“Go Beyond the Stereotype”: A Thoughtful Discussion Regarding Gender, Binaries, and Contemporary Circus
“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 Acrobatic Conundrum in Seattle, Washington, and I wanted to pick her brain about her experiences as a female base—specifically, a female base with a male flyer—in the circus world. “No one ever questioned my choice to be a base, if any...You've reached the PRO EXCLUSIVE zone.
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