I’m Kelly Maryanski …I grew up in Mount Prospect … Which is a northwest suburb of Chicago … I went to school in Ohio … I went to Denison University … and then moved back to Illinois … and I moved to the city … and I’ve lived in Chicago … for something like five years … I grew up playing every sport … I was an athlete … I did every extracurricular activity in school … I did … I was a competitive cheerleader … I did dance team … I did volleyball … I played volleyball outside of school and I played for Junior Nationals … I’m a setter in volleyball … I was … very … very … very … very … athletic … and also very into dance …  So I took classes when I was little … I did Orchesis when I was in high school … It was basically … instead of gym … you can audition to be in a modern … contemporary … dance company in high school … Which is where I got exposed to working for Dance for Life … Doing pieces in Dance Chicago … Training with a lot of contemporary choreographers … My other life is … I’m an illustrator … I’m an ink and water color illustrator … I’ve been drawing since I was little … I first got published when I was a sophomore in high school … So it’s my other thing … So I do fashion illustration and live event work … doing quick watercolors … So … I worked for a company called Bolchazy- Carducci … which is a latin to english text book company … I would illustrate their cd’s and their textbooks … That was my first published work … Now I work with a few authors in Chicago … doing poem illustration … book illustration … novellas … short stories … The live work is mostly through bigger companies … Neiman Marcus … Simple Skin Care … The Westfield shopping center … So Orchesis in high school … Through that program … and my dance teacher … I was introduced to more contemporary dance … and that segued my interest … I went to college for dance and art … more contemporary work … and then … I discovered aerial work after college … and I was … “That’s the thing … That’s what I want to do” … Did I see performances growing up? … I went to a few ballets growing up … I mostly was into musical theater … Which makes sense … cause when I graduated … I came to Chicago and I’ve actually been a musical theater actor … since 2012 … When I was twelve … So … in middle school … I became obsessed with Cat’s the musical … It was like my favorite thing ever … I knew all the choreography … everything about Cat’s … Because it’s a combination … You have the dance … You have the singing … you have the artistry … you have the costumes … the complete character creation … I just love that show … and I know … people hate it … or love it … I finally got to be in that show … which was amazing … In high school … my parents brought me to see ABT … American Ballet Theater … I went to the opera once when I was in high school … I was in AP French … and we went to see Carmen at Lyric … It’s funny … I work in operas … but I only saw one while growing up … It’s interesting how everything came full circle … I’ve always been doing artistic things … I love the Ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem … I believe she’s French … Just her line work … and her body … everything about her … I love her … Artistically … Murakami … I used to like Jeff Koons a lot … Which now I think is hilarious (laughter) … also Edith Head … The costume designer for Paramount Pictures … Edith Heads drawings … I love her … John Tenniel … who illustrated for Lewis Carroll … Alice in Wonderland … Now … I have a lot of contemporary people that I look up to … Aerialists … and in the Circus … That list is huge … There’s a lot of inspirational artists that I look up to now … I’m still very new to the circus … aerial community … I went to circus school last year … So I did a nine month … full time … circus program … Which … is all I did for nine months … I graduated last summer … June of 2018 … I went to The Actors Gymnasium in Evanston … They have a full time circus program … You apply … basically its just like college … but for circus … and it’s only a year … Through that program … and other people I met … and my primary coach that I worked with … I’ve fallen into this circus aerial world … When I went to college … I originally wanted to go to a school that was in a city … Which is very much … not … Denison … Denison is on the top of a hill … in the middle of Ohio … Away from everything … A small little town there … that’s it … You’re forty minutes away from Columbus … Which … Columbus compared to Chicago … slightly different … The reason I went there is because my sister went there … My sister is two years older then me … She went there … and I went to go interview there … I remember telling admissions … I did not want to go there … to their face … “I’m not going here” … And then I got accepted (laughter) … And ended up going to Denison … I worked in their Dance department … And their art department … Which both are fabulous … And I still talk to my professors today … It was mostly because of my sister … that I went there … It was a positive experience … The dance department is very small … There were maybe … sixteen other dancers that I worked with … And the art department was even smaller … So I was one of six BFA’s to graduate my year … So there were only six of us … Which was great … because we each had our own private studio … There were really amazing mentors … a lot of opportunities to exhibit … I would say it was very very positive … Because it’s such a small school … you were able to connect with your professors … pretty much 24-7 … And they keep in contact with you … and really know what’s going on … versus a bigger school … My BFA was in studio art … and my minor was in dance … When I graduated … I really didn’t know … I always wanted to be a performer … I knew I was going to do something with illustrating … I didn’t know anybody here … because I grew up in the suburbs … So I didn’t know what to do … So that summer that I graduated … I took off … and took a bunch of road trips with friends … I took the California Zephyr from Chicago to California … and visited my friend in Sacramento … Then I took a road trip to Nashville … I took that summer to travel … I didn’t really know that I wanted to be in Chicago … but it made sense based on where I lived … When I got back from my trips … I moved back home … and then I started working for Lancome … It’s a French company … cosmetic company … as a beauty adviser and a makeup artist … It kind of made sense with the illustrating and being artistic … I did that for a while and started auditioning for musicals … And as I booked more shows … I was … Oh … there’s a huge theater scene in Chicago … So I stayed in Chicago … With Lancome … I worked at a department store … but for the Lancôme counter … I was there for about a year … In regards to performing … My focus after graduating was more theater based rather then contemporary dance based … which is what I did mostly in high school … I had the opportunity to work with many people early on in high school … But … After I graduated college … there was a period when I wanted to get back into contemporary dance … I worked with Artis Dance Company in their first year … I currently dance with Lucid Banter Project … I’m there off and on … I was part of their Words on Film last year … They did one dance for summer … fall … winter … and spring … I was part of their fall piece … I’ve been real busy … So I haven’t been able to be part of their project this year … As far as aerial performances … I took my first aerial class four years ago … and just fell in love with it … I was … This is the art form I was meant to do … So … I discovered circus … through The Actors Gymnasium … and Aloft … and Aerial Dance Chicago … So I started taking classes four years ago … and I just took more classes and more classes … I fell in love with it … but it was also one of the hardest things … because it takes so long to build strength … especially the upper body strength that you need to actually do it …  It was one of those constant things … that I loved it … but hated it so hard … But I really wanted it … And then I got accepted into the professional circus training program at Actors Gym … which is kind of … circus … tumbling … acro … everything … everyday … So … a lot of it is … we had strength assessments every quarter … but everyday … there would be warm up and conditioning … A basic day would be forty minutes of a warm up … which includes … cardio … push-ups … pull-ups … hollow body holds … different flexibility skills … The warm up would be tumbling … partner acro … an hour and a half of contortion … then maybe three hours of aerial training … or … private lessons … Monday through Friday … It’s a lot … on the body … It’s a lot … injuries happen … yeah … everyday … So now … most of the performing I do … if it’s not with theater or at opera … I do dance … either dance gigs … with different entertainment companies … or aerial gigs for them … My apparatus that I do is dance trapeze … and sling … So … Most of the work I do now is dance trapeze … Which is basically trapeze … but instead of it fixed on two points … it’s one point … So it looks like a triangle and it spins around … I’ll do corporate events … galas … I’ve done events at casinos … nightclubs … Usually I’m booked solo … but there will be other performers there … depending on what the work is … sometimes it’s through a company … sometimes it’s through myself … For rigging … it varies depending on what the venue is … I did an event last week at outside at Daley Plaza … it had rained … it was wet … and I was doing silks … It was not a great atmosphere … it was wet … So … if there’s an aerial rig for outside that works … or otherwise beam clamps … usually theres somebody there that knows how to rig … But I just have my own apparatus with me … Once a month I work for a Bircus Brewery Company … about once a month depending on their needs … and my availability … It’s a brewery circus in Ludlow Kentucky … It’s right across the river from Cincinnati … A brewery circus in Ludlow Kentucky … It’s a micro brewery … on the weekends they have live music … and they have circus nights … So … I’m a guest performer for them … and teach some workshops there … I go to LA once in a while … and I train there … I’m going to Sacramento in a month … possibly doing a workshop … in an aerial studio … I actually really like performing in casinos … I really like the people that work there … The fact that most people who go there … haven’t seen circus … or aerial work … I think those are the best events … where people haven’t seen this kind of work before … I also like doing smaller events for kids … and families that haven’t seen any circus … or dance … Where