Alanna Baker swapped competitive gymnastics to run away with the circus. But not just any old circus… Jane McGowan finds out more
Alanna Baker had wanted to be a gymnast for as long as she can remember.
“I think I was about five when I started training and competing properly,” says the 26-year-old originally from West Sussex who honed her craft at Heathrow Gymnastics Club. “I trained every day, five days a week. It was my everything.”
By the time she was 18, she was regularly representing Great Britain in the field of acrobatic gymnastics (it differs from traditional gymnastics as competitors work together in pairs to show a series of balances, throws and tumbles). She was crowned European Champion in 2011 and scooped a bronze medal in the World Championship in 2012. It was at this point that the internationally acclaimed acrobatic company Cirque du Soleil took notice and Alanna was asked to audition.
“I had seen my first Cirque du Soleil production at the Royal Albert Hall when I was eight years old and I said to my mum, ‘That’s what I want to do when I’m older’ and my mum was like, ‘Well, you will have to keep training, don’t get your hopes up’ and so on. The talent scouts were always around the competitions and then the Cirque scouts held a closed audition at my gym and I went along.”
Alanna was put on a reserve list and within six months of ending her competitive career, the call came to up sticks for Montreal, Canada (where the company is based) for intense training.
“You are there to show them what you can do,” she explains. “Then when a place becomes vacant, you hope they pick you. Basically it came down to me and two other girls and I was the only one that got a contract.”
She joined the cast of Ovo and is now playing the role of the Black Spider.
“It’s a lovely colourful show about a colony of insects. But then one character brings an egg with him and the rest of us get uneasy about what’s inside and what it will mean for our community. Gradually the new creature is accepted. The whole show is full of innocence and colour, although my character is the darkest character, but I’m not that dark… more mischievous,” she laughs.
Cirque du Soleil first hit the world’s consciousness in the mid-1980s. Founded by street entertainers Guy Laliberté and Giles Ste-Croix, the company uses an eclectic mix of circus acts and world music to create a theatrical experience like no other. The shows, which combine death-defying acrobatics with breath-taking balletic beauty, have played to more than 100,000 million people and Alanna is proud to be part of it.
“It’s my life. I never feel like I’m working and for many gymnasts it’s the pinnacle – you get paid for something you have trained for all your life.”
But as you may expect, life in the Cirque is pretty tough: “We work 10 weeks on, two weeks off, seven days a week and between eight to 10 shows a week. I have a two-hour workout every morning, then a training class and then a choreography session. We then have a break before another training session and then we do the show. You have to continually work on your skills, you cannot take your place for granted.”
As for the future, Alanna says it will be her body that ultimately decides.
“I have to keep challenging myself, but you can only keep bending yourself in half for so many years. I really take care of myself and I will certainly do this as long as my body allows me to.”
- Ovo is at The Royal Albert Hall from Jan 7 – Mar 4; Tickets start at £20. For further information, visit: cirquedusoleil.com
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