We got to meet the incredibly talented Luminosity Circus at the Keloose festival. We asked this talented group what got them into fire acts, hooping, acrobatics and more!
Name / Company or Organization
Luminosity Circus
What do you do and how long have you been doing this?
Luminosity Circus is a non-profit circus agency that was born out of a desire to see more opportunities for circus performers on the east coast. We want to help artists bridge the gap between training circus arts and becoming a paid professional performer.
We aim to accomplish this by advocating for our artists, handling client relationships and finding gigs and opportunities, and bringing them to the performers in our network.
Working as a performer requires a ton of skills over and above just what is needed to perform and we want to take some of that mental load off our artists.
On top of finding paid gigs for our network, we’re also working to create more “on ramps” to performing, including hosting shows where aspiring performers can come and show off their skill on stage, get paid and get some experience performing under their belts.
Although co-owners Rachael Penny (Mizz Anthrope) and Taylor Thain (Kid Cinder) have been performing together for 4-5 years, Luminosity Circus officially got its start last year.
There were certainly some challenges trying to get an agency of this sort off the ground during a pandemic but as the world is starting to get back to its regular pace we’ve been lucky to find a lot of opportunity.
What inspired you to do this and what is your motivation for continuing this?
It is so hard to get started finding opportunities as a circus artist. From onboarding costs: if you are an aerialist you need a rig, hardware, apparatus, insurance. It really adds up and you may not find jobs. We hope to subsidize these costs and provide opportunities for performers to get in front of a crowd.
We decided to start this after we had both been performing for a few years and really want to see the Circus community in Halifax grow and make opportunities for other performers to grow and get on stage.
What was your favorite show / performance?
Charlottetown Festival Inspire. This show sticks out as it was a super fun location – on a “foot traffic only” street in the heart of downtown Charlottetown. Because of the location, we had a big crowd with great energy. We performed a fire and aerial show we toured all summer with and by this point it was really dialed in and perfected. It was a flawless show.
Any advice for people thinking about getting into this?
Do it! Sign up for classes Halifax Circus, Atlantic Cirque. Reach out to people doing what you’re interested in, learn all you can! We also put on shows for circus artists – keep an eye on our social media for casting calls.
Website / Contact / Social Media
