Standford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Co-Publisher/Marketing Director GRACE DONNELLY
Design Editors
MARGARET LAAKSO
YUNA HWANG
Video Editors
TAKARA WILSON
JOHANNES PARDI
Managing Photo Editor
TARA WASIK
DANA GRAY Editor-in-Chief
Creative Director BOBBY CURRIE
Print Fashion Editors
ELENA SHAHEEN
SOPHIA STRASBURG
Digital Fashion Editor TAYLOR STEVENS
Digital Content Editor HANIYA FAROOQ
Events Coordinator ERIN SEGUI
Human Resources Coordinators
CYNTHIA QIAN
ALIA GAMEZ
Co-Publisher/Operations Director ERIN CASEY
Print Features Editor
MELISSA WERKEMA
Digital Features Editor MYA FROMWILLER
Digital Photo Editor KAELIN PARK
Print Production Manager CALLISTA BRAND
Public Relations Coordinators
OLIVIA WIMPARI
SUBIN PYO
Beauty Team
Miles Hionis, Ana Cano, Krystal Salgado, Ella Graeb, Marguerite Smith, Margaret Mckinney, Gretchen Brookes, Adrienne Feige, Camille Naves, Yun-Hsi Chiang
Design Team
Margaret Laasko, Yuna Hwang, Isabella Schneider, Lara Ringey, Avery White, Story Triplett, Katie Kell, Milcah Kresnadi, Erin Hobbs, Caroline Kegg, Ashley Turner, Chloe Bratton
Fashion Team
Sophia Strasburg, Elena Shaheen, Taylor Stevens, Micah Webster-Bass, Ceridwen Roberts, Sally Jang, Porter Selfridge, Jared Ruffing, Anika Lopes, Amelia Kocis, Ella Graeb, Gloria Yu, Hana Farooq, Kaavya Chavan, Christine Kim, Reagan Hakala, Janna Jacobson, Paige Tushman, Mary-Katharine Acho-Tartoni, Jessica Kroetsch, Juliana Ramirez, Subin Yang, Riley Neville, Temmie Yu, Samuel Cao, Jeffrey Wagner, Emilio Rodriguez, Jessica Au, Emma Blair, Caroline Chacko
Photography Team
Sory Keita, Anisha Chopra, Kaelin Park, Sureet Sarau, Maggie Kirkman, Vivian Leech, Emmanuelle Cubba, Mary Katharine Acho-Tartoni, Patrick Li, Niah Sei, Ava Muntner, Kamryn Washington, Chloe Kiriluk, Isabella Possin, Lane Liu, Zhixian (Zoe) Xiong, Margaret (Maggie) Whitten, Tai Livnat, Taryn Ryan, Sarah Bayne
Features Team
Melissa Werkema, Marxie Colliver, Jared Ruffing, Avery White, Isidora Purrier, Lane Liu, Avalon Ring, Wren Wilson, Makayla Whitsell, Mya Fromwiller, Emerson McKay, Emma Edmondson, Enia McLaughlin, Raymond Zou, Ana Sharshar, Ashley Turner, Bianca Done, Tessa Valera-Castro, Emma Blair, Caroline Chacko, Mimi Vu
Takara Wilson, Johannes Pardi, Sydney Seifert, Olga Brazhnikova, Chloe Kiriluk, Kaelin Park, Felicia Wang, Samridhi Sharma, Naimah Perez, Jasmin Rhymes
Human Resources Team
Alia Gamez, Cynthia Qian, Sathvika Ravichandran, Iliana Morgan Chevres, Hien Ha
Taylor Jones, Elena Reyes, Elise Hsaio, Emily Farhat, Teagan Hollman, Ana Liu, Megan Dobie
My first year on SHEI Magazine, I created and directed a pastel clown shoot that had made the cover of March 2023’s issue Tableau. It was my favorite shoot of my initial year with the publication, with a background in theatre, the complicated lineage of clowning is a personal fascination of mine. You can imagine my delight when the digital team editors came to me with the suggestion of Circ Du Soleil as February’s theme. Taylor Stevens disclosed to me that the motivation came from the sheer amount of clown and circus related applications to the fashion team she has received during her term as Print Fashion Editor. It was clear this February was time to ask in a la Sondheim, Where are the Clowns? Send in The Clowns.
