by Mike Hoban

The tour of Cirque Dreams’ Holidaze will make a stop at the Boch Center the weekend of December 10-12. The Broadway-style musical, inspired by the ‘Nutcracker’ ballet, is infused with over 20 contemporary circus artists and features over 300 costumes as ballerinas, snowmen, penguins, reindeer, ethereal aerialists, gingerbread people, carolers and colossal ornaments fly, balance, and juggle around a Christmas-themed storyline. The show also features Broadway singers performing renditions of holiday classics as well as original music.

Theater Mirror had the chance to speak with aerialist Hana Bible, the lead in the show, who is making her debut with Cirque Dreams as Clara, the young girl from the story of the ‘Nutcracker’.

THEATER MIRROR: When did you first get involved in performing?

HANA: I’ve been a performer since I was very young, and the story is actually pretty ironic. I started as a dancer, and the reason I started dancing was because I wanted to play the role of Clara in the Nutcracker. I started dancing ballet when I was six, but when I was old enough to play the role (typically around age 12) I wasn’t cast because I tended to play the parts that usually went to boys because I was athletic and could tumble and leap. I was actually cast as the Nutcracker instead, because at my dance studio the role called for an athletic performer. So from the time I was 11 until the age of 18 I was the Nutcracker. Eventually I aged out of the opportunity, but I was in love with dancing by that point, so I just kept going. I moved to LA (from San Francisco) to go to college, and after I graduated, I went back to dancing because it was my first love. I was doing hip-hop and modern dance but it was for the love – it was mostly unpaid. Then I got a few professional dancing jobs, got an agent and began auditioning for TV shows and commercials and musical theater. A few years in, I realized I needed to expand my horizons as a performer, and I began to get into the circus arts, primarily the aerial silks.