Chris Mayhew "Acrobatics has come of Age!"

Name

Name

Chris Mayhew "Acrobatics has come of Age!"

Basic Info

Current City

Perth

State

West Australia

Country

Australia

Gender

Male

About You

Chris’ Journey
As an imaginative child I didn’t fit well into the normal sporting genres in ’70s 80’s boom mining town in West Australia, Growing up as an Aussie Army kid with a dad in the military and subsequently, the family posted all over the world before returning to settle in the West.  I didn’t find my feet in the traditional team sports on offer. On the soccer field, I’d be too busy trying to walk on my hands or gazing off longingly into the trees, while the rest of the team was chasing the ball.
Eventually, after jumping off too many garden sheds and climbing every tree on the block including my neighbors I discovered a love for gymnastics and acrobatics, competing at Nationals in both sports before my coaches (both highly skilled ex-circus performers) ignited an artistic fire in me.
Master of sports coaches Kasimeire and Irina Jednerog welcomed me into their circus family back in the 80s shortly after immigrating here from a 3rd generation family of performing circus artists in Europe and I soon found myself apprenticed to learning everything I could from them.
Exotic circus acts such as Adagio, Hand to Hand, Banquine, Teeterboard, Perch, and Russian Bar, numbers very seldom seen anywhere in Australia at that time, now became my discipline whilst I slowly developed my fundamentals under the guidance of these very talented and patient coaches. I also found a blossoming early passion for passing on my new knowledge and sharing with others this inspiring creative world.
After school, as an extremely shy young man who couldn’t sing, dance, or act my first career steps were a stint in the Australian Army and then laboring in the gold mines of WA but neither could keep me for long while the glamour of Showbiz beckoned and I had a very unconventional start to a career in performing arts that would eventually take me around the world.
Working with some of Australia’s leading Circus, Dance, Theatre, and Opera companies as an acrobat/performer leads to a role as an acrobat doing lifts with none other than Nicole Kidman in the Feature film “Moulin Rouge” before starting my own specialty circus acts “Duo Arabesque” and “Equillbrio” performing as guest artists in many events and shows here in Australia and overseas for many years.
At that extreme level, physical performance in any discipline or sport can’t be maintained for very long. All shows must draw to a finale and the curtain must close …so too all good things must come to an end. But for myself, the ending of my own performance career was only the beginning of a new chapter.
Retiring from an International performance career and coming home to the West in 2013, I had already been creating and trialing much of the ideas and philosophy behind his teaching

My Acro

Primary Role

Spotter

Teacher Certification

Partner Acrobatics

About Your Acro

Chris Mayhew – Professional Background
Chris is an accomplished and versatile performer, circus artist, trainer and now working as a director with over 30 years of experience in his field. A former national level competitor in both artistic gymnastics and sports acrobatics qualifying as a state level coach and judge in both Mens and Womens gymnastics teams before performing world wide as a principal adagio dancer and circus artist.
Some of his credits include; featured acrobat in the film “Moulin Rouge” and engagements with many of Australia’s leading Performing Arts companies such as Circus Oz, Darc Swan Dance Company, Salamanca Theatre company, Page Gordon Dance Collective and The Australian Opera to name a few.
His early passion for coaching and devising gymnastic training programs became a foundation for working as a circus trainer and he developed acrobatic training programs at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) as well as curriculum for acrobatic dance in vocational dance schools. Some of his former students are now performing in Cirque du Solie and have featured in Musicals “West Side Story” and “Dirty Dancing” as well as many international shows.
As well as passing on his training and experience to professional level performers he is of the strong belief that “the circus and performing arts have a valuable and significant contribution to the development of youth and can help with many of the issues young people face today”.
The nature of circus training itself is non competitive and very holistic towards self developmental and positive lifestyles. Outcomes such as respect, self esteem, creativity, strong community focus and social development, not to mention the physical benefits of fitness and healthy habits formed for both young and older participants is well documented.
Now focused more on the development of others in the physical art form he is renewed by the teaching, directing and facilitation of what he see’s as a huge potential for development in both educational and the performance areas utilizing the many positive aspects of today’s contemporary circus.