would I like to perform? … There’s a lot of circus in Europe … More then here … I would love to … somehow do a residency in Scotland … Particularly in the Highlands of Scotland … Not Glasgow … Not Edinburgh … But more remotely … I don’t know how … But … I’m thinking of a way to make that happen … That would be really cool … Yeah … I want to rent a motorcycle … I just bought a motorcycle … I would love to rent a motorcycle and do some kind of West Highland dance trapeze … aerial workshop there … It’s my thoughts … When I perform … depending on what the situation is … If I have to improvise … I’ll take sequences from acts that I already have … put it to the music … I really have to listen to the music and the dynamics to see if it works … If it’s an event where I’m asked to perform I’ll bring music … and do the act that I’ve done … So … as far as social media … Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend … about being a performer … I’m not a burlesque performer … But being in the circus world … and being an aerialist … you’re wearing outfits and costumes where you’re seeing … the lines of the body … or maybe you’re wearing a crop top … You know … more revealing things … Even being a dancer … that’s part of your work … It’s a male friend I was talking to … and he said … “You know … a while ago … last year … when you would post pictures on social media … I got very … jealous that other people were looking at it … and thinking … Oh … look at her … and all of that exposed skin … kind of like a piece of meat  basically” … But now in the past year or so … I don’t get a lot of comments … for the most part … or messages like … “Oh … look at how flexible you are” … Or comments about outfits … that I used to get … which is good … This is where social media can be good and bad … I feel I need to use social media to be relevant … and in terms of getting jobs … it’s good to see what people are working on … But sometimes you get creepy people … scrolling through profiles on Instagram … And if yours is public … which … most performers are … because you want to get … you want to grow your audience … Sometimes you get annoying … creepy … messages … I just delete them (laughter) … I do feel like I have to be constantly posting … and telling people what I’m up to … to be relevant … Yeah … It’s my own personal thought on it … It doesn’t  bother me that much … Are things fair for me … as a woman? … That’s a tricky question for me because 80% of the aerialists out there … are females … A majority of this kind of work … are female … There are obviously male artists … There’s a ton of male artists … but most of the events … that I do … are with other female aerialists … I haven’t … maybe I just live in a bubble … but I haven’t really noticed any mistreatment … or anything … with me … in particular … with jobs … I also haven’t been doing this that long (laughter) … Which social medias do I prefer … I love Instagram … It can be overwhelming … But … I’m a very visual person … Instagram is my favorite … Facebook I only use for … I use it on my personal page … I use it for business … events … sometimes political comments … but mostly just events … that I’m working … or going to … And I do have a website … and I usually refer people to my website … and then Instagram … for work … A lot of the work I get is from people emailing me … And a lot of it is from companies and studios that I teach at or work with … who needs an aerialist … That’s just for the circus … not the illustration work … which is a whole separate thing … Though I do have an Instagram account for that too … I try to keep them separate … Somebody asked me this the other day … about illustration versus … circus … aerial … dance … Um … Illustration is something that’s always come really naturally to me … and I can do it anywhere … I can do it remotely … Which is great … because … when I travel … If I have a project I need to do … I can do it … With aerial work … if I need to train … I can’t just rig my trapeze anywhere … I have to find a studio … I have to make sure there’s insurance … it costs money … there are so many things … and it’s art that you’re doing with your body … stretching everyday … maintaining your strength … flexibility … I don’t have a favorite … I really like the balance of … kind of the freedom I have of where I can illustrate … I travel for both … I travel all over for illustration … and for circus … but … my circus home base is in Chicago … I never really know how to answer the “Where do you see yourself in the X amount of years question” … I think … One of the things I’ll say is that … This year I’ve ended up booking … and getting involved with groups that … two … three years ago … I said … “ Wow … wouldn’t it be amazing to work for those companies” … Which is a really cool thing to say … And … I’m not working for Cirque du Soleil … Yet (laughter) … but still … there have been … some pretty cool things that have happened … I want to keep doing what I’m doing … possibly on a bigger scale … With illustration work … I’ve slowly gotten bigger and bigger clients … and more traveling … Which I really like … I love traveling  … The same with aerial work … And I’ll end that saying … I love Chicago … but I’ve always been driven to the west coast … So … Maybe I’ll end up somewhere in the west coast … relatively soon … But I don’t know …