Profile: The Star of the Circus

by Alex Bleiberg

The stage lights dim, and the spotlight brightens. A hush settles over the crowd. You’re center stage, suspended from the ceiling, hanging by your knees from a bar like a jungle monkey.

This is an experience that Hannah knows very well. As a performer with Circus Juventas Youth Circus, Hannah has mastered the art of working under pressure!

“Everybody’s watching me, and everybody will see me if I mess up. So sometimes I get a little freaked out,” Hannah admits. “But I always get over it.”

For Hannah, performing in front of a crowd is nothing new. Eight-year-old Hannah first joined the circus when she was four, when her moms, Amie and Jane, took her to the circus production of Cinderella.

“I act like I’ve been in the circus for longer than I’ve been in the circus,” Hannah says.

The circus is a special place, surrounding you with unique sounds and smells, peanut shells littering the aisles, and elephants trumpeting from the stage. The circus conductor’s booming voice echoes through the huge arena, narrating the events unfolding in front of your eyes.

But Circus Juventas isn’t your average circus. Here, decked out in dazzling costumes, the artists perform amazing feats of acrobatics.

Instead of animals, there are thrilling mid-air stunts. The Moroccan acrobats gracefully tumble into group pyramids. Trapezists swing side by side in an upside-down dance. In one of the more majestic displays, a huge star of trapezes hangs from the ceiling, while the performers dance and form incredible shapes with their bodies or hold difficult poses like the splits.

When Hannah first joined Circus Juventas, she started off in the Kinders group, where she learned the basics of circus performance. From there, she advanced to the side-by-side trapezes, the Moroccan acrobatics, and the star.

Of course there have been challenges. Being a successful circus performer takes dedication and practice.

“Some of the poses are incredibly hard and some are really painful,” Hannah says. “With Morocccan acrobatics, I had to hold a boy who was bigger and older than me. I just said to myself, ‘OK, OK, OK, this is gonna be over soon … Owww! This hurts!”

And balancing atop a high wire, though thrilling, can also be dangerous. Once, Hannah fell off and hit her head on the cement!

“I’ll never do that again,” Hannah says.

But Hannah has made it this far by following a simple motto: “Persistence pays off.”

“Now,” says Hannah, “when I see the crowd, I’m so excited my fear disappears, it evaporates. I forget that I’m scared.”

When she’s not swinging from the high ropes, Hannah likes to bike, roller skate, draw, and read. Her favorite books include the Harry Potter series, the Goddess Girls series, and Pippi Longstocking.

When she grows up she wants to be a pediatric nurse, following in the footsteps of her mom.

“I like to play with Earl the Ear; it’s a [mannequin head] that helps people learn how to detect ear infections,” Hannah says.

But the circus will always hold a place in her heart, and she can’t imagine ever giving it up.

“I like being the center of attention, and I like performing,” Hannah says. Plus, she says, “I get to keep the costumes. I love the costumes, seriously.”