-Brenda Hillegas
A great show for the whole family, Cirque Dreams Holidaze comes to the Kimmel Cultural Campus between Christmas and the New Year- Dec. 26 – 31 at the Miller Theater! This holiday spectacular combines a Broadway-style show with circus arts, holiday music and the season’s favorite characters!
Performer Ashley Zimmerman, from nearby Berwyn in Chester County, started her career as a professional dancer and recently switched her focus to circus arts. During the pandemic, she taught herself trapeze and other aerial arts with the help of in-home training programs. Now, she can be seen on stage touring with Cirque Dreams. Find out more about what she does on stage and how she plans to spend her downtime home in Philly.
Q: You started your career as a professional dancer, what made you decide to transition to circus arts instead? How did your dancing background help with the shift?
A: I was feeling creatively unfulfilled with my dance practice and was searching for something new to spark my interest. I was exposed to the circus arts while working on a cruise ship in 2019 and thought that aerial would be a fun challenge! I started by taking aerial hoop classes while also pursuing a career in dance. During the pandemic I decided that circus was more fulfilling for me, and I completely switched my creative and training focus from dance to aerial.
There are definitely some major differences between training to be an aerialist and training to be a dancer, but having a dance background was very helpful with my transition into circus. Besides flexibility and strength, dancing developed the body awareness, discipline and focus necessary to pursue a career as an aerialist. I also found it relatively easy to transfer the performance quality and stage presence I learned from dance to my aerial performance.
Q: During the pandemic, you taught yourself trapeze- can you take us through what a day looked like for you while learning these skills?
A: Although a lot of my training was self-motivated and self-directed, I had a lot of help and guidance. During the height of the pandemic when we were forced to stay home, I hired the services of Cirque du Soleil aerialists/personal trainers Liz and Guilhem Cauchois to create at-home personal training programs that would support my aerial and dance practice. My day consisted of teaching online English classes from 4am-9am, completing my daily work-out regime for 2-3 hours (including weight lifting, calisthenics, and flexibility work), and then spending a few hours studying for my Certified Personal Trainer exam. This was my routine six days a week for about four months.
Once we were able to take classes in person again, I restarted taking aerial hoop 1-3 times a week. I also continued to cross-train at the gym and began teaching fitness classes at various studios. As I became more financially stable I was able to take more aerial classes, and eventually got to a place in my practice where I could train on my own without always being supervised by a coach.
Q: How did you end up joining Cirque Dreams? What’s the audition process like for a show that focuses on circus arts?
A: I saw a job posting online for Cirque Dreams Holidaze and submitted my videos and promotional materials directly through their website. A few months later they reached out to me with a job offer!
Q: What’s your role in Cirque Dreams? What kind of acts will you be performing?
A: My main aerial act is dance trapeze, which consists of a horizontal bar hung from a single point by two vertical ropes attached to each side of the bar. I am also the role of Clara, so I spend a lot of the show doing character work and interacting with the other artists onstage.
Q: Philly will be a hometown tour stop for you- anything you’re looking forward to doing while you’re here?
A: Besides spending Christmas with my family and having my Philly friends watch us perform, I’m super excited to visit the King of Prussia Mall and spend New Years Eve in Rittenhouse Square!
Philadelphia RowHome Magazine's Blog 