How Can I Turn Circus Into a Job: Cruise Life

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 

As most of you know, I had been doing a series on how to turn your circus training into a career in the future. With the Holidays, there have just been so many other fun things to write about that the series was put on pause. I had been using my own life experiences because I have had so many great opportunities performing, but believe it or not I am not the only performer out there. Crazy, I know! Just kidding! As you can tell by the title, this blog is going to be about working on a cruise. Now I have not worked on a cruise–something about living in a tiny room for months and months on end just doesn’t do it for me–but, someone we know and love has, and that is Coach Tawni. This blog is also not about her. I’m sorry I built it up, only to take it away, but you can be on the lookout for some specific coach blogs very soon!!!

You guys know me, and how I am always scouring the internet for other circus blogs. I just love to know what else is going on outside of our circus community. Well, I came across this article titled “A performer on the world’s largest cruise ship reveals how she got the gig, and what working at sea is really like.” And I thought “how perfect!” I love that I am able to share other people’s experiences because what we all go through auditioning to get a job can often be so similar. 

Her name is Ariana Mazzagatti and you can read all about her experience here: A performer on the world’s largest cruise ship reveals how she got the gig, and what working at sea is really like.

And if you’re already tired of reading, you can actually watch a video about it here: What it Takes to be a Cruise-Ship Performer. 

Maybe I’ve never said it outright, but I love talking and hearing about what you guys think about these blogs, and I love to answer any performing questions you might have. So please don’t be shy about emailing back or stopping me in the hallway to chat.

Can’t wait for classes to start back up tomorrow!!!

Catch you next week!
Mar

New Year’s Eve for the Whole Family!

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate!

Now here’s something that most people will definitely celebrate, and that’s the New Year! I’m excited to bring in the 20s, and I’m sure many of the akrosphere students are too. I know that a regular New Year’s Eve celebration is past most of the little one’s bed times, so I found an event that everyone can be a part of! 

Stone Mountain Park is having a kids early New Year’s Eve, where you can enjoy an early 2020 countdown complete with a special snowfall and fireworks display that won’t keep them up past their bedtime!

Immediately after the Snow Angel Snowfall and Fireworks, the New Year’s Eve activities will begin with costumed characters, music and a dance along. At 8:59 p.m., the early New Year countdown will begin and when the clock strikes 9 p.m., more snow and fireworks will usher in the early New Year!

  • DATE: Monday, December 31, 2019
  • TIMES:
    • 8:30 p.m. – Snow Angel Snowfall and Fireworks followed by New Year’s Eve Activities
    • 8:59 p.m. – Early New Year’s Eve Countdown
    • 9:00 p.m. – Early New Year Snowfall and Fireworks
  • LOCATION: Crossroads in Park Central

For more information and tickets, you can visit the Stone Mountain Park website here: https://www.stonemountainpark.com/Events/Stone-Mountain-Christmas

Hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday break! We’ll be back in the gym before you know it! 

Catch you next week!

Mar

How to Overcome Stage Fright

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 
The Winter Showcase is upon us!!!! I wanted to talk about overcoming stage fright, but I was looking through old blogs, and I found one that Angelica had written, and I couldn’t say it better myself! Life is all about team work! So even though Angelica is living her best life, shout out to her for the assist!
 
“While some students live for the stage and always want to be the center of attention, many students are often overcome with stage fright.  And you know what?  You can still live for the stage and get butterflies before a show; I know that I do right before I perform!  “ARTSEDGE” reports that the “root of the nerves varies from child to child, whether it’s being afraid to make a mistake or embarrassed to perform in front of peers. But theater teachers agree that stage fright can be overcome for the vast majority of children.”
 
