Cypher Zero

Cypher Zero, (born November 30, 1976 in Evanston, Illinois) is a circus proprietor and producer, entrepreneur, and educator. Zero began his career as a performer in 1995.

Biography

Early Years

Cypher was born as Michael Aaron Woldow on November 30, 1976 in Evanston Hospital, Evanston Illinois. His mother, attorney Pamela H. Woldow went on to become Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Department Of Insurance, and Deputy General Counsel of Pennsylvania under Governor Ed Rendell. His father is real estate developer and award winning journalist Richard Woldow.

Founding New York Circus Arts

After several years of coaching and directing professional artists and show, Cypher met a blogger at a party in New York City who convinced him to coach her as a recreational student. His experiences with coaching recreational students lead Cypher to develop a new, accessible method for teaching professional quality circus skills to students of varying backgrounds, and eventually founding the New York Circus Arts Academy.

In May 2008. the New York Circus Arts Academy acquired the assets of Cypher's previous company, FireFly Aerial Acrobatics. The merged companies retained the name New York Circus Arts.

Retirement From Performing

In March 2008, after performing for 10 years, Cypher announced his retirement to the cast of Takura, a Contemporary Circus Faerie Tale, before the final performance of the run. Cypher explained that he wanted to spend more time developing a national circus training system in the United States, and creating new shows New York Circus Arts.

Origin of Name

Although he performed under the name Cypher Zero as early as 1995, it was not a legal name until 1998. The exact origin of the name "Cypher Zero" is not confirmed. Cypher, on several occasions, attributed it to an epiphany he had while researching the history of number systems at Villanova University. The name may also reference the end of Macbeth's Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow soliloquy.

Awards and Honors

  • 2009 - Honolulu International Film Festival Aloha Accolade Award, as Executive Producer of The Making of Takura, a Contemporary Circus Faerie Tale.
  • 2008 - Studio 42 Artistic Achievement Award, as founder of New York Circus Arts.
  • 2005 - New York Innovative Theater Award, Honoree for Outstanding Choreography. To this day Mr. Zero is the only choreography Honoree nominated for aerial choreography.

Controversy

Cypher's remarks regarding social programs in the US have been criticized as unpatriotic. His statement in an online blog (since removed), "By providing their citizen's with guaranteed health care, education, unemployment and retirement benefits, many countries have given their artists and crafts people and edge in the world market place which is very difficult to for US artists and craftspeople to compete with. The matter is not skill, it is bottom line. How can you ask a US artist to compete in the world job market against someone with at least equal training, who will work for 25+% less money? US artists lose out by having to pay for things that their brethren in other countries receive through social programs. We cannot fault US artists for not succeeding in finding work internationally, we need to support them at home first.", has also been viewed as a sideways claim of unfair competition practices against Canadian and European organizations which his company competes for work against.

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