The kinker, the AERIALIST

The Star Family Circus

Around two years ago I got a phone call from my sister. "Talk me out of this." was her request. It would've been easy to oblige. My big sister, the sister who did everything right, who did everything everyone told her to do that was "right for her" her ENTIRE life (including feeding herself her first birthday cake with a fork), suddenly found herself in a situation needing veracious inward self examination.
"Tell me this is a bad idea."

"Do you, man. This isn't anyone else's life."
A bit of background: 12 year old Jaleen at summer camp experiences "Circus Day" and does an introductory trapeze class and falls in love. She's continued practicing aerial acts in her free time her entire adult life thus far. So, an opportunity has presented itself in her time of reflection. The rest is history. Since then, Jaleen has been traveling and working different acts in a couple different circuses all over the country, full time. For the first year and a half, she was exclusively performing out west, so seeing her act wasn't feasible. In the last couple months, she found herself poised to come up through the south, coming within 90 miles of us, here in Cincinnati. 

Finally.

Now, this was my first circus - I had zero expectations of what was going to happen. The amount of times I had to pick my jaw up off the floor was un-trackable, and the amount of stress sweat I seeped was more than a bit of dewiness. I kept finding myself repeating "NO WAY." over and over again.

The amount of effort, talent, and grind these performers take with them through their day to day is, simply put, awe inducing. I am so proud of my sister and her abilities are unlike anything I've ever seen before. If you're anywhere near any of their remaining dates, go check her out!