Here are a few tips for overcoming stage fright and how best to prepare for a show: 
 
-limit your sugar and caffeine intake the day of the show
-eat a healthy meal and keep a healthy snack on you 
-be well hydrated
-get enough sleep in the days/weeks leading up to the show
-breathe
-be prepared!!!  This means coming to Open Gym in the weeks leading up to the show to rehearse the sequence that will be performed in the show
-take notes in your notebook so that you know what the sequence is and can review it in your mind at home
-don’t focus on what could go wrong; instead, visualize your success!
-avoid thoughts that produce self doubt
-set an intention/goal with the performance that does not revolve around perfection.  
-shift the focus off of yourself and instead on your audience and their enjoyment throughout your performance (do you need to be perfect in order for your audience to enjoy themselves?  No, you don’t.)
-connect with your audience, smile, and slow down on stage
-connect with your peers backstage.  They’re most likely nervous too, so support each other!
-know that you are there to HAVE FUN.
 
And parents, I know that YOU want to see your children on stage, but please don’t push them to perform if they don’t want to.  Some children just love coming to classes and have no interest in performing; please respect that.  Don’t be the source of their future trauma (ie. “my parents MADE me do these stupid recitals when I was young, and I hated it”)…just don’t.  If your child wants to perform, they’ll let you know!  If they don’t want to perform, we still love them as students and want them to reap the most from coming to classes despite not performing.  And btw, parents, these tips aren’t just for our youthful students; you can totally use these tips too for presentations at work, etc.  You’re welcome!”

We’re so excited to see everyone in the gym! 

Catch you next week!

Mar

Am I Ready to Move Up?

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

I promise, I will get back into my big circus audition story, but I thought this week I would share a great blog I recently read that I think applies to a big question a lot of students have recently been asking: Am I ready to move up? We’re coming to the end of the fall semester and many people are wondering exactly where they stand. I promise that when you are ready to move up, your coach will let you know; we never want to hold anyone back who should be in a higher level. 

This blog is by SassyPants Aerial writer, Laura Witwer, and it’s about mastery. When you master a skill, that means that you can complete it successfully and with great form pretty much all of the time.  In order to achieve mastery, repetition is necessary so that your skills and strength become consistent. It’s a short, easy read, and theres a cute video of some adorable tiny rats driving cars! You can find it here: If It’s Not Perfect, You’re Not Done. 

We’re getting close to the Winter Showcase and will be sending an email in the next couple of days with all of that information. See you in the gym soon!

Catch you next week!
Mar

Thanksgiving is Almost Here!

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 
 

I’m taking a short break and not talking about my circus career this week, because Thanksgiving is this Thursday! I figured I would do a Thanksgiving related post. I’m very excited to be traveling to Orlando to spend time with my family and best friends.

If you know me, you know I like to workout every day and eat relatively healthy, but the holidays are a time of absolute weakness! My mom, sister, and I have a horrible sweet tooth, and we take advantage of the times we come together to try new dessert recipes. This year, though, everyone has been on a health kick. It all started because we were trying to look great for my wedding, but thankfully, everyone has stuck to a regular workout regimen. I don’t want to break our traditions, but I knew I could find a new dessert recipe that was a bit healthier, yet still delicious. I emphasize delicious because I did not want to make oatmeal-nut bars. I’m sure they would taste fine, but they seemed a bit too bland and boring for the occasion. I researched and came across this recipe for pumpkin cheesecake. I showed my mom and sister and they can’t wait to make it because it’s fall and “pumpkin flavor all the things!”

The recipe comes courtesy of Food Network Kitchen. They say it’a “lower-fat cheesecake that’s not low on flavor,” so I’m sure it’s going to be amazing! Here’s what it’ll look like when it’s done—hopefully! 

You can find the recipe at the following link: Pumpkin Cheesecake. Let me know if you try to make it!

Hope everyone has a great holiday close to your loved ones. 

