Dylan Ingwersen, 24, shares his story with Take 5:
I watched as my brother, Reuben, did a somersault in our backyard.
“Let’s pretend we’re in the circus,” I said, climbing onto the trampoline to attempt a backflip.
I was eight-years-old, and we lived in Sydney with our parents.
Mum and Dad had gotten Reuben a unicycle for his ninth birthday and since then, both of us decided we wanted to be in the circus.
We attended circus workshops in the holidays and when I was nine when we had our first big performance.
I was the smallest in the cast, so the bigger members would throw me around as part of the act.
I began circus classes when I was eight years old. (Image: supplied)
As I soared across the stage I could see the beaming faces of the audience, including my parents.
I could do this forever, I thought.
Our school principal soon caught wind of our passion.
“You boys should consider going to the Flying Fruit Fly Circus school,” he suggested.
It was training program for young people that had recently put on demonstrations in Sydney.
We asked our parents about it that afternoon.
I grew up in the Flying Fruit Fly Circus school (Image: supplied)
“It would mean we’d have to move to Wodonga,” Mum told us. “But if that’s important to you, we’ll do it.”
True to their word, my parents sold our home and left their jobs so that we could attend the circus school.
For five days a week we learned how to do flips and climb ropes and juggle, while balancing our academic studies at the same time.
It was hard work, but our love of the circus only grew stronger.
After finishing school, I trained ar an elite circus school in Montreal, Canada.
Spiegeltent’s The Party is my favourite show yet (Image: supplied)
Then, in 2022, I was cast in an Australian touring show called ‘The Party’ – a circus show for adults.
We perform under the big top, and I’m constantly flipping or falling and I even have one performer stand on my shoulders at one point, while I’m standing on someone else shoulders!
We’re currently in Newcastle, NSW and have the audience clapping, cheering, and blushing, every night.
It’s definitely more risqué than Flying Fruit Fly ever was, but I’m living my dream and I love it!
