Romy Bauer, aerial snow globe contortionist, Circus Starr and Gandeys Circus
Romy Bauer was born in Blackpool to Kim and Max Bauer and is a seventh-generation circus artist. Having first appeared in the ring as a tiny child, she now specialises as an aerial contortionist and performs inside a clear perspex globe, while snowflakes fall from the cupola. She is currently taking a break from touring with Carol and Phillip Gandey’s Circus Starr, which has been providing free entertainment for disadvantaged and disabled children for 30 years, while also raising money for local charities.
Romy joins a huge line-up of international artists in Gandeys Circus Halloween Spooktacular show at Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley from 20-29 October 2017, before returning to Circus Starr. She chats to Liz Arratoon.
The Widow Stanton: Tell us about your family background. I know your mum was a trapeze artist… Romy Bauer: I was born when mum and dad were working at Blackpool Tower Circus; my dad is Swiss and my mum is English. My grandmother on my mother’s side, Madge Summerfield [pictured below], used to do aerial as well; she did corde lisse, and was also a trapeze artist and did bareback horse riding. My grandfather, Holley Gray [also pictured], had the world record in plate-spinning and did juggling. Back in the day he was on quite a few TV adverts and things like that. My grandmother’s parents were tight-rope walkers.
On the other side of my family, my father did a Risley act with his sister and his mother, and she also did a foot-juggling act. That was my grandmother’s main act. My dad had done a few different acts with his sister; he did slack wire with the bouncy rope, and he did that with my mother as well after they met. His sister, Christine, did a cradle act with her husband and they actually have their own show now in Spain. It used to be Circus Tonelli and now it’s called Circus Las Vegas.
Have you got any siblings? I have a sister, who’s 14. She’s still at school at the moment so she hasn’t really started any training. She’s more into the singing side of stuff.
Do you remember your first time in the ring? Yes, I was about three or four, and it was in the foot-juggling act wth my grandmother. The whole family was in it; my dad, my mum, my dad’s mother, my auntie Christine, her husband, and her son, my cousin Tony, who’s in Spain with the rest of my family. So it was a really nice big act. At the end of it my grandmother used spin me and Tony round on her feet in little chairs at either end of a pole. We were so small; she used to do it with my dad and his sister but we were a lot lighter for her. [Laughs]
Did you go to an ordinary school? I first went to Brereton Primary School in Congleton for a few moths of the year when we weren’t working, and they used to set me coursework that I’d do through the year. It was lovely. They used to have a travelling teachers’ association and they’d come out to me every few months and check my progress, but it was very different with secondary school; they didn’t offer that. So I left the circus then and finished all my school stuff. I went to college for a little bit and studied fashion and textiles, I worked in Starbucks for a little bit but didn’t really enjoy it as much, and then I came back to the circus.
Do you make your own costumes? I like to as best as I can, and generally try to keep them unique. I adapt costumes that I buy, or my mum tends to make them for me. [Laughs]
Was it inevitable you’d follow your parents into the circus? Yes, but it was important that they gave me other options; I had paths to choose from. And when I was younger I also did a lot of training with contortionists and aerialists so I had the base of everything if I did decide I wanted to go back to the circus. I think I got the best of both worlds and I got to make my own mind up. I’m very happy with my choice.
Who trained you in contortion? We had a Mongolian couple, called Zorig and Nima, who did an act on the show when we were young, and they used to train me. I’d go for two or three hours every day as well as doing my school work. As I got older, Said Debbach trained me in all the aerial stuff I do now.
Were you naturally flexible? I had a good base of flexibility but obviously as you get older, you don’t keep it forever; I had to keep it up. If you start before you’re 14, you tend to be very flexible and if that’s what you choose to do, you have to focus on it. Even when I was at school, I thought, ‘Oh, I still have to keep up my flexibility in case I do decide to go back’. It was something I had to work on.
I expect your schoolfriends were pretty impressed by you… Yeah, they were, [laughs]. I used to do cheerleading as well, just to keep me, you know, interested in all the physical side of stuff, because it does tend to slip away in secondary school. Your thoughts are of the future and you’re just kind of focused on school work and socialising. [Laughs]
Do you do any other aerial acts? Yes, I do aerial hoop and I’m training static trapeze at the moment. It’s gonna be a contortion static trapeze, so I’m really looking forward to that. It’s pretty; I’ve been looking at some tricks on the internet and just trying them out. I need to spend some time with Said to get it really good.
