Mark Segal – Interview

My Interview with Toronto Aerialist Mark Segal ~

Q:  How did you get started?

A: I got started about ten years ago when a girlfriend of mine came home and told me there was a circus school in Toronto.  She’d found out because she was a dancer and was doing a club job where she was being lowered from the ceiling and she needed to learn about rigging.  I was really intrigued.  The day I went to check out the school there was an event going on and so almost all the performers were performing. It was so amazing and that was it for me.  I joined the circus (school).

Q: How long have you been training/performing? 

A: I have been in circus for 10 years.  The first three years training only then teaching and I have been a performer for the last seven years.

Q: Do you perform/train on multiple apparatus’s and if so which is your favorite? (If you have one?) 

A: My favorite apparatus is rope, but I also do silks and I am working hard towards hand balancing and acrobatics.  I have also lately been able to pursue flying trapeze and bungee trapeze.

Q: Why do you love circus?

A: It is an ultimate expression. Visual, Musical and Physical, and there is never a ceiling.  There is never not more to learn or strive for or reinvent or explore on all levels of production, both as an individual and as part of a larger entity.

Q: Did you have an athletic discipline prior to training circus arts? (What was it? Do you do it now? Why or why not?)

A: Nope!  I came from working in film as a model and prop builder.  I started late and kind of just lucked into it.   When I started circus school I could not touch the floor without bending my legs.

Q: Where do you see yourself in the next five years? 

A: Performing at a very high level in multiple disciplines in Canada and internationally.

Q: Any recommendations for new circus performers or trainers?  

A: Be prepared to work really, really hard and learn from as many different people as you can.

Q: Any other comments.  

A: This is fun gosh darn it!!!!  FUN!

When I tell people; “I work as a circus performer,” I always get: “So you’re a clown?” or “So you’ve run away and joined a circus now, have you?”  For me, I haven’t physically “run away” (unless if you count Mississauga as far from North York, then I run away at least four times a week) but I have metaphorically run “into” a circus.

Through dance and school, circus came into my life and now I just can’t get enough.  I have conducted these interviews to find out how some of the performers and artists of A2D2 ~ Aerial Dance Cirque Company, got started on their journey into the world of circus, why they do it, and what they recommend for new performers.

Thanks so much for reading!

Gio

Tagged as: Art, circus, Flying trapeze, Interview, Performing Arts