At SHEI Magazine, we are always chasing reinvention, balancing on the high wire between tradition and transformation. The circus and all of its glamour and gore, while fantastical it’s full of fear, both dark and delightful. A paradox of multiple narratives, media representation, and a complicated and troubled history. SHEI Magazine juggles these dichotomies, becoming the ringmaster of a new narrative.
The shoot O reimagines the origins of a specific show from Circ Du Soleil entertainment company, whereas shoots like the Illusionist and Ringmaster show us a fashionable and trendy reinterpretation of classic circus motifs. Our cover shoot, Washing Away the Clown, asks the viewer, what happens when the clown is wiped away, what is the person behind the makeup like? How does a symbolic archetype associated with such joy and comedy change when placed in the mundane? Is it funny, sad, comforting, familiar?
I invite you to step into our big top, let the curtain rise and the lights dim. It’s time to strap on your leotard and zip up your costume. The spectacle is about to begin! Welcome to the grand carnival of SHEI Magazine, where fashion meets fantasy, and the show must, and always will go on.
Dana Gray Editor-In-Chief
Cirque Du Soleil provides a spectacle to the audience, fully engrossing the viewer’s senses through bright colors, extravagant costuming, and dangerous stunts. Hearts race and emotion overtakes reason, both for the audience and the performers. As the show goes on, it seems as if anything can happen, often leaving the audience wondering what daring act will come next. In the world of show business, practice rarely guarantees perfection, and the show does not always go as planned, as seen in “Tulle and All”, which describes the chaos that can ensue when a performance goes rogue.
As we try to understand life under the bright lights, it becomes apparent that performances can take many forms, making it increasingly difficult to differentiate what is authentic from what is calculated. “Acrobat’s Attire” explores how everyday choices, such as what we choose to wear, are often a performance, creating a dynamic between us, the performer, and others, the audience who receive the message conveyed by our clothing.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL ultimately aims to explore the intensity and complexity of performance, and how that is often disguised by glamour. Beauty and entertainment is applauded by the audience, even though it acts as a ruse, distracting us from the reality in front of us. So as our view of performance becomes distorted, how do we decipher what is real and what is just for show?
Mya Fromwiller
Digital Features Editor
O
SHOOT DIRECTOR
ANIKA LOPES
PHOTOGRAPHER
ZOEY XIONG STYLISTS
ANIKA LOPES
MICAH WEBSTER-BASS
TEMMIE YU BEAUTY
ADRIENNE FEIGE
VIDEOGRAPHER
JASMIN RHYMES
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
KATIE KELL MODELS
ANYSE MARTIN
AVA VENZON
LEAH KROPP
LILY GONZALEZ
LUKAS NASS
WBALANCING THE LINE BETWEEN
BEAUTY & TERROR
look away. Regardless of if it’s visually appealing, or physically horrifying, our minds, hearts, and bodies can’t stand back. Our breathing becomes unsteady as if we know we’re witnessing something we shouldn’t. Our hearts beat so fast as if they want to lunge out of our chest and feel whatever is drawing our attraction. Suddenly the line between beauty and terror is no longer visible. While we may not be able to decipher or articulate why we are attracted to these things that heighten our senses, we’re compelled to explore them. But to what extent does this urge go? And does this same rule apply to things that are a little different, weird, dangerous, even disgusting?
Literature often blends the lines of being beautiful and terrifying, leaving readers uncertain of what to feel. As the plot becomes more eccentric, and characters are led on a downward spiral, audiences are often too mesmerized by the author’s control to truly realize the horrors they are reading.
In her sophomore novel, The Secret History, Donna Tartt writes the quote “Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it”. The things society considers “taboo” are typically what peak our highest curiosities and what we can’t help but give our attention to. The beauty
under terrifying acts draws us in, but when does the spell we fall under ever become too dangerous?
The border between beauty and terror can be seen in performances like Cirque du Soleil, which hide the shock of the stunts they are performing behind their actors’ glittering costumes and hypnotizing movements. When audiences see Cirque du Soleil’s shows in person, the attraction is enhanced to a greater extent, making the emotion audiences feel more compelling and potent.
The circus company has been able to maintain audience’s attention through its “nouveau cirque” (contemporary circus) approach of not using animals, by pushing boundaries through hazardous acrobatics, lavish costumes, and reliance on original character driven performances. Unlike other forms of modern theater, Cirque Du Soleil chooses to take risks as a way to deviate from the methods that made a traditional
should feel a sense of marvel at the amazement they are about to experience, or palm-sweating anxiety about the events that may possibly occur. When attempting to understand why this sense of wonder is so effective, Vox correspondent Constance Grady states that “Awe might be our brains’ way of dealing with the horror of uncertainty by making it fun”.1 By adding a layer of awe, Cirque Du Soleil performers successfully convince our brains to replace the nerves with excitement.
