First Person: Trapeze, Taxes and what else Eric McGill is learning at the National Circus School

A lot of people think of the circus and think lion tamers and clowns, but that’s the old circus. The new circus is more like modern dance. I started out when I was really young on the trampoline. It was at a summer camp in Ottawa. Even up until then I remember that I always liked to be high up in the air. Climbing trees. Doing high dives. Little kids dream of being able to fly. Soon, though, trampoline dominated my life. It was all I ever did, all I ever thought about. I was about seven years old. By the time I stopped competing in trampoline, I was one level under the Olympics. I was as good as I was ever going to be. I’d seen circus shows before. I’d seen Cirque du Soleil and stuff on TV, but the first time I ever saw a real circus performance was by 7 Fingers, and it was called Loft. It was more theatre piece than circus show, like Rent with a flying trapeze. I knew I wanted to do acrobatics, knew I wanted to perform, but there was no happy medium. Loft was like nothing I’d ever seen. That’s what I want circus to be. I