Circus Performers with a Passion for Pilates
Yos Worth & Lilikoi Kaos, with amazing, diverse careers as performers and trainers in circus have now embraced Pilates with a passion. Yos began Pilates Method instructor training five years ago with Aligned for Life Studios in Melbourne. Lilikoi is just embarking on her Pilates journey taking the PITC course and training at Das Pilates. After unconventional lives in circus, what brought these two to Pilates and, what might it mean for the circus industry?
Lilikoi, tell us about your life in circus?
LK: I grew up in the contemporary circus world. No animals. Small and large shows spanning theatres, Spiegeltents, festivals and tents. Touring with my Hawaiian circus performer mother I trained with her and her peers on the road. My teenage rebellion involved getting a degree at Melbourne Uni but, I kept doing circus. It’s just part of my blood and who I am.
What circus disciplines did you train?
LK: Most circus performers learn a bit of everything and then specialise. I’m a hula hooper and aerialist (trapeze, web rope, cloudswing). I also do a lot of clowning and character work. I do sideshow too – escapology, blockhead, things people associate with freak shows.
What about you Yos?
YW: I came to circus quite late in life at 28. I’d been inspired by French circus, Archaos. They arrived in my hallway swinging on my trapeze – they’d just walked in having seen it from the street. They invited me to their show and it changed the course of my life. After Archaos left I saw an ad for classes with Sallee Forth. She was a classically trained dancer and founding member of Circus Oz (and my hero). I signed up and that was it.
And what skills did you train?
YW: I trained acrobatics and aerials. Like Lilikoi says, we all learnt a bit of everything. There’s been an industrial element to my interest in circus so raw art, fires, blow everything up – my favourite things. Later, I trained hula. I’d been working in Rock’n’Roll Circus with Kareena Oates. She was a great inspiration and teacher. She’d trained in Chinese technique and I’d trained in Russian technique. Adding all those bits together I eventually developed my own book of technique.
LK: And I was trained by you and Kareena…also Rock’n’Roll Circus was a huge inspiration for me…I think you guys have a lot to answer for when it comes to how I turned out! (Laughs)
YW: After experiencing circus and theatre companies I then went out on my own, devising and creating work that was unconventional, underground and subversive, always industrial.
LK: Yep, we both did, I got into performance art, sideshow, film and fetish gigs.
YW: It’s what I adore about you Lilikoi.
What are some career highlights?
YW: Working with Rock’n’Roll Circus, which later became internationally renowned ‘Circa’. Back then there were four exceptional physical performers – Rudi Mineur, Kareena Oates, Derek Ives and Steve Brown. They had such a punk ethos and did fabulously twisted shows. San Francisco’s industrial rock nightclubs in the 90s were another highlight. Creating, designing and performing in large out door shows for Melbourne Festival and Moomba River Festival was special and starting my own company ‘Hula Delux’.
LK: So many highlights! Working with performers and companies I admired when I was younger. La Clique in the UK. Glory Box and Circus Oz here. Directing my own companies (Opposable Thumbs, Parasouls, Kaos Kreepshow). Being selected by The Roundhouse in the UK (as an emerging director/producer) to collaborate with Ron Arid, an amazing artist who constructed this huge cylindrical curtain of silicone tubing. We had 360degree projections and the audience experienced the show within the curtain space. Touring Australia (and to Argentina!) with Finucane & Smith doing ‘Burlesque Hour’ and ‘Glorybox’ showed me how circus performance really touches people’s lives and empowers them in ways you would never expect.
YW: Circus profoundly transforms people.
LK: Teaching is a highlight. I’ve taught people all over the world – some come up to you a few years later and they’re performing professionally. They’re so happy and thankful you taught them.
YW: I agree, one of my career highlights is definitely my talented students.
What about the training side of circus? The hard physical discipline?
LK: A lot of people see you on stage in your 5 min act and don’t realise what goes into it. All the hours spent training skills, stretching, conditioning and practicing is just a part of it. I have to come up with original ideas, source music and costumes and train for hours most days to bring everything together. Then you have to hone your performance elements.
YW: We used to train 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. The performance element makes the hard work interesting. Sometimes on the road, two of the ensemble might be sick there’s two shows that day, and you have to safely rework the entire show right before you go on (laughs) – there goes the lunch break!
Tell us about the importance of training adults and children.
YW: I met Lilikoi when she was 8. She was my aerial student at Little Big Tops in Melbourne. As a performer I’ve always been a teacher too. I retired at 40 but continued teaching. I’m not such a great childcare worker – I teach children who pursue a dedicated level of skill. This took me to the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in Albury. I was a Senior Trainer there for nine years.
LK: Yos you’re an incredible teacher, you’ve taught all the best hula artists in Australia. Everyone raves about your intense discipline and amazing eye.