While hidden between coats of vibrantly colored costumes, each designed to make performances visually appealing, Cirque Du Soleil does entail a great deal of endangerment towards its performers. The performances put their spectators in a trance-like state through their larger than life actions, hiding their terror-filled acts such as the Wheel of Death, or their injury prone high aerial hoop stunts that are performed without without a safety net, through glamour, allowing the audience to willingly ignore the dangers in front of them. Martin Burton, a founder of Zippo’s Circusanother modern circus company - tells The Guardian contributor Simon Usborne his theory that “...people also want to feel that they might see an accident, so we have to walk a fairly fine line between, well, acting and perceived danger.”2
If this ignorance is fueling an expectation from the audience for bigger and more substantial entertainment from the circus, does the increase of a likelihood of danger become something of unimportance?
Cirque Du Soleil is a well thought-out spectacle. Its outer beauty convinces audiences to come and see the show, but its inner terror is what causes spectators to ask themselves if the terror they are witnessing is really as bad as it seems. The show breaks never-beforeseen boundaries and makes the impossible possible, but at what cost?
By creating a sense of haziness between beauty and terror, Cirque Du Soleil, like literature, leaves audiences with a mind bending, sensory stimulating sensation. Behind a linear storyline, larger than life props, and a blend of dancers, singers, acrobats, and magicians, Cirque Du Soleil creates an act that keeps us in fascination, preventing us from looking away, regardless of what terror may be existing behind the beauty.
2
Grady,
“‘People
1 Constance
“Cirque Du Soleil and the Neuroscience of Awe”, Vox, 1
Simon Usborne,
want to feel they might see an accident’ – how dangerous is the circus?: Cirque du Soleil acrobat Yann Arnaud’s fatal fall has cast a shadow over the world of circus on its 250th anniversary. Is audience demand for bigger
SHOOT DIRECTOR
PAIGE TUSHMAN
PHOTOGRAPHER
AVA MUNTER
MAGGIE WHITTEN STYLIST
ANISE KRUSE
CAROLINE CHACKO BEAUTY
MARGARET MCKINNEY
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
ISABELLA SCHNEIDER
MODEL
VIVIAN LEECH
ANA SHARSHAR
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
LARA RINGEY
TulleAll and
Behind the curtains, the pink wallpaper peels, the vanity lights flicker, and a pair of blue pumps lie broken beneath a dressing chair. The young woman takes notice of the imperfections of the Las Vegas dressing room through the vanity mirror. Her reflection stares back at her and Lady Gaga runs through her earbuds, her vocals pierce loudly, the beats pounding with excitement. Her dark hair has been twisted into a bun and the roots of her hair pull the skin framing her scalp. Her face is caked with powder and her cheeks have been blessed with the brush of roses. A pink gem on her eyelid loosens, falling into the pile of thrown away clothes. She gets down to find it, takes her headphones off, as her eyes rise to witness the chaos.
The room has become unrecognizable since its doors unlocked. Costumes are strewn across the room creating clumps of greens, blues, and reds along the floor. Girls are running in and out of the room, distressed from the mess, and searching through the catastrophic piles for their perfect color. Watching from the floor, the young woman spots her coworker going through the piles of clothes in her underwear and bra as tears separate her makeup.
The young woman’s eyes shift to the vanities across the room, where multiple girls fight over using the same mirror, knocking over lipstick caps and powder puffs. Simultaneously, they laugh and joke, easing the pressure of perfection and playing with the tulle of their outfits. The God of nerves is omnipresent, and the girls’
hearts are heavy with what’s at stake. Glueing the gem back on her eyelid, the young woman shuts her eyes, preparing for her debut on the aerial silks.
A stage manager enters the room, her presence conquering the crowd of performers. She yells for everyone to get in place and all the girls escape the room in a rush, dropping their products. They are stage ready and refuse to miss their marks. The stage manager approaches the oblivious young woman, rips out her earbuds aggressively before whispering into her ear. The young woman’s eyes bounce open, and she grips the arms of her vanity chair, her blue veins popping from the pressure. The only sound is a distant hair dryer left plugged in, and the clicks and clacks of the stage manager’s shoes as she slams the door behind herself.
