Hi, I’m Nadean.
If you met me in my early 20s, I would never have imagined calling myself “an aerialist”
I was just a regular young woman, fresh out of University without a clue about what I was going to do next.
But then 2004 happened. I fell immediately in love with this amazing art form when I saw my first flying trapeze. They were having an open session for beginners-like-me to come and fly.
AND THEN I saw them perform aerial indoors. There was one female aerialist in the troupe, and when I saw the way she was spinning – like an elegant dancer in the air – I was mesmerized!
That day kicked off a chain reaction that changed my life forever. Fast forward to today and I have now made it my mission to spread the knowledge and help more people like me to unleash their inner aerialist!
I was just a spectator
and then my circus training began
- Just after finishing University, I was hired as a rollerblade instructor in the Caribbean in Club Med, a vacation resort with locations all over the world. ‘Yayyy!’ I thought. Travel + expenses paid + work in sports = AWESOME. So I went.
- As it turns out, my little roller shack was located right next to the flying trapeze and the circus team, which exposed me to aerial arts as sport! I was instantly hooked on the high flying, adrenaline pumping, strong-as-hell wickedness. “Hell YESSSSSS”
- One day I saw Christy, the only female on the circus team, perform and I was mesmerized. When she told me that she just started a year before (and she was my age), I was shocked! “You can start circus arts in your 20s?! I thought you had to be 3 years old child from China or Russia and from a circus family to even have a chance.”
You can start aerial arts as an adult?
- Immediately my mind was spinning with the possibilities. “If she can learn this late in life, then so can I!”. (Forgetting to notice that she was a champion gymnast before… while I was just “sporty”)
- I had never danced, done gymnastics, or anything of the sort (I couldn’t touch my toes to save my life, and didn’t know what an 8 count was). I was raised by my single father in Canada, and had grown up playing in team sports like softball and volleyball.
Thus began my circus training…
- The team was happy to coach me, and I was eager to learn. I continued my regular job, but in my free time, I would hang out and train with the circus team.
- Once my first season as a rollerblade instructor was finished, I begged to be a part of the circus team. I knew Club Med had a circus training camp in Florida, and it was the only thing I wanted to do and be by this point.
It wasn’t meant to be…. yet
- They declined my request
and sent me to be trained as an Aerobics instructor instead. - This didn’t discourage me. “No problem”, I told myself, “I will teach Aerobics, and train circus at night.”
- Consequently, I started to get stronger, and the circus team suggested that I start working on my first aerial performance.
- They offered to help me build my first number, and I jumped at the opportunity.
- I had this quirky Argentinian coach, Maria-Noelle, teach me the Spanish web (otherwise known as the spinning-rope-of-doom). Sounds like fun doesn’t it?
- I didn’t know how to climb a rope, let alone lift my butt to hook my knee.
- But she was patient, and taught me simple steps to get me on my way.
My first performance day arrived
I never knew that this would change my life forever.
Performance day arrived and I took to the stage. The theater was so full! With a friendly push from Mariah Noelle, I steped into the blinding lights. OMG what a thrill!
Besides the rope-burn that I got, (in the shape of a snake because of my fishnet stockings) I don’t remember much else of my show. It was all a rush.
Was I AMAZING and MESMERIZING? Mmmmmm, depends on who you ask “NOT! lol”. BUT the important thing here is that I learnt that I could. This was the moment I realised that anyone could learn aerial arts.
This day marked the start of my future career in performing, which would take me to some incredible place around the world – though I definitely couldn’t imagine that then!
Realizing that anybody can do it.
You didn’t need to be born into a circus family, or train in gymnastics from a young age… you just had to be shown the right way to get started, and inevitably with time and practice you’d get stronger and more impressive.
Stepping off that stage I knew it was onwards and upwards from here – and I couldn’t wait to master new skills with even bigger, better techniques and tricks.
Life isn’t ever really straight forward though, is it?
I finished my 2nd season in Club Med as an Aerobics instructor, and once again applied to the circus training program.
AGAIN, I was denied.
They didn’t need women on the circus teams, they said. They needed mostly men, so there wasn’t a spot for me.
Disappointed, I prepared myself for another season like the last, but never let go of my ultimate goal of working on the circus team.
But then – BOOM! A Hurricane destroyed the whole Club.
before and after
It blew everything over – from the trees to our trapeze – and people’s dreams were torn apart in minutes.
Everyone was sent home and I was suddenly without a job.
I had no place to work or circus to train.
Miserably, I found myself back at home in Canada with my Dad, without a clue of what would happen next.
Hurricane Wilma took away my routine! My circus! My job! My friends! (I remind you this was back in 2005, a time before Zoom, Youtube, or even Facebook.)
I felt completely alone.
I also didn’t want to loose all the fitness and skills that I had built. Staying in circus shape while stuck at home seemed impossible.
Circus schools in my hometown of Calgary didn’t exist at the time (besides I didn’t have money to burn without work).
So I had my Dad hang a broomstick as a chin up bar in the basement, and did what aerial conditioning that I could.
But truth be told, I started to lose faith.
Even with the basement-broomstick-chin-up-bar, I felt myself getting weaker.
It was devastating.
I had worked so hard towards my dream! It felt like I had a small chance of getting accepted to the cirucs team already, but after the hurricane? It felt impossible.
It was looking pretty shitty, till I got the call that changed my life.
The call that changed my life
Club Med needed a circus girl!
The hurricane had shifted everything for them and suddenly a position had opened. My tenacity paid off.
Club Med wanted to fly me to Florida for a month of intensive circus instructor training. Get out of my Dad’s basement + Get certified in circus = Dream come true!
I couldn’t get on the plane fast enough.
Sore all over with a smile
I arrived in Florida bubbling with excitement, with a body that felt unprepared for what was next…
Let’s just say that the circus training camp was intense (Icing my sore muscles seemed to become my new hobby). But I LOVED IT!
I was thrilled to try new circus elements, like SILKS, single and double trapeze, as well as acrobalance.
But learning how to teach was what really insprired me.
They showed me how to break down the learning process into steps small enough for beginner students to progress and improve.
They gave me the tools to influence and coach students who had a dream like me.
After becoming a certified circus coach in 2006, I continued to soar (punny I know, but it’s a perfect description isn’t it?).
The doors had opened for my future in circus. I didn’t know where I was going next, but it was the first time that my future felt like it was going in the right direction.
As long as I had the tools to train and teach, I felt like I could fit in anywhere.