Katie Wright Dynamite reveals the behind the scenes life of travelling with a circus and young children
An Adelaide entertainer who has performed in 32 countries and travelled in a circus with her young children and contortionist husband has swapped life under the big top for a SA radio gig.
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It’s the stuff of childhood dreams, travelling the world with the circus as a professional hula hooper and juggler.
Adelaide’s Katie Wright has done just that, marrying a New York-born contortionist she met along the way and taking their young children to share in the adventure.
For more than two decades, the former Prospect Primary student performed to audiences around the globe as a versatile circus performer and independent artist, Katie Wright Dynamite, at street and art festivals.
In 2014, she went behind the camera for the role of juggling cook and cafe owner Mimi on the ABC kids’ TV series, Hoopla Doopla.
Today, she and husband Leo Mendez, aka “Bone Breaking Leo” live in the Adelaide Hills with their sons, Leo, 8, and Liam, 3.
Wright, now working in regional radio, takes time out to chat about her quirky past ventures, life as “no ordinary mum” – and future aspirations.
Born in the Riverland, Wright relocated to suburban Adelaide aged four with her dad and brother, after her mum died.
While her mum’s sad passing isn’t something she likes to talk about, she describes her social worker dad as “actually truly amazing”.
“Which doesn’t mean my upbringing was perfect, it was an interesting and rocky road … we moved house, like about 23 times – I think I’ve actually lived in every street in Prospect,” she laughs.
But the dad and daughter duo share a tight bond. It was him who researched private midwives for her when she was pregnant with Leo and realised the hospital “wasn’t the right space for me” while he was at the water birth of Liam.
“(Dad) said it was the most incredible experience of his entire life,” she says.
It was while at primary school in Prospect – she later went the Nailsworth High School – she was first introduced to the magic of circus.
“It was probably in the late 1980s that I saw a (youth circus) Cirkidz show while on a school excursion and I just fell in love … I was like, ‘I have to do that – I have to be part of this’.
“Dad then put me in classes and that was it … it was all I ever cared about from then on.
“I just had to be on stage.
“We did it all at Cirkidz — acrobatics and pyramids and trapeze, clowning and performing.”
She progressed to “adult” circus school and specialised in juggling and as a hula hooper but during her time on the road with the circus would also spend time as a clown and ring master.
“I’ve MCed literally hundreds of shows as a circus ringmaster in a classical circus context,” she says.
When baby Liam was three months old, she and Mendez spent 12 months touring nationally with the Hudsons Circus, living in a caravan with Leo, then 6 and in Reception, who’d they’d taken out of school.
“We’d move every week – and sometimes every second week,” Wright says.
“The circus had a school van and it was my job to find a teacher … she was amazing and taught across six levels.
“Little Leo would head off to school at nine in the morning four days a week and when we moved to a new town it was my husband’s job to drive the school van.
“It was hardcore. We’d do shows Wednesday through to Sunday with two or three shows on a Saturday and Sunday … the shows were two hours long, so it was pretty hard.
“Because it was a classical circus set up, as well as performing we’d all pitch in to help out with the other jobs – from cleaning, to ushering guests to their seats, working in the ticket box and selling popcorn and balloons at the show.
“My husband would help put up and pull down the tent which is a big job … because I had a small baby, I would be in the box office selling tickets – and breastfeeding at the same time!
“We would pull down the tent after the last show on Sunday and on Monday it would be ‘move day’ … Leo would drive the school bus, I’d have the kids and we’d drive to the next town.
“On Tuesday, we’d put up the tent, and I’d be in the box office all day, then Wednesday was ‘show day’ with a show at 7pm … during the day you would train, the kids would go to school.
“I would do my acts – sometimes I’d include (my eldest), putting him in a suitcase and making him jump out with confetti and stuff – Leo would do his act.
“We would have a ‘tent boy’ hold our baby backstage … there were horses and camels backstage, you know, so there was a lot going on.
”For the closing, you were often able to bring the kids out for the finale which audiences would love … they’d be like, ‘Oh, my god, they’ve got a baby, it’s a family’ — they’d put it all together.
“Post show the flying trapeze artists would train, then people would sit around a little fire outside someone’s caravan … so the nights were kind of late.”
As hectic and unconventional as life was, Wright says it was strangely well-suited to raising a family.
“Circus life and festival life really do lend themselves in some ways to having kids … to be honest, I’m working in breakfast radio now and feel like managing this ‘mum life’ is much more challenging,” she says.
“We were on the road with a community of performers, some who’d I worked with on and off for 15 years, so it was a kind of great place to be … there’s a certain magic to classical circus.”
She’d previously juggled performing and a newborn, working the festival circuits here, across Europe and in Canada, when her eldest was baby.
”That was also a really interesting, and special time … I would get the festival director – or their teenage daughter – to watch him … it was a really magical tour because it felt like I was seeing everything the first time again, because I had a baby,” she says.
“I think maybe it was just a good time of my life to have a baby as I was a little bit older, I was 35 … I had my baby, I was doing shows, I was touring around the world – it was a happy sort of moment … my cup was full.
“I have performed in like 32 countries and lived this kind of different life because I’ve always followed my heart … but (the best memories) come back to the birth of my two children, that’s been the most amazing thing in my entire life.”
Wright says while she and Mendez are settled in South Australia, her “American Latino” husband, now working as a bus driver, took some time to adjust.
“He’s a Brooklyn boy, east New York, and it is a bit rough over where he’s from … being surrounded by trees in the Adelaide Hills was a bit challenging at first … he missed the sirens and the city life but now he has got used to the space and likes he can play his music loudly and not bother anyone,” she laughs.
And what is she looking to do next?
Despite the early starts – setting her alarm for 3.30am – Wright says she is loving life behind a radio microphone.
“I am really focusing on my big radio dreams … I’m loving my work at Power FM – broadcasting to Murray Bridge, the south coast and Murraylands – but am hoping to get a breakfast or drive show gig on a metro radio station next,” she says.
“I’m really optimistic … and a bit crazy – I just try to make things happen.”
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