“As a female base, I realized that by literally lifting people up, I could quickly change audience perception. I had a sense of responsibility to do my act to enact change, to change people’s perception of what a woman can be or do. Early on I always highlighted my femininity on stage: wearing pretty makeup, a dress, sometimes heels, to show that, yeah, this can happen at the same time. I can lift a man over my head, and still be a woman. But also out of fear that if I wasn’t super feminine, I would be categorized as aggressive or somehow part man.”

Erica Rubinstein, Education Director and coach at the Circus Project, bases Terry Crane of Acrobatic Conundrum I was sitting with Erica Rubinstein, current education director and coach at the Circus Project, in Portland, Oregon. She had worked as a partner acrobatics base for many years with ...