Girl who ran away with circus is now teaching the skills
Behind a green roller door tucked away in a New Plymouth industrial zone is a place where kids can learn to be circus performers.
At the start of the year, Ashleigh Downing opened Upsideover, where she teaches dance, acrobatics, aerial silk work and circus.
She knows what she’s doing, having attained a Diploma of Circus and later a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Wellington before touring New Zealand with Circus Aotearoa. “I literally ran away with the circus,” the 26-year-old said.
She lived in caravans, travelling at night and performing in a different town every day. It definitely wasn’t glamorous, she said, and, while there was a lot of sparkles, there was also a lot of mud.
It didn’t matter. Downing had dreamed of being in the circus since she was 14 despite push-back when she shared her passion with a career adviser at her high school.
“People told me I needed to find something real and that it wouldn’t happen.
“I would make some job up just to get them off my back.”
But after attending a circus workshop with her father in Hāwera, she became determined to make it happen.
She was accepted into the now-defunct circus course at Whitireia Polytechnic in Wellington, studying alongside just six others.
Between opening her studio and leaving Circus Aotearoa, Downing has done other short tours with Kids Day Out and the Great Kiwi Circus.
But in 2021 she decided to spread her love of the art and teach it.
She wanted to grow the awareness of circus in New Plymouth especially, and she wished there had been a studio like hers when she was growing up. It’s a great form of exercise, as people get fit without thinking they’re getting fit, she said.