Issue 04 : Florencia Flies through the Pandemic
Florencia Flies through the Pandemic
Covid-19 has been hard on performers. With large gatherings banned, venues closed, and travel impossible, it has proven extremely challenging for those in the entertainment industry to survive. Yet, it’s also provided opportunities to adapt and expand creativity, to build and deploy existing skills into new avenues and markets.
Such a Covid-19 story has been shaping the last 12 months of the life of Florencia Listello(Flor), a young female acrobat. Born in Argentina 25 years ago to a gymnast mother, acrobatics came as naturally as walking to Flor, as she was doing gymnastics from the age of three and touring for competitions all over South America from early childhood.
When Flor was 17, her father suggested she take a job in a local circus. Once she experienced hanging in mid-air there was no turning back! She quickly enrolled in a National Circus School in Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, where she enhanced her acrobatic skills with not only trapeze flying, but also theatre acting, something which captivated her. She was one of the few non-local students, and exams would take the shape of self-choreographed group presentations. Flor revelled in every new addition to her set of skills.
But while she was perfecting her art, she was also thinking ahead, and had sent her videos to the prestigious House of Dancing Water show in Macau, which happened to be looking for a “Flyer”. Aerial work was a speciality of Flor’s, so she leapt at the chance to perform in this acclaimed show, thrilled to mingle with international acrobats and artists.
However, as we know, things were to take an unexpected turn for the world when Covid-19 hit; Countries were locked down and the borders were closed between Hong Kong and Macau. Flor has been stranded in Hong Kong after visiting a friend a year ago. Unable to return to Macau, Flor, as a niche performing artist was hit on many levels: unable to perform in the show, unpaid, and miles away from family or other support, things were looking bleak. But, ever the survivor, Flor’s resilience and love of performing enabled her to come up with an alternative, rather than put her life on hold. With a male partner, she took to the streets of Hong Kong for a daily dose of acrobatics as a means to survive the pandemic. Team work is an essential part of acrobatics, and the right person to pair up with is paramount to a successful performance.
With the city as her stage, the petite Flor had no problem finding a new audience to delight, keeping herself busy until being able to return to formal performing. Her favourite haunts were Stanley and Sai Kung, whose seafront locations are a magnet for local tourism, as well as the more popular area of Mong Kok, well known for its street performers.
Keeping in shape is essential for her work, but with daily performing opportunities, her training became less rigorous during that time. Yet Flor was still training everyday with targeted muscle building and agility workouts, and she has been following a mainly plant based diet for several years.
After a while, she started teaching circus acrobatics to people and kids on the picturesque Lamma Island, where she lives, but soon enough, caught the interest of a studio called Trybe, who has been sponsoring her to remain in Hong Kong. There, she has been training adventurous customers and to all her students, Flor recommends building confidence as a major quality to nurture, as important as perseverance and hard work.
She explains how the best part of her job is doing what she loves, the feeling she gets flying in the air, bending her slight frame into impossible postures; but most of all, she relishes the audience’s reaction as they gape in awe, dazzled, yet holding their breaths for the acrobats’ safety. She speaks positively about the lack of discrimination towards women acrobats, and insists that respect is shown in equal measure by the public, with the occasional cultural difference, of course.
Her immediate future plans involve more performing and teaching but in the long term, she would love to open her own training school, to share her expertise and love of the marquee, concerned that one day, the art of the circus may be forgotten – a real loss for the world.