Catch you next week!
Mar

How Can I Turn Circus Into a Job: Big Show Opportunity

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 
 

Last week you got to read all about how I was SO CLOSE to being able to work for Cirque Du Soleil. My dreams had been completely shattered and I felt like I was not athletic, or graceful, or talented. I really put myself down, and for no reason, since me not being hired ultimately came down to my look. Still, as a former gymnast, I was taught that I had to be the best, or I wasn’t good enough. It’s such a horrible way of thinking, and it’s why I detest competitions, but alas, it’s what had been ingrained in me for so long. I was in a funk for a while, but eventually I decided that enough was enough! I decided to change my attitude and move forward. I was still training and working all the gigs and theme park shows, but I decided not to be embarrassed anymore and convinced myself that I was still good. I’m glad I changed my attitude, or I would’ve never made myself mentally available to audition for anything else.

One day, I was scrolling through facebook, and I saw that one of my friends had reposted a link for a Las Vegas show that was looking for aerialists. I didn’t think too much about it, but I mentioned it to my good friend Nik (who is now my husband!) and he encouraged me to at least submit my demo video. I found the email for the casting director and sent a link with my demo reel, thinking I would never hear anything back. I was wrong! The next day I received a reply saying they had watched my video and loved it, and would like to see me do some more specific conditioning and choreography. I was so surprised, but I had already started the process and I figured it couldn’t hurt to continue to put myself out there. Lucky for me, Nik had a great camera, so we decided to go to open gym that night to film most of what they needed. The last thing they needed was a swim test. Little did I know when I first emailed, but the show was a water show and swimming would be involved. I’ve never really liked water much. I can swim just fine, but when I was a kid, my mom signed me up for swimming lessons, and I got cold in the water, and the teacher wouldn’t let me get out of the pool. My mom tried to take me back to classes, but I refused to get in the water because I knew I would get cold again. I think my dislike of water came from that. Anyway, I had a community pool where I was living at the time, so we filmed my swim test the following morning and sent everything in. Again I didn’t know what to expect, but I was proud of myself for trying. A few days went by and I didn’t hear anything. I was discouraged because I had gotten a reply after the first email so quickly, so I convinced myself I didn’t care if I didn’t hear back. 

I had submitted everything on a Tuesday, and it was on Friday that I got a call from an unknown number from LAS VEGAS! It was the casting director. She was letting me know that they liked my audition video and they wanted to fly me out to Vegas the following Friday for an in-house audition. She told me it was the final step in the audition process, and that I had to let her know soon. I couldn’t believe it! I was shaking from nervousness and excitement. I had to get a couple of work shifts covered, but I knew that if I didn’t take this opportunity, I would always regret it. 

The next day I called her back and told her I would be available to travel to Vegas to audition. The following week, leading up to Friday, was one of the worst weeks of my life! I was so anxious that I could barely function. Of course, we all know now that it was worth it, but I had no idea at the time!

Wow, this story is turning out much longer than I expected, but I’m having so much fun telling it! I will continue next week with the in-house audition!

Catch you next week!
Mar

How Can I Turn Circus Into a Job: Big Show Rejection

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 

By this point, you’ve read about all of the amazing opportunities I’ve had in my jobs, from being “discovered” while coaching, to working at Disney World, to traveling to incredible countries! Still, it wasn’t enough for me, which in retrospect, it should’ve been. But, like everyone, I had a dream to one day work for Cirque Du Soleil. 

Lucky for me, La Nouba was 20 minutes from my house, so they had auditions often enough in Orlando. Unlucky for me, I was a scaredy cat who hated auditioning and thought I would never be good enough to work for Cirque. Let me tell you, that is the wrong way of thinking! You never know what a show is looking for. There may be other performers out there who know more skills than you, but you might have that little extra something that a show needs. Anyway, I was scared and busy, so I figured it would never happen for me. 

If you remember from last week, I had joined the acro team Gym Crew. One of the guys from the team worked for La Nouba as a trampolinist. While they weren’t looking for anyone that fit my description in that show, he knew a casting director who was looking for a girl of my height for another show. He helped me put together an audition video (it’s how he got in, and another way that cirque accepts performers). Doing an audition video was great because I didn’t feel the pressure of having to prove my skills in front of a bunch of talented strangers. 