It’s an unpredictable situation, one that the young woman has never taken the time to prepare for. The feeling of rejection and destruction has left her isolated with overwhelming emotion. Taking a deep breath, the woman rises from her chair, daps her lipstick into place and flashes a painful smile. Barefoot, the woman tiptoes around the mess, following the noise of the hair dryer. She unplugs the hair dryer, picks it up, and hurls it at her vanity with a scream.
The young woman jumps back in disbelief of her actions, as the hair dryer makes contact with her vanity mirror, shattering it. Her shock turns into joy at the sound of the shatter. She begins to laugh, perhaps
the sound of the shatter. She begins to laugh, perhaps out of shock, as she makes her way over to her vanity. She stops in front of the mirror, watching her face duplicate in the broken mirror. She aligns her body in front of the mirror to create a picture of herself whole. Destruction of perfection has only led her to liberation. She feels her heart soften, her anxiety released with her actions, adrenaline is ready to take over, ready to break through the act.
She whips around the empty dressing room and searches through the piles of clothes before pulling up a seafoam green gown. She strips the leotard from her body and embraces the dress’s excessive tulle. Her makeup smudges as she plays with her hair, sweating from the excitement of her creation. Green pumps slip onto her feet, giving her a height never before reached. She stands back, taking in her creation. A Statue of Liberty poster begins to peel off the wall behind her.
“It’s perfect!” She whispers with vengeance behind her smile.
The door slams behind her and she rushes to the red curtains, passing by a number of stage directors who attempt to stop her. It’s as if she’s facing an open field, free to do as she wishes. A girl waits on the mark behind the curtain, bouncing with excitement. The woman rushes towards her, shoves her to the side, and gives her one last glance, she smiles. The sound of stage managers can be heard coming from behind, their familiar voices of worry getting closer. Without looking back, the woman tears the curtain open, heading straight for the stage.
Members of the audience begin to stand at the sight of the woman as she takes off into a run toward the silks. Her understudy is wrapped gracefully in the red silks, pouring her heart out into this performance. At the sight of the distressed young woman the understudy’s body begins to unfold from the silks and she hits the ground. In the pit, the orchestra’s music intensifies, unaware of the situation. Confused and fearful, the understudy escapes the fabric and runs to the back of the stage, watching from afar, exchanging concerned glances with the audience, frozen.
Strokes of violin and the ripping of silks is all that can be heard. The red fabric begins to surround the woman as she reaches for their ruin. Tears fall, staining the stage and her gown in white blotches, black mascara blends in with her blush as she collapses into the red pit of fabric. Everything she has ever wanted has been destroyed by her own doing and she feels no remorse, no emotion for an industry robbing her of her own. Her sobs echo the auditorium, the audience stares at her site with pity, and she looks up at them.
Nothing remains on stage but the sight of a destructive dream.
SHOOT DIRECTOR
CERI ROBERTS
PHOTOGRAPHER
TARYN RYAN
STYLIST
EMILIO RODRIGUEZ
BEAUTY
ANA CANO
LIGHTING DESIGN
ROBERT FARR-JONES
VIDEOGRAPHER
SAMRIDHI SHARM
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
ERIN JANE HOBBS
MODEL
AMELIA FONTAINE
Neck Ruff+Bonnet - Rachel Pfeil
Clown Hat+Checkered Vest - Ceri Roberts
Performers Backstage THE
“
The sun symbolizes youth, energy, and strength.”
This phrase, coined by Guy Laliberté, inspired the name for the iconic, extravagant, and celebrated show, Cirque du Soleil. The show started with a small group of performers, called Les Échassiers de BaieSaint-Paul, led by Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix in Quebec City. This group included key components of any circus: jugglers, dancers, fire breathers, etc. As the group traveled throughout the United States and Europe and established their reputation, they began to stray away from, and more so challenge, the perceptions of a traditional circus show.
Unlike traditional circuses, the Cirque du Soleil embodied qualities that made it more real. The performers focused on human artistry, deviating from animal performances and “freak shows.” There was thorough storytelling and purpose alongside stunning mise-en-scènes, live music instead of a circus calliope, and no technical crew in its early years. However, in the 21st century, Cirque du Soleil faced a lot of adversity with multiple shows shutting down due to low demand, the tragic on-stage death of Sarah Guyard-Guillot, the pandemic, and thousands of employee layoffs. To save what remained, Guy Laliberté sold Cirque du Soleil to
investment groups such as TPG Capital. While the legacy of Cirque du Soleil is profound and continues to inspire artists and performers, its shift in management prompts the question: How is this shift changing the vision of Cirque du Soleil? What happens when the directors’ vision no longer aligns with the performers’?
