Joining the circus might seem like a distant childhood dream or an outlandish plan only true vagabonds would attempt.
Not for Sophie and Patrick Donahue, the father-daughter team who decided joining the circus was a perfectly normal idea.
The two were busy clearing the floor after the second performance of the Great Benjamin Circus at the Hope Arena, before hopping into their RV onto the next stop in their tour of B.C.
“I decided I wanted to join the circus so we researched it and came all the way out here,” Sophie said with a big smile. So far they’ve stopped mainly in small towns, something new for the family who lives in the second-most populated city in South Korea with 3.6 million inhabitants in the city alone and 8.2 million in the metropolitan area.
“I learned how to sweep and how to clean,” Sophie said of the knowledge she’s gained so far on the one-month tour.
She has also met a lot of interesting people, including a former trapeze artist who now travels with the circus and throws himself several metres into the air onto a sheet held up by two other performers. This is the final act of the traveling circus.
“They think I’m really lucky because I get to skip school,” Sophie said of her friends, who also don’t think joining the circus is out of the ordinary.
Patrick explains that in their life in Busan, with many international and mixed families, world travel and offbeat vocations are the norm.
“Our whole lives we’ve been very unattached, you know. She was born in Istanbul, her brother was born in Singapore, I was born in the States, I immigrated to Canada when I was 22. My wife, her mom, is Dutch. We lived the last 30 years in Asia,” he said. “We’re used to moving around, so we really see the opportunities in the world, all over.”
Sophie has ambitions to join in the opening dance of the circus by the end of the tour. As for dad, who Sophie said is very outgoing and likes to try new things, taking part in the motorcycle trick is an idea as is fire-eating, which he promises he will learn before he leaves the circus life.
“Look at what assets you have, and put them together into a combination that pushes you to new directions,” Patrick said when asked what advice he has for other families who want to adventure together.
As for advice for girls her age, Sophie said “everyone should find some kind of circus and just join.”
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