Katya Arata Quiroga is an eighth generation circus performer and co-owner of Circus Vargas, which will be in National City through Feb. 27, featuring Johnathan Lee Iverson as ringmaster of this year’s production, ‘Bonjour Paris’.
“To be in a big tent like this, to see the audience stuffing their faces with cotton candy with their hands red from frozen icees— if you really think about it, circus artists are the original American superheroes. It’s the reason why the Marvel and DC brands have so much success. I honestly believe the people who created the Wonder Woman and Thor and Black Panther type of characters got their inspiration from the circus,” Iverson said.
Circus performers, he said, were the first action heroes for many generations.
“The circus is in me, my mother is a third generation performer from Holland and my father is sixth generation from Italy, a very famous wire walker. They decided to let us, the kids, grow up in a regular school in the Netherlands where I studied ballet but when I finished high school… I just never really left the circus,” Arata Quiroga said.
Arata Quiroga, an award-winning trapeze artist, said she and her husband have dedicated time to making Circus Vargas a more interactive experience rather than one with animal acts.
“We were a little ahead of the curve by rarely utilizing animals. Even when there were beautiful animals in many circuses, about 80% of our show was already human performers. It wasn’t really a movement but we wanted to do it differently, create our own show,” Arata Quiroga said.
She has noticed the desire for live entertainment has grown recently, and with it an interest in circus arts.
“Circus performing is an old art but I see nothing but growth in the future. The more people are on their computer or watching something static on TV, the more they realize they want to see something live. The pandemic helped that, many people realized how much they missed live performances. And, there has also been growth in performing— there are many first generation circus performers now where before, you had to be from a circus family and that’s no longer true,” Arata Quiroga said.
Circus, Iverson said, challenges performing artists to “jump in the deep end of the pool” with its hands-on, sometimes dangerous productions. Although he had “a really charmed life as a kid”, Iverson- who was the first Black ringmaster in the United States with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus productions- grew up performing with the Boys Choir of Harlem, went on to sing for four presidents and has taken his vocal talent all over the world.
“I was really bent on becoming an opera singer and had an enormous amount of encouragement from peers; I didn’t have many dream killers around me and that background gave me a good sense of performance decorum, how to be a professional and an ambassador… That pedigree was helpful entering the circus but it is its own work,” Iverson said, a craft which can cost a performer their life but also produces more standing ovations than he has ever seen before.
Certainly, Arata Quiroga said, there is “never a dull day” in circus life and as a mom of three, she had to find doctors, dentists and other services “on the road” when her kids were younger.
Arata Quiroga is correct, Iverson said, in suggesting that circus life revolves around impossibility and that one of the greatest joys about the art is living the unpredictable.
“I don’t know how anybody could have a career where you see people fly and not have joy. When I’ve gone back and done theater some people look at me like I’m an alien. You gain a certain type of courage in circus you don’t find in other performing arts. As a singer and actor, performance art is very humbling to me. I can miss a note or fumble a line and the worst I’m going to get is public humiliation,” Iverson said.
However, his performance space as Ringmaster is generally safe, unlike the circus performers.
“Someone getting atop a wheel rotating 30 feet in the air can’t be imperfect. You really have to be engaged and I think that’s why people continue to come to Circus Vargas. Just listening to audience reviews is the most wonderful thing, people feel this cathartic experience a sense of wonder and it’s truly for children of all ages,” Iverson said.
