kursar, board president and head coach, moved to New Jersey about fourteen years ago and found Circus Place while looking for a community. She started there as a student and moved into teaching, and her husband and three children take classes too.
- Sharyn Brandman, board secretary, is a former owner of Circus Place and one of the Bridgewater partners named in the 2011 Patch story.
- Lynn Lombardo, guest instructor and board member, worked her way from Circus Place's front desk to lead coach.
- Eliana Johnson teaches sling, rope, trapeze and lyra and holds an adaptive-circus teaching certification.
- Lauren Klein-Juneau is an aerialist and wire walker who also sings professionally in choirs.
The two co-founders were co-directors of the school that closed. The board president was once one of its students, and the board secretary helped found it. Taken together, the staff is a fairly complete cross-section of Circus Place.
How a Wrong Turn Became a Coaching Career
Lynn Lombardo's profile shows how Circus Place found its teachers. She moved to Hillsborough in 2014 and was looking for a dance school when she took a wrong turn and came across Circus Place instead. Her daughter enrolled after meeting Amelia. Lombardo took a front-desk job to help pay for the classes, then started taking classes herself.
She had more than 20 years of dance and gymnastics behind her, and she moved up from student to assistant coach to lead coach. Along the way she started several new programs, including Aerials for Everybody, Flying Over 40 and one called Sir-cus. The team page says she now coaches ages 3 to 103.
That path from parent to student to coach is how the school kept its teachers. It also explains how a school that closed in early 2023 could come back with experienced coaches already in place.
Rebuilt as a Nonprofit
The Climb was not set up the way Circus Place was. It is a New Jersey nonprofit, and its donation page lists it as a 501(c)(3) organization. ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer shows the IRS granted its tax exemption in April 2024.
Its return for fiscal year 2025 describes a school teaching silks, lyra and trapeze along with ground skills like hula hooping, wire walking and juggling. It reports 60 to 70 students at the time and says students facing financial difficulties receive scholarships.
For much of this period, the school's public performances were held at !MPACT Training, 126 Stryker Lane, a Hillsborough gym focused on personal and small-group training and sports training. The Fall Variety Show was there on November 22, 2025, and the student showcase followed on June 14, 2026.
What the Brower Lane Move Adds
The Climb announced the school was "officially moving to our new home this fall," and fall classes have been meeting at Brower Lane since late September. Its story page says the school has "finally found a new home" at Pinnacle Health and Fitness, a Hillsborough fitness center with a gym and an indoor pool.
The new home also means a bigger schedule. The Climb now lists group classes six days a week and private lessons seven days a week, with Sundays set aside for workshops, birthday parties and private events. Fall registration opened on August 24, 2026.
The fall schedule still has classes in both places. Most course pages list Brower Lane, and at least one adult class meets on Stryker Lane:
| Fall 2026 class | Ages | Location | Session dates | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Top Kids | 6 to 8 | Brower Lane | Oct 2 to Dec 11 | $345 |
| Silks 1 Kids/Teens | 8 and up | Brower Lane | Sep 30 to Dec 9 | $395 |
| Wire Walking | 10 and up | Brower Lane | Oct 3 to Dec 12 | $345 |
| Trapeze 2 Teen/Adults | 16 and up | Brower Lane | Sep 28 to Dec 7 | $435 |
| Aerial Sampler Adults | 16 and up | Stryker Lane | Sep 28 to Dec 7 | $435 |
Some classes are taught by the people you'd expect. Wire Walking, open to beginners through advanced students, is led by Lauren, the staff wire walker. Silks 1 is taught by Amelia, and Trapeze 2 by Devon. Big Top Kids gives 6-to-8-year-olds a rotation through aerials, balance, object manipulation and acrobatics. The Aerial Sampler for adults rotates through silks, lyra and trapeze and requires no experience.
Ways In Before the Fall Session Ends
Every fall session in the table has already started, and the booking pages show them as unavailable. The last ones finish in the second week of December. Until the next session starts, there are three ways to get in:
- Open Gym costs $20 for an hour on Mondays and Saturdays. It's for ages 18 and up, or 13 and up with a coach's approval, and people who aren't members need the director's approval.
- Private lessons run seven days a week. They can focus on building skills or putting together an act, one-on-one with any coach.
- Sunday parties and workshops can include group lessons in aerials, juggling, hoops and tight wire, plus performances by The Climb's troupe.
The class booking page has current offerings and session dates. The ribbon cutting at 30 Brower Lane is Friday, November 13, at 10:00 a.m., and it's listed on the township calendar.
A lot of Hillsborough families have a Circus Place story, whether it's a kid who learned to juggle there or a summer camp T-shirt still in a drawer. If you've been wondering how local favorites like this are doing, or whether a home near Brower Lane would suit a busy class schedule, Karen Boose - Coldwell Banker Realty is happy to talk Hillsborough with you. Let's Connect.
