Frequent Flyer
Yes, it's true.
Twenty-nine-year-old University of Calgary drama grad Leda Davies has run away to join the circus.
Now living in Montreal — the planet’s capital for circus art — Davies, BFA’08, has spent the last year learning how to pull off manoeuvres plucked from a Cirque du Soleil playbook. If you missed seeing Davies do jaw-dropping aerial stunts in a vertical dance five storeys above downtown Edmonton on the walls of the Nina Haggerty Arts Centre back in 2012, you may have spotted her stilt-walking down Stephen Avenue Mall, acting with Theatre Calgary or working with “silks” at this past summer’s Montreal Jazz Festival.
“My passion for circus arts began at the U of C,” says the aerial dancer, “where we were encouraged to be multidisciplinary artists. With a minor in dance, I was able to move my skills forward and now the circus is where I want to be.”
Davies returns to Calgary in January for a one-month gig at Quest Theatre. Along with two other actors, she’ll be performing the play Snow Angel in 30 schools across Alberta, before taking it to Toronto and Saskatoon.
— Deb Cummings