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Meet new acrobat, Keaton Hentoff-Killian

Keaton is originally from Saint Louis, Missouri where he grew up in a circus called Circus Harmony. He quickly became fascinated with circus and the constant challenges it presented him. During his childhood Keaton has performed in over 2,500 shows. Taking the next step he moved to Montreal, Quebec when he was 17 and began his 4 year training at Ecole Nationale De Cirque. At school Keaton studied Tight Wire and Chinese Pole, however upon graduating he wanted to explore other realms of circus and the easiest way to do that was to go to another realm of the world! So, he took a flight over to Brisbane, Australia and is hugely excited to tour with the Circa ensemble.
1. When did you discover that you wanted to pursue a career in circus?
I’ve done youth circus for my whole life and so have always been a part of that world but I didn’t decide I wanted to take things seriously until I was about 15 years old. A couple of my good friends who were a few years older than me went to a specialist college and when they were accepted it really lit a fire in me and showed me that circus could be a serious career choice.

2. Can you tell us a little about your performance background? What is your circus specialty?
My mother was a circus performer before me so I grew up in the ring. Performing with Circa will be the first time I perform with a professional contemporary circus company. Growing up in the circus world meant I learned all sorts of skills but my specialty is Tight Wire and Chinese Pole.

3. What attracted you to want to work for Circa?
When I was graduating from Ecole Nationale De Cirque (Montreal) I was looking for a company that could push me more as an artist. I watched a couple of Circa shows and I was shocked how versatile all the artists were. Each artist seemed to be able to mold into any role that the show required and that has always been something I have wanted to do.

4. What are you most looking forward to about working with Circa?
I’m honestly just so excited to be here and be a part of everything, but what I’m definitely looking forward to is having the chance to create new work, put together shows and be able to tour with pieces that I’ve helped create.

5. How are you enjoying Brisbane? Have you been here before?
Brisbane has been wonderful! Absolutely incredible and I love all of the markets everywhere! I have only been out of North America twice and both times it was to Israel to work, so this is the first time I have ever been to Australia.

6. Have you had to learn any new tricks/ acts that you haven’t previously done?
I have learned a whole bunch of new techniques and little tricks with hand to hand and research acrobatics and I can’t wait to do more.