Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Batya Belfry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Batya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I did not get involved with circus until my mid-twenties. There have been many times that I have wished I had started earlier but my previous experiences have shaped who I am as a person and a performer. When I became serious about my aerial training as something other than a hobby, I looked into circus schools but most only accept teens and those in their early twenties. Yet, despite this I have managed to make things work. I utilize the skills I learned in my undergraduate lit degree (which was a creative writing degree in disguise) to sculpt and form my acts into cohesive pieces, ones that have a mood, a story, and a defined character. I have utilized my yoga teacher certification to inform my practice and keep my body safe from too many injuries. Being a voracious reader and having a master’s in English I have so much material to pull from to create acts, and even choose venues and producers that I respect and know approach things with an ethical mind.

Batya, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a fairly all around circus performer. I started taking aerial classes over a decade ago in New York, originally as a fun way to build strength after a bout with mono, and that quickly became an obsession. I have dabbled in most apparatus but my favorite is the lyra (aerial hoop). In 2016, I had the opportunity to run away with a traditional circus, a mud show with a star printed tent. That, unfortunately, ended quickly with everyone left in a muddy field in North Carolina, but the experience is still one that will last me a lifetime. The following year I co-produced my dream show, Cirque du Punk, an immersive circus show with a live punk band, Treads, with pop-up performances of aerial, fire, burlesque, and contortion intermixed into the audience. Otherwise I have performed aerial, fire spinning, burlesque, and various other circus skills, in everything from large nightclubs to private events. Since moving back to Colorado I have been able to explore more in the burlesque and sideshow world which has really opened me up to new skills and different ways of performance and creation. In my “normal” life, I work in archives, have a masters in English and a masters in Library and Information Science, which creates quite the contrast to my stage persona.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Like many folks, the covid lockdown creative a pivot moment in my life. I was training nearly every day for hours and bartending at night, along with performing. But everything came to a screeching halt. Suddenly I had a moment to slow down and actually realize that I was running myself into the ground trying to survive in NYC. I was very tired. This lead to me applying for grad school round two, moving to Denver, and having training and performing being my primary focus. It has been two and a half years and I am still re-learning balance, but the time away from performing, and getting back to it showed me how much I love it. I am grateful I gave myself the opportunity to have a more stable job to support my aerial and circus dreams.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think that our society needs to understand that artists do not exist only on the stage. There are hours devoted to everything from costuming to learning the skills needed in performance. When we are hired, you are not only paying for that time on stage but the many many years of work that person has put in to have the skills shown on stage. In the same way that a doctor or lawyer spends years in school, and then hours outside of work keeping up on research and journal articles, performers are always learning and growing and improving. I think it’s easy to think that “anyone” can do it at the drop of a hat, but there is so much that is never seen outside of a studio or someone’s home.

Contact Info:

• Website: Torrie-Rose.com
• Instagram: @batyabelfry @mstorrierose

Image Credits
Jared Kennedy Bill Carter Bex Strega Philip Fortin Alana Myatt