I submitted my video and forgot about it, thinking that nothing would ever come of it. One day, weeks later, I was working at Sea World when I got a call from an unknown number. This was before there were so many scam calls like there are now, so I picked up and it was a casting director for Cirque Du Soleil! They let me know that I was one of four girls who was qualified for the show, but that it was up to the artistic director to see which one of us looked like we fit the role the best. Not only had they seen my audition video, but they told me I was good enough to work for them! I was so excited! I tried not to get my hopes up, but of course failed, and started picturing how my life would change. Unfortunately, I was not chosen for the role, and it shattered me! I went back to feeling like I would never be good enough, even if that wasn’t the reason I didn’t get the job.

I was down on myself for a while, but eventually I had to snap out of it! I did that by continuing to train and becoming even stronger than I was then. You all know that eventually I got a contract for Le Reve, but for today, I’ll leave it here with my Cirque Du Soleil disappointment. Rejection is a big part of being a performer and we all have to work on ways to move past it so that we can open ourselves up to success.

Just remember kids, even Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team.

 
Catch you next week!
Mar

How Can I Turn Circus Into a Job: Gig Life!

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 

Last week I started talking about different types of jobs that you can get after training circus. If you remember, my first performing job was in a theme park, but since it was part time, I had to get other jobs to supplement my income. While I found other theme parks jobs, when it’s all part time, you have to open yourself up to finding different jobs. Another type of circus job is working gigs. A gig can mean a couple different things, but basically, you are not working with a contract and are usually not in the same venue for multiple gigs. 

When I started working gigs, I did a lot of things locally. There is a lot of opportunity out there for gigs, and believe it or not, some of my first gigs were as a mermaid! Remember last week how I said I became a Pearl Diver at Sea World? Well one of my coworkers had a mermaid company and asked me to be a part of it. These were great gigs because we would travel to these very fancy houses in Orlando and Miami and either swim in a large tank, or in a luxurious pool. The great part about them is that I got to work for just a couple hours, was paid fairly well, and I got to go home at the end of the night. They were a lot of fun!

Once I started gigging and getting to network a bit more, I was asked to join an acrobatics team. We would train once a week in different disciplines, like acrobatics, dance, aerial arts, and even acro dunking!  I was so thankful for this because it exposed me to many new disciplines I never even dreamed of learning. The team leaders also knew a lot of people in town, so they would always help us audition and land new gigs. This type of work was brand new to me. I was so used to learning a routine and performing it, and for the first time I was doing ambiance work. While I would still have to do some specific skills, most of the time I was out there to entertain guests. It was extremely nerve-racking to have to feel a piece of music and move accordingly. But, with tons (and I mean tons) of practice, I was able to feel more confident in my own skin. **This type of work is something we practice in our Event Team classes, which everybody should join because it is so much fun!**

Through the acrobatics team, I got to meet so many new people and performers. Eventually I met the owner of New Image Line Entertainment, who was in charge of hiring circus performers for Life in Color. If you’ve never heard of Life in Color, they are these big music festivals where people go wearing white t-shirts and get sprayed with fire hoses with bright colored paints. Because Life in Color was a traveling show, it meant that for the first time I would have to fly to a different place to do the gig. It was a brand new chapter in my life, and I absolutely loved it! I felt like I was the coolest person! I was still working part time at theme parks, and then on the weekends I would catch a flight and be in a new state and perform what I loved! Once I became more familiar with the shows and with the team, I was asked to travel internationally for shows! I went to places like Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, and South Africa to name a few! I loved every aspect of my life, but if you were paying attention, you see that I had to maintain some part time theme park jobs, all while working different gigs. It can become extremely busy and tiring, but finding work is a great thing!

If there is one piece of advice I can give, it’s to always be friendly and respectful and work on networking and making great connections with people. If you are just starting out, it is easier to hear about a job from someone you know. Unfortunately, auditions for jobs can be extremely competitive, so it is always good to be positive and friendly. People just want to work with other people who are nice! I know it sounds silly to mention, and you think “well that’s common sense,” but you don’t know how far it can actually take you! 

