Professional circus artist returns to university at 45 to investigate women under the Big Top
A professional circus artist who grew up in a working-class family in Essex, surrounded by literature, art and storytelling, has returned to university, aged 45, to explore the physical realities and financial insecurity facing women in the circus industry.
Rebecca Plume, from Wooburn Green, has spent two decades performing internationally as a contortionist and aerialist.
Now, with the support of a fully funded scholarship at Bucks New University, she is conducting research into women's experiences in circus and the physical demands placed on their bodies.
Growing up on working class estate in the 1980s and 90s, her childhood was shaped by severe financial hardship, but also by a home filled with literature, art and storytelling.
She said: “I’m really proud of where I come from. We didn’t have much, but we had imagination. I grew up surrounded by art, beauty and literature and I’m so grateful for that.”
She was the first in her family to go to university, where she studied English Literature. But after graduating, her path shifted away from academia and into something more embodied.
She set up her own dance school, which gradually evolved into an aerial and pole studio. From there she met other performers, swapped skills and eventually began training in contortion.
After working with a high-profile contortionist who appeared in Game of Thrones, she began building a career performing and touring nationally.
“In circus terms, at 45, people expect you to age out of aerial arts,” she added. “If I were a gymnast or a footballer I’d have been retired for over a decade. But circus artists keep going. Being an older performer made me realise that you have gathered wisdom through experience, trial and error. It’s never too late to pursue your passions, and for me that includes returning to education.”
Her research looks at the material embodiment of being a woman working within circus - from the way the body interacts with apparatus to wider issues such as the lack of maternity support, financial security and long-term wellbeing.
She said: “Circus as we understand it, has existed for 250 years, yet women’s contributions and the unique toll on their bodies are usually framed as a spectacle or through their virtuosity. It seems ironic that we risk our lives in the air, yet there’s no maternity leave, no pensions and like any other economical framework, an artist is simply another commodity until the next product with a more death defying trick comes along.
"My work wants to understand what the female experience as a circus artist is like - how a female body intra-acts with apparatus. So what does a trapeze bar feel like against a caesarean scar or how does an artist manages risk while going through the menopause.”
Rebecca’s goal is to bring circus scholarship into the mainstream, challenging rigid, high-pressure training approaches that often embody harmful canons or practises that don’t work with the female anatomy. She hopes her work will inspire a more ethical and sustainable approach to working in the performing arts industry, as well as focus on the conditions in which artists perform.
“When you step inside a Big Top, hierarchy disappears,” she added. “Everyone sits shoulder to shoulder on the same benches. It’s a world of curiosities that offers a completely different way of not just seeing life, but how we might critically approach it....with wonder. I want to ensure that this embodied art doesn’t become undervalued, and that the women working with circus are heard and supported.”
She balances her full-time doctoral research with ongoing performance contracts, teaching and industry advocacy, while continuing to perform in the industry she is researching.