So what drew you to aerial initially? There was always something about it when I was young, I always wanted to… but obviously my mum and dad wouldn’t really… They’d let me have a look at it, but they wouldn’t let me go too high because of safety. You know what parents are like! But there’s always been something that’s just wowed me about it. We used to have a Russian artist on the show called Victoria Antipova, who does aerial rope… You just look like you’re flying and you’re a beautiful star in the sky… I just always wanted to do that.
What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to someone starting aerial? That they need strength, definitely, and not to be scared. If you’re scared then you will automatically get something wrong. You have to be positive all the time. If you think, ‘I’m gonna fall, I’m gonna fall’, you probably will, so don’t think about it. And don’t go ridiculously high if you’ve never done it before. Stay low, get the basics, get a feel of it, and then you can start to go higher.
Where is the main strength in your body? I have mainly core strength. Because of the contortion I can’t be overly strong because I have to remain supple. I got my muscles from my dad so my natural physique is quite muscular but they’re not that useful really. [Laughs]
You’re usually with Circus Starr; what can you tell us about it? It’s a non-profit charity organisation and we give disadvantaged and vulnerable children the chance to see a live show where they can feel comfortable in their environment. We have a lot of children with autism and we have an app called The Show and Tell App. It gives them like a preview of the show, so in their heads they can get an idea of where we’re going, what it looks like inside, what the people look like, what will actually happen.
And we’ve just started a thing called The Touch Tour and audio description in our shows. We open before the show for the partially sighted and blind children and bring out all the props and wear our costumes so they can come up close and feel what they are like. Some of them can see really close up so they can get an idea of what’s going on. During the live performance they have an audio describer from VocalEyes describing what’s going on and because they’ve just felt the props they can understand what things look like. It’s really lovely; really lovely, and a very important thing to do. Sometimes we visit the local children’s hospitals. Working for Circus Starr is amazing and makes you see everything differently.
Have you worked abroad at all? I’ve worked in Spain and I worked in Hong Kong with Gandeys for four months two Christmases ago with Royalles British Thrill Circus. That was amazing. It was such a different culture. I loved working there. It was very, very nice, but after four months I found the food very difficult. I was a vegetarian a few years ago and I’m a bit funny about meat. It’s not for me. [Laughs]
Did you ever appear in the Gandeys’ wonderful show, Cirque Surreal? Yes, we did it at the Lowry in Manchester two years ago.
You must like working for Gandeys having stayed so long… When I was four years old my parents started working for Gandeys so I’ve basically grown up here. My dad is still with the company and is the tent master and general manger of the shows. Sometimes he’s managing The Ladyboys of Bangkok, most recently he’s been on Gandeys Circus. Phillip and Carol are like my adopted parents; they’ve always looked after me and made me feel welcome. Carol frequently introduces me as her fourth daughter, so they’re family to me and I just love it here. There’s no reason for me to look anywhere else because everything I’ve needed is here.
If not circus, what else might you consider doing? I really haven’t thought about it but I think I’d enjoy doing fashion. I’d probably try to make some costumes and sell them on. I’d be interested in that and might do it when I retire from the ring. That would be lovely and I’d still feel involved in shiny stuff; it would be very shiny! [Laughs]
Can you pick out a few highlights from your lifetime in the circus? Well, when I was younger on the show, that was amazing! I got such great experience here and I had a friend with me, a young boy, and we used to play all day, in the fields or in the park and that was always fun. We’d go to so many different places, which was amazing. Hong Kong is another big highlight. And performing again after having such a long break at school was the best feeling as well; just to be back in the ring was amazing.
Romy will appear in Gandeys Circus Halloween Spooktacular at Merry Hill Shopping Centre car park in Dudley from 20-29 October 2017, before returning to Circus Starr.
For Merry Hill tickets click here
Circus Starr tour dates
Romy on Facebook
Twitter: @romybauer @gandeyscircus @CircusStarr
Follow @TheWidowStanton on Twitter
See our interviews with other artists from Gandeys Circus: Nikolay Karakolev and Las Chicas Morales