Aidin Ralfe (left) is back in Taupō this weekend performing in the circus theatre show Fool Steam Ahead. He is pictured with fellow performers Katelyn Reed (centre) and Rhyanne Vasta. Photo / Supplied
Aidin Ralfe (left) is back in Taupō this weekend performing in the circus theatre show Fool Steam Ahead. He is pictured with fellow performers Katelyn Reed (centre) and Rhyanne Vasta. Photo / Supplied
It wasn't the traditional path for a school dux.
Most school duxes announce they plan to embark on a high-minded course of university study after finishing school. But when Aidin Ralfe was 17, and dux of Taupō-nui-a-Tia College, he told a reporter he planned to do a circus degree. And he did.
Eight years later, the now Wellington-based performer returns to his old home town this weekend to join in the fun at the Malcolm Flowers Insurances Taupō Winter Festival. Aidin and his co-performers are running a kids circus workshop on Saturday and performing in Fool Steam Ahead, an imaginative circus theatre show aimed at 5-to-10-year-olds that combines stunts, acrobatics and laughs, on Sunday morning.
Aidin has his own circus business and also performs for other circuses and groups as opportunity allows. He also does "a little bit of magic" on the side and teaches at The Circus Hub in Wellington.
After leaving school, Aidin went to Otago University to study law for a year but says he found out pretty quickly that it wasn't his kind of thing, unlike the aerial silks studio that he found himself spending plenty of time at.
"There was [also] a university circus club and that's where I learned to juggle. Then I decided I wanted to do more circus, so I ended up packing up and transferring to Victoria University of Wellington and did a degree in theatre studies, and also took as many recreational classes as I could at the circus hub.
"They started running a performance programme for people wanting to take it in a more professional direction, so I ended up doing that nine hours a week for two years."
Aidin followed that with a year at a circus and dance course.
Now he is a circus performer and also works at The Circus Hub teaching children's classes and aerial strap classes.
"I'm living pretty happily actually," he said, saying that opportunities come up and doors open and while sometimes he doesn't know where something is going to go, it is always fun to see.
He says most of what he does is aerial straps, which he describes as "like gymnastic rings but minus the rings. Lots of moving around, spinning, dynamic stuff".
"And I do a bit of duo straps and I do a fair amount of trio acrobatics. Most of what I tend to offer is on the theatrical side of circus. I'm juggling, hand stunts, a little bit of acrobatics, straps ... it depends on the show."
As well as performing in Fool Steam Ahead for Colossal Productions at the Taupō Winter Festival, Aidin has also started his own circus, Septic Steamfish, with a couple of friends and they did a show called Vegan Jesus earlier this year.
Aidin Ralfe studied drama throughout his secondary schooling at Taupō-nui-a-Tia College and was dux in 2013. Photo / NZME
Aidin says a lot of it is about making their own work and dragging in friends to get involved.
"Sometimes we make our own shows, which is what Vegan Jesus was about, and I did a solo show a couple of years ago but for this one [Fool Steam Ahead] Colossal got the option to recast a show they did a couple of years ago and offered us the chance to jump in on it."
He says Fool Steam Ahead is "a really cute and fun show".
"The main concept is we're on a ship, we've got some work to do, we've got to do that work. It's really whimsical and playful, stuff goes wrong and we try to fix it and more stuff goes wrong and we try to fix that, and there's a seagull who's out to have a look and have a peck-around."
The show has already been performed in Wellington this year and Aidin says lots of kids turned out to enjoy the shows.
He says the circus workshop will also be good fun, with him and two of his fellow performers, who also teach circus, keen to pass on some basic circus skills.
"Anyone can do it. Half the battle is convincing their brain that they can do it. [There'll be] some basic partner acrobatics, a little bit of tumbling on their own, just a chance to break out and try some stuff that certainly wasn't there when I was in Taupō."
The Details
What: Kids Circus Workshop for kids aged 7 upwards
When: Saturday, July 17, 10am - 11am
Where: Taupō Youth Arts Centre, 96 Richmond Ave, Taupō
What: Fool Steam Ahead When: Sunday, July 18, 11am Where: Great Lake Centre, Taupō. Price: From $14, includes entry to pancake breakfast at 10am Tickets for both at taupowinterfestival.co.nz