While there isn’t much about the Cirque du Soleil shows post-pandemic, there are many parallels with reality TV. Like Cirque du Soleil, which brought a fresh approach to the circus arts, reality TV offered something new: it was unscripted, candid, and real. The big top is exchanged for a modern stage, the ringmaster is the show director, and premade soundtracks replace the calliope. As the decades passed, reality TV evolved from just looking into the world through an unfiltered lens. TV shows like America’s Got Talent and The Voice placed performers in a center ring of sorts, stimulating laughs, “oohs”, and “aahs” from the audience. Series like Extreme Cheapskates and Supersize vs. Superskinny are reminiscent of old circus freak shows where entertainment is derived from humiliation. This shift, along with an increasingly saturated and competitive market, has caused reality TV to lose its unscripted charm. Consequently, more and more
participants come out with stories regarding the manipulation of their actions, words, and footage by the ringmasters.
For instance, in Season 9 Episode 1 of the X Factor, Zoe Alexander performed as a Pink tribute artist, where she was then berated for not having an identity outside of Pink. Despite getting a second song from Zoe, the judges’ comments remained the same, leading to Zoe’s tantrum where she threw her microphone to the ground, shoved the cameras, and left the stage slinging profanities. Amongst the chaos, Zoe told the judges before leaving the stage: “You told me to sing a Pink song. I didn’t want to sing a Pink song…I wanted to be me.” At the time, viewers saw Zoe as a lunatic—part of the freak show attraction—and her reactions were ridiculed and mocked. It wasn’t until almost a decade later that Zoe came public with her side of the story in the video, “ZOE ALEXANDER XFACTOR THE TRUTH.” In this video, she revealed that the ringmaster pressured her to sing a song from Pink even though she didn’t want to. The footage that aired was heavily edited to exaggerate Zoe’s tantrum on the center ring, and it tried to portray the audience as unimpressed when attendees of Zoe’s episode stated that there was a lot of applause.
Additionally, in Season 1 Episode 1 of Extreme Cheapskates, a show that documents those living extremely frugally, Kate Hashimoto is shown dumpster diving to find food to feed her guests, not using toilet paper, and reusing paper towels. Viewers began critiquing Kate’s lifestyle, but the situation escalated when viewers began insulting Kate’s appearance, criticizing the way her mouth moves and saying that they hated her face. Naturally, Kate was extremely hurt by these comments and spoke out in the video, “iamunbeautiful Kate.” In this video, she explains that while she is a frugal person, she was directed to exaggerate and play a caricature of herself. She delves into her deeprooted insecurities surrounding her appearance and her acceptance of being “unbeautiful.”
Performance is a raw expression of an artistic vision, message, or theme. Part of performance is how the performers act, but the other half is
how the audience consumes and interprets it. In hindsight, it should be obvious that reality TV is embellished, but when it’s coined as “reality” and the mise-en-scènes are deceptively authentic, it’s hard for viewers to discern what entertainment spaces are. This deception of the cast and viewers led to the vilification of performers, such as Zoe and Kate, despite them being the victims.
Cirque du Soleil and reality TV revolutionized entertainment while maintaining their authentic brand. However, Cirque du Soleil’s rise (and potential fall) from a small group in Quebec City coupled with reality TV’s recent inauthentic nature highlight a widespread issue in entertainment and performance: Is it possible to balance artistic integrity and commercial success?
Inauthentic performances begin when the performers and producers are not aligned. As a result, the audience can not distinguish what the content is representative of. Viewers don’t know the producers of Extreme Cheapskates and the X Factor, just as Cirque du Soleil is now in unfamiliar corporate control. When team expansion inevitably occurs because of commercial success, there runs a higher risk of conflicting opinions and ulterior motives. That is not to say that it is impossible for successful brands and companies to remain authentic. Studio Ghibli and A24 have maintained integrity through transparency and commitment to their creative visions. The sun is young, energetic, and strong, but when too many planets are in orbit, its light is no longer its own.
