Let's hear about Sequoia van Ekeren's story. She's a circus acrobat from the Hague, the Netherlands.
@sequoia_boom on Instagram
“I grew up in a musical family; my dad is a professional pianist and my mom sings in a lot of bands here in De Hague. So I grew up with a lot of music, and at one point I started making my own stuff. My goal is to make a melange of fluent performing arts shows, where you don’t know what is what anymore. It's a contemporary type of circus, so anything you can do in the current time.
I started doing circus at 6 years old and after some time, at 15 I got accepted at the pre-education program in CODERS, Rotterdam for 4 years. After that I got into the ACAPA circus school where I am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree. Now I am in my first year, so I am still a circus baby (laughs). I do things very spontaneously, I don’t really have a filter so everything just kind of comes out. I am pretty energetic and chaotic overall. I have personality disorders like borderline and ADHD, so my personal life is a bit hard sometimes, because of the mood swings going on in my head but it’s also a cool source for my creativity.
I am really creative due to my brain due to my mental health, so it helps me see things with a different perspective. I am loving, caring and open with people, especially when they need support or feedback. I am very honest in my opinions too. I say it how it is, you know? We dutchies are pretty direct and I am proud of that trait (laughs).”
How did you get into circus performance?
"To be honest I have no clue how I got here. I really don’t know (laughs). As a kid I would love going to the circus and would tell my mom I really wanted to do this in the future. Just by watching the amount of circus performances, I was completely blown away by those people and would always feel excited. At 11 I got into the Youth performing school, I knew I wanted to do this for the rest of my life and pursue this dream of mine. I absolutely fell in love and everything just happened naturally.”
What do you do to stay relaxed?
“When I’m really stressed I make sure I warm up my body as much as possible, like stretching a lot so my body doesn’t give up on me during the performance. This is also very important for my mind. When I warm up extensively my mind is warmed and the brain is warmed up too. I focus on improving my flaws and definitely to stick to a routine. I love singing and writing songs, especially when I am a bit drained after a whole week of training. It really helps me maintain my mental health. I never want to lose this part of me, it’s a great outlet. When I’m writing and singing I get all of my emotions out, unlike training, as it’s more of a way to get distracted."
What is your advice for someone who'd like to become a circus performer?
"My advice for an aspiring circus performer is mainly to stay healthy. Be kind to the body, push yourself, but don’t push yourself too much and always listen to what your body is telling you. When I wasn’t eating properly, my body got injured because it didn’t have enough energy to work. If you want to become a circus performer you really need to LOVE what you do. Our job is not different from a painter or any other job. Be passionate so that you will learn techniques and develop your own style. Don’t accept no for an answer. People would tell me that I wasn’t fit for this discipline that I almost came to a point of quitting forever, but I didn’t because a person gave me the chance to study this and stayed motivated to continue this path.
There are so many types of disciplines in the circus world where everyone has their own thing, for example I am the only one doing trapeze in my class, so it’s difficult to compare everyone’s work/training. In terms of competition, it’s not who is better than the other, but more about the mutual support and uplifting messages. We want to see each other succeed and we want the best for each other’s discipline because we just want to keep the circus alive.”
On Instagram: @sequoia_boom