Hi, my name is Julia and I am a circus performer. Starting tomorrow, June 4th, I will leave Chicago and join 30 Smirkus Troupers in Greensboro, Vermont to train and put a circus show together in three weeks. After that we will travel for seven weeks, performing close to 70 shows in the Circus Smirkus 750-seat European-style one-ring big top tent. Our show and theme for this year Big Top Tour is: Up, HUP and Away: The Invention of Flight!
Training for the Troupers begins Sunday morning, June 5th. Each day of training consists of a series of classes in different circus arts during the first two weeks. Once we get closer to the show we begin to put acts together and we start to rehearse those. This means we are both building our circus arts skills and our performance skills. This will give me the opportunity to focus this elective course on documenting my personal growth as a circus artist. Not only will I be learning how to become a better artist but I will also be learning things that have to do with rigging, rigging involves a lot of math. Circus Smirkus has a very unique rigging system that no other circus uses. Instead of using people pulling ropes to lift trapeze artists up for dynamic moves in their acts; we put on harnesses and attach ourselves to the rope. We go up and down the king poles to pull each other up and down so we need to calculate our weight ratios in order for it to work effectively. We also do a lot of work around communication something that sets Smikus apart from other circuses. At the end of each show we invite our audience into the ring to meet and greet with the performance this teaches us a lot about performance etiquette and keeping your character allowing the audience to leave the show with the feeling that they walked into a whole other world. During training we work on the skills that prepare us to do this.
In this Blog I will produce a video documenting my individual progress during training. I will video my progress in specific classes throughout the three weeks of training and then offer a summary of my progress at the end of training as we shift into the performance of the show.
In this video we are rehearsing rope. I am currently the backup for the rope act. Right now I am watching others and taking notes on what tricks I need to learn and practice in order to be prepared in case of an injury.
This is a picture of me doing a favorite trick on the trapeze, which I perform in the show.
This trick may look challenging but it happens to be one of the most enjoyable moves I do in the show.