YW: People in my classes say ‘How did you see that!’ That’s 25 years of analyzing bodies!
LK: My path to teaching was my mum – as a kid I would watch her with students…
YW: She’s a wonderful teacher your mum.
LK: She’s generous and strict but the way she, well you’d say cueing in pilates, the way she cues people is amazing. It can be complicated teaching aerials. When someone’s upside down the proprioceptors change!
YW: With cueing it’s good to try different tactics to find the way a body operates. Hands on visual or verbal.
LK: Circus has to be hands-on. There’s a lot more danger. If you’re not 100% present it impacts others. Pilates uses more refined movement. It’s given me a new vocabulary to explain it all. That’s what’s exciting to me as a teacher.
When did Pilates enter your lives?
YW: I was on show rehearsal with Fruit Flies and I injured myself. My recovery was Pilates.
Did you have injuries previously in your career?
YW: Totally, circus broke my body. Packs of Hula hoops weighing 30 – 40kilos, turning one way. All my students drill both ways having learnt through my own experience. I have crumbling bone in my right hip, my sacroiliac is out of whack with pelvis lifted and twisted. Fruit Flies supported my retraining in Pilates, that’s what helped establish Pilates on the training floor.
Lilikoi how did you find Pilates?
LK: Similarly, through injury. I was in Circus Oz and we were doing a triple trapeze rehearsal and had an accident. Two of us fell. I got straight back up on the trapeze. My shoulder hurt instantly and I knew I’d done something but just kept hoping it would go away (laughs). That’s just what you do in circus, keep going and say, ‘Oh I’m alright it’s fine.’
YW: Yep, you do that for years.
LK: Pain is such a normal factor in circus. Your body is always in some pain because you’re pushing it to the limits. Pain becomes normalised.
YW: It’s the culture of circus.
LK: Yeah. Circus performers are really strong and flexible but we use brute force. In Pilates I’m learning about little muscles that support other muscles that, when engaged, make you even stronger. It was a revelation and more sustainable than going ‘Yeah more chin ups, yeah’ (laughs). So after my trapeze accident I got a scan. I’d torn the labrum in my shoulder and had a few adjacent injuries. I was told to have surgery. The idea of surgery was less scary then the minimum 9 month recovery! Instead, I went on tour to the States and taped it in place for almost a year (laughs loudly). Eventually it was hurting all the time so I finally had a shoulder reconstruction. That was 9 months ago.
I started doing Pilates before the surgery to build up strength and the supporting structures. I‘m lucky I live in Collingwood (Melbourne) near a studio called Das Pilates. I’m working with two amazing instructors, Helen Sagnia and Holly Durant. They suggested I study to become a pilates instructor. I had a good understanding of bodies and experience in teaching. Pilates was the thing that helped the most in my recovery after surgery. I wish I’d done it for a long time before my injury.
YW: Ahah!!!
LK: It’s an exciting journey.
YW: Talking about being strong and doing a million chin ups, when I first started training Pilates I was like yeah, I’m strong, I’m fit, I’m flexible I’m all these things and ITC thought I was a great candidate for the course. When I did my first session with them I was humbled.
LK: Same, the first time I did Pilates, I was like ‘Why am I shaking, I can carry four people on me even though I’m tiny.’
LK: I was outraged!
YW: I know right! I was too!
YW: The other thing that became really clear to me whilst studying was the lack of awareness of stablising muscles in circus culture. We mostly have over-bulked prime movers.
LK: Like you, I’m a hooper, I hooped one direction all my life. I’m twisted, my hips are twisted, my back is not great…
YW: It’s not just your brain that twisted babe, your body to boot!
LK: (cracks up)
Has Pilates changed your approach to training and physicality?
LK: I now do Pilates matwork as a warm up before I do circus training. Many pilates instructors have had interesting reactions to my hyper-mobility, which I find hard. With some circus skills hyper-mobility is essential. I think there needs to be a bit more understanding of it because I have to be hyper-mobile to do my job.
YW: When I first started training Pilates and introduced it to elite circus acrobats they had a theory Pilates was, ‘Too subtle, too rigid, there isn’t time for the subtleties of what you’re asking me to do.’ I found that interesting. My job as a circus artist in Pilates is to somehow make it accessible to the circus world. I give them a loaded exercise, then strip it back to basics and introduce them to a different muscle group.
LK: That’s important for circus performers, you have to connect to them and the demands of their skill set. One reason I’m training to become a Pilates instructor is I think all of us should be incorporating it. Pilates should become part of a foundation circus repertoire.
YW: For Mullum Circus Festival 2013 I was asked to run a Pilates warm up. I’d written up a program that catered to every muscle group, preparing them for 8 hours of circus training. On the first day I had 10 people. The second day there were 30 and on the third day we had so many people I had to move the class to the Big Top. It was so successful. I was working with bodies that hadn’t done much or any Pilates before so I couldn’t be too technical. I had to keep people safe but move them along. The feedback I got was ‘I’ve been training for 15 years and I’ve never felt that on my body, ever.’ I’d smile and say welcome to your obliques!
