Being a child of the circus, I sometimes envy those with a hometown; forever holding an accessible answer to that recurring question: where are you from?
Like the ‘kids’ of the traditional Circus Gerbola (ranging from chubby toddlers to gangly tweens and university students ), I grew up travelling, performing, and playing. But that experience is hard to share with those who were not born to circus people.
When Salvador Saenz, 18, tries to tell people outside the show about his life, “it’s difficult to explain. People just say: ‘wow, the circus! That’s really nice’."
“It’s not that easy to say ‘it’s just nice’,” he explains, as we sit on the ringcurb, watching his little brother, Faustino, play with my dog and child-friendly reporting assistant, Izzie. “It is tough sometimes, moving so much. [But] people like it a lot. And I like being from the circus.”
“I’d kinda describe it as like one big family, kind of,” considers Isabella Gerbola (15 ). “Like everyone teaches each other, that’s how we learn new skills.”
Isabella, daughter of Tara and Michael Gerbola (owners and showrunners of the circus ), attends secondary school during the week – and on the weekends, goes to the circus.
She finds it can be hard to communicate the experience of being from the circus. “Some people think it’s more like a joke, but it’s actually your life.
“I’ve been travelling my whole life. It’s amazing because you get to see so many different places. It’s also difficult to balance school, and the travelling and working life. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Her dad, “Mikey” Gerbola, started performing 51 years ago, at eight years old.
Living the circus life is “not like a nine-to-five job,” he explains. There is work to do, but - especially as a child, “you get to see other people doing different things, practising, then they take you under their wing, they teach you things.
“So yeah, you work, you put up the tent, you take it down, then in the daytime you might practise a bit or you go off and play, or go to the seaside. As a child, it’s an amazing childhood.”
Outside of performing aerial straps, Safaya Grace Hawker, 13, likes to color and read fantasy. “But I also like to train, like I’m a train-a-holic, so when it’s a day off, I always go in and train when my mom tells me not to. But mainly coloring.”
Most of the kids attend online school because of the consistent movement. The Palacios Ayres siblings (Sophya, Alycia, and Luis ) grew up in many places, including Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The travelling life, according to Sophya, 15, “is normal - once you adapt, it’s not that bad.”
When I ask what Faustino Saenz likes to do, the answer is not much different from any other 11-year-old. “He likes playing around, going on bikes, running around with his friends,” Salvador translates.
“For me, I like going out with him, or with my friends. At the same time, on days off, I like going into town, and maybe do a bit of street performing as well with the people.” This week, Salvador could be found juggling basketballs on Shop Street, with Galway’s own football performer Sebastian Kuduk.
Making friends outside the show can be difficult logistically, though it is possible. On the show, though, Salvador says “you make friends really, really fast.”
Faustino likes being on the circus, “because in all my life, I always moving and have friends… and later, I know I gonna find anywhere I go, friends.”
I ask the brothers what they want to do when they grow up. They confer briefly in Spanish before Salvador answers: “Okay, we’ve talked about this a few times, we want to compete in the Monte Carlo Festival, and we want to open our own circus and have a nice show.”
All of the kids have big ambitions - whether it’s Safaya’s dreams of Cirque du Soleil, Alycia’s festival plans, or Salvador’s own travelling circus. But perhaps unlike many other young people, they have already developed some real skills – and an understanding of their capabilities which will travel with them into adulthood.
As Mikey put it: “Luckily, luckily, circus children have a variety [in their lives] – yes they do have their phones, which annoy us a lot of the time, but they do spend time working, putting up and taking down the tent.
“It’s life experience, more than just learning something in school and then going to a factory, or just living on their phones. So they have the best of both worlds, really.”
Chatting with Tara in the tent, there must have been a dozen kids up on the trapeze platform, taking turns flying while Salvador practiced catching them.
They will be doing the same thing next week, in a different town.
But wherever they go, they will be at home.
Circus Gerbola is in town at Galway Racecourse in Ballybrit, until August 23. See www.CircusGerbola.ie for show times and details.