So that’s my experience with gigs! Next week, I’ll talk about landing the big show and dream job: Le Reve the Dream!

 
Catch you next week!
Mar

How Can I Turn Circus Into a Job?

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 

I wanted to start talking about what a future with circus can look like. Of course everyone has heard of Cirque Du Soleil! I know the big dream is to work in one of those huge shows, and I am so happy and proud of myself for working in Le Reve in Las Vegas, but believe it or not, huge shows are not the only career option available for circus performers! For the next few weeks, I’d like to talk about different job options so that I can start to put some ideas in your heads of what circus training can eventually turn into. 

I’d like to start with my story of how I got into performing. I don’t come from circus, but from gymnastics. When I was younger, there just weren’t the circus opportunities there are today. I did gymnastics for 10 years. When I was 17, I no longer loved competing and decided to quit. They put in your brain that ages 17 and 18 are way too old to do gymnastics, so I figured I was too old to do anything else. I had been coaching for a few years already, so I just took that more seriously. It looked great in my head—I was in my very early 20s, coaching the girls competitive team and was assistant manager at a gym. I thought my life was set. Boy, was I wrong! 

One day, I was finished teaching a class, when one of the dads approached me. While I didn’t know this particular dad, I was used to talking to parents after class, so I didn’t think much of it. He came up to me and said “Hi, so I manage a show at Sea World, and we’re looking for an aerialist, and I think you’d be great at it! Have you ever heard of cloud swing?” In my head I thought this was the weirdest man and weirdest conversation I had been a part of, and he could see it on my face. After a few minutes of chatting, he told me he’d bring me a video of the show the next time his daughter was in class, and that I could let him know if I was interested. Long story short, of course I was interested! I began training and learned the show! Here you can see me dressed as a bird on the cloud swing!

Thus began my time working at a live action show in a theme park! Depending on where you live, theme parks could be a great job option! My job at the Blue Horizons show was so much fun, but I worked part time. I had to find other part time jobs to fill my time. I started going to auditions and throughout the next couple of years became a Pearl Diver at Sea World, Marion at the Indiana Jones Show Epic Stunt Spectacular, and was hired to play Sarah Connor in the Terminator show at Universal! A lot of people who work at theme parks, at least in Orlando, have to find multiple theaters to work in to survive. I loved that I got to switch jobs every day because it made my life so fun! There are performers who get full time contracts though, and of course that is super nice! Even if you’re not close to a theme park, though, it can also work. I have a friend who was just in Japan for a year contract for a live action show, and she loved it! 

Not everyone has the luxury of having such an easy start like I did, but everyone’s experiences are different. The point of my story is that no matter where you are in life, circus can turn everything around! Theme park shows were not the only thing I did, so stay tuned next week as I introduce you guys to gig life!

 
Catch you next week!
Mar

Volta by Cirque Du Soleil is Coming to Town!

 
Happy Sunday everybody!
 
I wanted to remind everyone that in just two and a half short weeks Volta by Cirque Du Soleil is coming to Atlanta! The show will open on October 10th under the Big Top at Atlantic Station and tickets are already on pre-sale!
 
Volta is a 2 hour and 15 minute performance, including a 25 minute intermission, and is meant to entertain the whole family! Volta is Cirque Du Soleil’s 41st production and while it incorporates more traditional acts, like tramp wall and aerial straps, it’s different in that it features extreme sports! Some of these extreme sports include roller skating and BMX, or bicycle motocross. I love that Cirque has taken incredible sports like those, that most of us deem as recreational activities and has featured them in their show. 
I believe that a huge part of being a performer is doing research, and there is no better research than watching other extremely talented performers do their thing. 
 
Volta will be in Atlanta from October 10th to December 8th, 2019. I haven’t purchased my tickets yet, but I will be doing so soon, and I hope you all will too because I just know it’s going to be an AMAZING show!
 
Catch you next week!
Mar