Big top tales
JOHN HAWKINS/Fairfax NZPRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: Juggler Fever Pitch works on his juggling tricks. From:southland-times stuff.co.nz
30/01/2012
We all feel like running away to the circus sometimes. GWYNETH HYNDMAN talks to the people who did, and changed their lives forever.
Three years ago, Pascal Haering was 31 years old, with a master's degree in physics from the University of Basel, Switzerland.
He had a three-bedroomed apartment in Zurich and a comfortable job as a key account manager in electronic sensor sales – not exactly the perfect time in life to join the circus.
"I had always juggled," he says, during a break from setting up the tent for this weekend's Circus Aotearoa performance at the Gala St reserve in Invercargill, as an explanation for his escape.
"I had done youth circus and then went to Hungarian circus school. I went to summer camps for circus.
"It was something I always loved and I had lived reasonably in Zurich up until then. So I had money saved up for circus school and I just went."
A Google search resulted in his enrolment at the Christchurch Polytechnic-based circus school, Circo Arts. It was far from his homeland, he says, but his parents were surprisingly relaxed about their son running off to join the circus below the equator at the peak of his career.
"Of course they were a bit critical at first," he remembers.
Now 34, Haering says he wasn't sure what he was doing either.
"It was such a change. I didn't know what it was really about, but they just told me in the end, `Whatever makes you happy'."
On a sunny day, being outside and juggling barefoot on the grass definitely beats a nine-hour office day in a suit in the city.
"I am happy with this."
One of 10 core performers with Circus Aotearoa, Haering's education at the Christchurch circus school was cut short after last year's earthquakes. read more at:http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/culture/6289644/Big-top-tales
Three years ago, Pascal Haering was 31 years old, with a master's degree in physics from the University of Basel, Switzerland.
He had a three-bedroomed apartment in Zurich and a comfortable job as a key account manager in electronic sensor sales – not exactly the perfect time in life to join the circus.
"I had always juggled," he says, during a break from setting up the tent for this weekend's Circus Aotearoa performance at the Gala St reserve in Invercargill, as an explanation for his escape.
"I had done youth circus and then went to Hungarian circus school. I went to summer camps for circus.
"It was something I always loved and I had lived reasonably in Zurich up until then. So I had money saved up for circus school and I just went."
A Google search resulted in his enrolment at the Christchurch Polytechnic-based circus school, Circo Arts. It was far from his homeland, he says, but his parents were surprisingly relaxed about their son running off to join the circus below the equator at the peak of his career.
"Of course they were a bit critical at first," he remembers.
Now 34, Haering says he wasn't sure what he was doing either.
"It was such a change. I didn't know what it was really about, but they just told me in the end, `Whatever makes you happy'."
On a sunny day, being outside and juggling barefoot on the grass definitely beats a nine-hour office day in a suit in the city.
"I am happy with this."
One of 10 core performers with Circus Aotearoa, Haering's education at the Christchurch circus school was cut short after last year's earthquakes. read more at:http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/culture/6289644/Big-top-tales
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