WRITER RAYMOND ZOU GRAPHIC DESIGNER YUNA HWANG
SHOOT DIRECTOR
JULIANA RAMIREZ
PHOTOGRAPHERS
LANE LIU
TAI LIVNAT
STYLISTS
SAMUEL CAO
SALLY JANG
BEAUTY
KRYSTAL SALGADO
VIDEOGRAPHER
NAIMAH PEREZ
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
MILCAH KRESNADI
MODELS
FELICIA WANG
CASSIDY GOMES
ISABELLA VASARI
ACROBAT’S ATTIRE
The way we dress promotes the narrative we wish to exhibit, with or without the intention of deceit. Humans by nature aim to please their audience, reflected in fashion altered for the crowd. These changes are either enforced by societal norms or simply our desire to remain the star of the lineup.
College students have various identities to juggle, all of which are channeled in the manner that we dress. We play a role in the way we dress, the masks advertising only what we wish to show. However, are these costumes enforcing our self-esteem, or purely an escape to another self?
Within many closets of college students, is a suit. Black, navy, gray, pinstripe: each is a costume of business professional. While the line blurs between the three routines of business dress code- casual, smart, or professional–they all leave little to no room for expression. In the suit color, blouse of choice, and shoes, students can blend into one of the same, the professional events filled with a sea of neutrals. Those hungry for the spotlight must perform tricks to earn an impression: hair, accessories, and shoes make the show for this night. However, this costume of conformity counters the one donned in the late hours of the weekend. Not only are students balancing schoolwork with formal academic events, but also must maintain
Within the wardrobe, a juxtaposition of the many acts we perform lie scattered throughout, contrasting one another, a common color scheme or no harmony at all tells the tale of their wearer. In the drawers lie polka-dotted folds pressed against a worn brown corduroy, indigo denim weighing down a blush mesh, sequins hanging alongside a passeddown leather. The weekdays are defined by fluidity–students pick an outfit based on its versatility with their schedule. The decision made each morning involves the internal debate of balance. Which guise shall you adorn today? Who are you trying to impress? How do you want to be perceived?
ACROBAT’S ATTIRE
WRITER
ASHLEY TURNER
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
ASHLEY TURNER
the balancing act with social life.
In this daring feat, the acrobat can either leap to the center of the trapeze or safely back out from the audience’s eye. The battle of balance between a style risk and comfort is sought all in the 48 hours that weekends consist of. For some, when the crowd is familiar, the choice between a sweater or leather jacket is self-evident. However, the faces of the audience have a larger influence on the fashion choices we make. Bold jewelry or the desired neckline can bolster confidence for the night when applauded by the crowd. When searching the wardrobe of ensembles, we become unaware of measuring just how risky the leap is, or rather, which of our tricks have been tested and accepted.
What cannot be disregarded is what we slip on backstage. Before we walk onstage, when no audience is there to see, how do we go about selecting our attire? For some, comfort is the desire. For others, the masquerade lives on. Are these the hours in which our true selves are unmasked? With no
one watching, we may be able to come face-to-face with just how strong of a grasp the spotlight and an audience bear on our style. While seeking to appeal to those we perform for could be argued as diffident, it could also be argued that we are simply exploring the influences around us. Perhaps, with time, we will shape the perfect final act.
As humans, we mirror how others perform, especially those that we admire. Our starry-eyed selves dream of sporting the glamourous guises of others in leading roles. When observing the skills of others who have the spotlight, their bold choices hold the potential to influence our own sequence, evident that our style is always evolving and shifts depending on our crowd. There remain lessons to be learned from others, a trick or two to add to our skillset. However, as we flip and soar through the many beams of light, we cannot lose sight of our landing.
It would not be the trapeze without a slip or two. In seeking a stronger reaction from our watchers, one may complicate a routine. In doing so, the final act must be rehearsed and perfected. Our bruises are formed and muscles strengthened not without a grimace from the audience. However, that may not be the value of one’s performance. The pay-off is weighed in our feelings. It is how we feel when we take our final bow, and confidence channeled through our array of fashion choices is when we know we earned a five-star performance, even without our desired reaction.
Consequently, by artist nature, we lure our audience into believing there is truth amongst our guise. Deceit may be intentional, however that performer joins the band of one’s various personalities: peppy, solemn, passionate, studious, spontaneous. While there may be little truth in that character, it is all in the art of acrobatics that the time spent in the costume becomes a part of who we are and our experiences. We have all experienced those shifts in the choice to wear a bold color, a heeled shoe, a distinct hairstyle. Eventually, the suit begins to feel natural, along with the confident, personable personality we bore with it. Additionally, “dress to impress” is no small saying without little truth to it. We, as ambitious trainees in our balancing act of life, will continue to shift styles to provoke various sides of ourselves.
