CHICAGO – Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi didn't have to run away to join the circus. She was born into it.
Her parents, themselves circus performers, reared their troupe of children under big tops. Hernandez-DiStasi began performing when she was 7, and when she flew through the air with the greatest of ease, it was one of her brothers who caught her or her dad who spotted her.
All she had ever known was the circus, so in the early 1990s, she left to find out what else was out there.
Now, Hernandez-DiStasi is the artistic director and a co-founder of the Actors Gymnasium, one of the handful of gyms in the Chicago area that train students in the circus arts.
There are still people who come to the gyms because they want to run away and join the circus, but the meaning of that dream has changed. The most iconic circus in the United States, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, will end its 146-year run in May. But the fascination with the death-defying acts remains, though in different forms, and dozens of smaller circuses perform throughout the country.
Circus arts have been infused into acts away from the big top. Hernandez-DiStasi is a living example. Performers in varying disciplines have reason to learn the skills, and fitness enthusiasts are interested enough to try the tricks.
As a result, the half dozen or so circus gyms in the Chicago area have crafted their business models to suit.
"My generation was circus from birth to death practically. People didn't leave the circus," said Hernandez-DiStasi, who performed with Ringling Bros. "Because circus has changed, people don't have that option anymore. … You have to diversify."