1 of 2
Courtesy of facebook.com/circusharmony
2 of 2
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal featured a story on one of St. Louis' own—Elliana Grace, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus' newest human cannonball. At 20, she is their youngest human cannonball ever; in the history of human cannonballs, it isn't surprising that the majority of them have been men, so she is breaking some barriers that way as well. Circus performers usually come from long lines of circus families, too. Elliana does come from a circus family, but one with a more recent, and more interesting, provenance: her mom is Jessica Hentoff, daughter of Village Voice writer Nat Hentoff, and founder of Circus Harmony, a school that promotes social change through the circus arts. If you sat in the bleachers 10 years ago upstairs at City Museum to see the St. Louis Arches perform, it is likely you saw Elliana perform as a wee kid. In fact, she made her circus debut at the age of two weeks, playing a baby in in a 1992 Circus Flora narratvie. She started tumbling with the Arches when she was 2, and joined the troupe at age 5.
The WSJ article had some wonderful bits, including how Elliana plans to celebrate High Holy Days in the circus, how she's still terrified every time she flies out of the cannon at 65 mph, and this quote:
"Ms. Feld said today's children who attend the circus and were raised on animation and video games may relate more easily to Ms. Grace than they would to an older, male performer—say, tiger tamer Tabayara, no matter how impressive his mastery over his 13 ferocious cats. 'She has a superwoman flavor to her,' Ms. Feld explained. 'That's something kids can relate to. The big difference is she's the real deal. She's not some kind of 3-D animation.'"
St. Louis now has its own superwoman. How about that?
