Esmeralda Nikolajeff

When I was asked at the age of two what I wanted to become when I grew up I answered "an aerial acrobat"! It surprised people that a small person like me even knew that word. Climbing onto the highest furniture and throwing myself to whoever was there to catch me, I fast became a flyer and since the age of five I've been playing around in the circus environment.
Throughout the years we've been traveling around Europe, performing in all kinds of scenarios, meeting many different people. Each experience reinforced my conviction that the two year old in me made a good decision; this open world of circus with a constant need for development is a world that I want to be part of.

When we were seven and ten years old we found each other in a youth circus group and started to play. Playing became climbing and lifting, throwing and catching, traveling and performing. Since then we have done festivals, varieties, street performance and all kinds of events. We became experts at last minute solutions and adjusting our performances to the stage we were to enter. But something we never had time for was to experiment, research and try things out without the pressure of it having to work. Therefore we applied to DOCH and during our three years there we developed a high-level duo trapeze technique together with the technical genius Christian “Vippen” Vilppola, our loving teacher and mentor. We created a style rather radically different from the traditional way of performing duo trapeze. We also do dance acrobatics, cyr wheel and our own kind of hand to hand floor work.

Mira Leonard

I tend to talk a lot. Even though I prefer the company of lovely people I also like those moments of solitude, listening to ridiculously loud music and dancing when no one is watching. And coffee.
I stumbled into the circus world as a child and ran straight into the young and tiny Esmeralda Nikolajeff. The first time we tried the trapeze together my legs cramped and I let go. Now I don't remember how it became our main discipline, I guess the next attempt went better because since then we've been sharing beds, caravans, tents and hanging from boat masts, in trees and invading living rooms together.
I look forward now after graduating to more adventures.