Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Blaire.
Hi Erin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a professional aerialist and my specialty is aerial hair hanging. I am currently in Austin performing with Airotic Soiree at The Venue on 6th Ave. This is my first time in Texas, and I am thrilled to be here! This journey started for me at 10 years old when I started studying ballet. Over the years, I have pursued many different types of movement and performance. When I was 25 years old, I saw my first circus performance, and I fell in love on the spot! Soon after that, I moved to New York City and I started training as an aerialist. In March 2020, I began learning the art of hair hanging, a long-standing and carefully guarded circus tradition. Hair hanging became my pandemic project – I was stuck in an empty, shut-down city, not sure if I would ever work or perform again, but I knew that I loved to train and create, so that was what I kept doing. That period of intense focus felt like a gift, but it also felt strange in the context of all of the sadness that was going on in the world (Covid). That time will always be a very powerful memory for me. When the world re-opened, my career really started to pick up, not just in NYC but around the world! In 2021 I did my first national tour (with Cirque Dreams), and in 2022 I performed for the first time internationally (with Circo Quimera, Spain). I have had many opportunities to share my work online and in the media, including being featured by Ripley’s Believe It or Not, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Telemundo, and ABC News. I had a minor setback in the winter of 2021 – I was dropped by a motor operator in an extreme back bend, and the impact broke my L-1 vertebrae. I was in pain and still working for almost 8 months before I was finally able to get the treatment that I needed, which included spinal surgery. I had the surgery in Aug of 2022, and with a lot of hard work and support from my team (surgeon, doctors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, coaches) I have made a full comeback! This has been a challenging but exciting process, and I’m so happy to be back to working full-time again.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I am very grateful for the opportunity to do what I love every day, but to get to where I am now has taken an incredible amount of work! I have been training my body full-time since I was 10 years old – and now I am 34! Just the sheer volume of physical work and discipline that it has taken to develop my skills is a lot to think about, even for me! I am lucky that I do enjoy the work and also that I have a body that works in the ways that I want it to. Having injuries along the way, including my recent spinal surgery, has made me realize this more than ever. I think that in the pursuit of any worthwhile goal, there will always be challenges. Closing the gap between dreams and reality will always take a lot of work. But for me, this work is what makes life worthwhile! I love growing, learning, and setting new goals.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In regards to the business aspect of my work, I will say that circus can be a challenging industry! It is difficult, expensive, competitive, dangerous, and like most art forms, there’s no singular career path. It takes a lot of work and investment to make it to the professional level. Even when you reach the professional level you can never stop training, learning, and creating if you want to stay booked (that’s we call having work). At the same time, you have to be good at knowing your limits and setting them if you want to have a sustainable career. For circus artists it’s all about balance – physically and metaphorically!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.erinblaire.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erin.blaire/
Image Credits
David Tufino
Amadeus Lopez
David DK
Matt Mamula
House of Yes
