We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bailey Freeman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bailey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Suspended Gravity began in 2015 as a small collective of friends who shared a love of the circus arts and live music, entering the performance space by performing at concerts and other local events. Since then, we’ve grown – a lot! The pandemic’s effect on the performing arts industry really guided us to look at what we wanted to make, which we realized was an incredibly multifaceted thing.

From a business perspective, we decided we wanted to develop a network of likeminded performers who really believe in community. We’ve had the privilege to work with so many amazing folks on everything from original productions to corporate events to weddings – the circus professionals in this town are nothing short of spectacular.

Creatively, we want to inspire our audiences – to show them that art is an essential part of living, to encourage them to pursue new endeavors. We want them to see themselves in us and to recognize all the wonderful things that make them who they are: the strength, the drive, the weirdness, and the beauty. Circus is storytelling, and we want to be coauthors with those who find joy in what we do.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Personally, I came to circus in a bit of an unceremonious way – I bought a GroupOn to a local studio in 2014 and it was love at first climb. Since then, I’ve studied the aerial arts at several Nashville studios, traveled to train with some of the best acrobats in the US, and pursued education in aerial pedagogy with the contemporary circus wavemakers at Paperdoll Militia. Today I serve as Suspended Gravity’s co-producer alongside my colleague Paige Muirhead, and together with our team of amazing artists we make SG what it is – a contemporary circus collective that embraces the arts of spectacle and story.

Suspended Gravity provides professional circus entertainment for nightlife events, music videos, galas – anything you can think up, really. We like to say that we create dance installations, immersive experiences where guests feel like they are transported to another realm (one that appears to be less plagued by gravity!). We also produce original shows where we really get to explore all of these elements in detail, frequently collaborating the with creative geniuses over at Kindling Arts Festival to bring those ideas to the stage.

We like to think that our dedication to detail sets us apart – our work is more than just big tricks. We do tons of original costuming to fit custom themes for our clients, and we train hard to make sure all our performances are polished and professional. We also immensely value safety; circus arts come with risk, so the safety of our performers and our audiences is priority #1. We hold our rigging to the highest standards, we carry performers insurance, and we always consider venue space and capacity when designing our events.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Like it did for so many, the pandemic made us pivot hard – the performing arts were pretty much snuffed out for over a year and we had to find new ways to connect with our audiences and clients.

The result was a project that we are immensely proud of: IN THE EYE, a dance film created in collaboration with Griffin Dunn and Kindling Arts Festival. The pandemic was a storm of sorts, and we wanted to explore what that meant for each of us: fear, anger, connection, hope. The release of this project was one of our proudest moments as a business because it challenged us to work in a new way and also channeled so much of the intense emotion we were experiencing – I still get a bit weepy when I watch it. It’s on YouTube, if you’d like to check it out yourself!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

The evolution of SG from a side hustle to a full blown creative company has really been something to see. Initially it was a pursuit that many of us did as a “bonus” thing and this mentality limited us in some ways – it was hard to invest resources into something we didn’t have the time to grow, and because of this we struggled to find creative fulfillment. Personally speaking, I think this stage was fueled by a bit of imposter syndrome and the internalization of the whole idea of society’s (problematic) message that art is not a sustainable career – could we really do this? Should we?

But then something really beautiful happened. We began connecting with other Nashville circus performers in new ways and embracing an abundance mindset – the more we work together, the bigger this thing could be. People started really coming out to support. It was clear that collaborators and clients believed in us. Something really great and important was happening and we decided to truly commit to seeing it through. Now SG is thriving, and we honestly couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.suspendedcircus.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suspendedgravitycircus/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgriMdkixTwQohUBjhRm5Ew/featured

Image Credits
Griffin Dunn, Sparrow Moose Media, Tiffany Bessire, Said Del Diaz, Taylor Pettitt, Luke Harvey, Photography by Jenny Petite, Bailey Freeman