The CircusTalk talent database includes amazing artists and performers from around the world—from veterans of the ring and stage to up-and-comers with big visions. One artist of this second kind is Montreal-based aerialist Clara Laurent, winner of our CircusTalk Spotlight Award at this year’s Young Stage Festival, who reflects on the artist’s role and her hopes for the journey ahead of her.

Every artist has a mission: to create something that affects their audience, that makes them feel or think a little differently. The real question is how to do it. Up-and-coming circus artists may have further to travel before t...