King Arts
Wheel Club!
Meet the wheel!
Aiken and Mearieta perform at their high school, Whitney Young!
What is "Wheel"?
Competitive Sport!
Performance Art!
Fun!
Team USA, 2018, having fun in Magglingen, Switzerland
Twelve years later, wheel clubs around the country are flourishing. Twice a year in Chicago, wheel gymnasts from around the country meet to learn from each other, compete and have fun. Every two years, wheel gymnasts ages 14 & up that have qualified for Team USA travel to compete in the world championships. In 2018 the championships were held in Magglingen, Switzerland, and in 2020 the world championship will be held in New York City! Wheel gymnasts around the country are busy training to earn a spot on Team USA.
Competitive Sport
Wheel gymnastics is a competitive sport practiced by athletes around the world!
We in the Chicagoland area are lucky because Chicago is the hub of USA wheel gymnastics.
In 2006, eight-time World Champion from Germany, Wolfgang Bientzle, brought the sport of wheel gymnastics to the USA when he made Chicago his home.
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Performance Art
Wheel is a performance art. On a grand scale, you can catch a wheel performance at a Cirque du Soleil show. (Wolfgang coached the Cirques du Soleil performers!) On a smaller scale, Chicago wheelers ages 6 & up have fun rolling in parades and also performing for crowds around the city.
At the summer camp show
Fun
Most wheelers love to perform, compete, or do both, but some wheelers just do wheel for fun! Wheel practice allows you to learn new things you never thought you could do, and the wheel community is awesome! In a wheel class wheelers learn to spot each other and work as a team. This ethos extends out to the larger wheel community where people of all ages support one another and work together to grow in wheel and have fun.
Working on partner basics
King Arts Wheel Club
For the second year, Wolfgang is bringing his coaching expertise to King Arts!
Participants will be introduced to the basics of wheel – the foundational tricks that wheelers need to know to roll for fun, or to begin to compete and perform.
King Arts wheelers who are interested in trying wheel out as a competitive sport, will have the opportunity to join in a friendly competition with other novice wheelers from around the Chicago area at the Chicago Cup on Saturday, October 12, and at the Holiday Wheelfest on Sunday, November 24.
King Arts Wheelers will also have the opportunity to try out for rolling with us at the Chicago winter parades:
the BMO Harris Bank Magnificent Mile Lights Festival tree-lighting parade
(Saturday, November 17),
and the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade (Thursday, November 22)!
At the Lights Festival, 2017
Open to all, grades K - 8
No experience needed - there's something in
wheel for everyone!
Come Roll With Us!
First Trimester Session
Fridays through November 15
3:00 - 4:00
$135 per student
We want the circus arts to be open to everyone! Don’t let cost get in the way.
If class fees seem unmanageable, please contact Wolfgang Bientzle at 312-375-5264
to discuss scholarship opportunities.
If you have any other questions about the program, please call Wolfgang
or email
See you in the wheel!