YW & LK: (laughing)
YW: At Fruit Flies we were transitioning from old ways of warming up. In circus you warm up before you work whether it’s a show or training. Warm ups were all flexibility based which as we know now, is not ideal. You need more of a power warm up. At the end of your work you do the flexibility, this is a much safer process for your body.
How can Pilates be infused more into the circus industry?
YW: In circus we constantly analyse why a trick isn’t working. One way to better merge circus and Pilates would be to identify what artists need from Pilates. To acknowledge the muscle groups and recruitment patterns required for the skill. I suspect we’d encounter less injury. I was fortunate at The Flying Fruit Flies to be able to liaise with Louise Humphries, an Albury physiotherapist while developing rehab programs for the injured kids. It was wonderful to see the results but I’d like to see Pilates used more as prevention.
What can circus learn from Pilates?
YW: Joseph Pilates method created a body ready for anything in life. In circus we’re ready in our heads, we think we’re ready in our bodies but we can improve. It’s changing I think.
LK: Cirque du Soleil incorporates Pilates but it would be great if companies like Circus Oz, Circa and especially youth circus.
YW: It could be compulsory!
What do you think Pilates can learn from circus?
LK: Circus has seen exponential growth because of accessibility. Pilates could be more accessible. I’m running classes for cabaret and burlesque performers, circus performers, and drag queens. I adjust content (and the times!) so they all can learn the technique to support their art form. Sadly, artists often struggle to survive. I’m planning to make my classes affordable and accessible. A few years back I checked out a pilates studio – I couldn’t afford to do it regularly. When I was injured Workcover paid as part of my rehab. They covered one weekly session. I was going every day in order to get my body back.
YW: The artistry of circus never pays much. Even corporate work can be hit & miss. It’s not like having a regular 9 – 5 job. With my classes here, I have a sliding scale of payments – a lot of my clients couldn’t come consistently if they had to pay top rate. As with anything consistent you see the benefits – that’s more important to me.
LK: The first time I tried Pilates I was resistant…thinking, ‘Stupid boring rehab, this isn’t fun, I’d much rather be doing flying trapeze.’ Then a fantastic instructor made it click. Suddenly I thought, ‘Oh, this is great, it’s fun AND interesting AND I can see the benefits.’ It helped that she acknowledged all the physical work I’d done, even if it was different to Pilates.
YW: So do you think the Pilates industry needs a slightly better cultural understanding of what circus is and does?
LK: That’s what we’re doing right now, I also think that will come with time. We’re building on our knowledge of both, researching for our industry. Hopefully we can teach workshops in the future to help understand circus bodies and get circus companies to start touring with a Pilates instructor.
Would you say that as instructors you’re still performers – your audience is your clients?
LK: Exactly. A good performer is always aware of the audience. I change pacing and intensity, add humour or increase focus to keep them engaged. It is the same when teaching. If you bring those performance skills to teaching it is a great way to motivate a class. A good performer knows that each audience is made up of a lot of individuals. When I’m teaching I have the chance to listen to each person, read their bodies and balance the room to keep everyone receptive and motivated.
YW: I love my classes! I want to help people find better ways of moving so I make my classes accessible and fun and still true to Joseph’s principles. People feel a part of my class and connected to their bodies. I learn every day in Pilates, in teaching and in my own practice. I live in Mullumbimby and am fortunate to have access to advanced studio work with the amazing Polestar Educator, Dav Cohen in Byron Bay.
LK: At the moment I’m using Pilates to support my circus career. You’re using it to transition out of circus. I look at the elders of Pilates and they are just rocking out in their 80s and older, they’re fit, healthy and still doing their work out. I look at a lot of elder circus performers and they’re…
LK: + YW: Broken!
LK: Injured, in pain and unable to do what they love. That’s hard when circus is your life and you’re suddenly cut off from it. When I saw Pilates elders working with such beautiful bodies I thought ‘Sign me up to that! That’s what I want.’ It’s inspiring. I’m going to use the techniques and employ different ways of cueing to connect to the diversity of performer bodies in front of me, from adults to children.
YW: My body is relatively pain free these days. If I skip my own workouts I’m back to niggling or acute pain.
LK: Australia is a leader in circus. We’re known internationally for our performers, incredible skills innovation and performance ability. I think Pilates and circus have the beginning of a very strong bond
YW: A long and happy future together!
LK: Yos and I are going to ensure it happens.
YW: I think Joseph Pilates would be proud.
Big thanks to Harry Hackett & Kim Kaos for all their help.
Comments are closed.