Emmaline’s tricky hoops and dreams

Andrew Mathieson
TWIRLING a hula-hoop in the schoolyard will never be the same again once kids see Emmaline MacArtney’s circle of tricks.
For the mesmerising 30-year-old, a circus ring, not those flavoured-milk-scented rings of the ‘80s, was the inspiration.
The first hoop was found under the family Christmas tree one year – that is, not until she was 18 and all grown up.
“They knew I had developed an interested in circus acts,” Emmaline says.
“I went to the women’s circus show once and it just totally blew me away.”
Emmaline combines the theatre of hula-hoops with subtle gesture.
She demonstrates as one hoop starts spinning continuously around the knee.
The next is balanced on the waist.
Another sits precariously on an arm and her neck.
Soon Emmaline’s whole body is engulfed with no less than 30 hula-hoops, twirling in unison to camouflage her from head to toe.
“You have to split your concentration through your whole body,” she explains.
“I see it kind of like a spiral that comes from the ground all the way up.
“As each hoop has its own independence, you have to continue each individual part of your body.”
In the industry of circus acts, cabarets or burlesque stage shows, the hula-hoop has become Emmaline’s speciality.
What has made the performance artist more famous among the public is the movement of fire twirling, flame throwing and, even, body burning.
“I do a bit of a dance with a little flame and rub it over my body,” Emmaline casually admits.
“I can put it out in my mouth and I even do fire hula-hoops.”
The self-confessed obsession came about when, as a wide-eyed Torquay teen, Emmaline witnessed fire in a spiritual performance at a dance party in the Otways.
The close-knit community of hippy forest activists took her backstage and showed her all the tricks of the trade.
The most daring is body burning, which involves an exacting technique allowing the fire to barely lick Emmaline’s skin.
“When you’re touching yourself with the flame, you do it quite quickly,” she points out.”
The secret is to hold the flame away from the face while creating the illusion of a ball of fire being swallowed whole.
Pointing the fire stick right down her mouth, Emmaline turns and warns: “You put it this way and you’re going to burn yourself.”
She gasps in one big blow then boasts: “I’ve never had any injuries with fire – never will.”
To survive any burns, Emmaline closes her lips to stop oxygen entering her mouth, which ensures the flame dies.
She says the biggest dangers for circus performers are the aerial acts – the trapeze and cloud swing – and not heat on a stick.
She admits to a few close calls.
“That was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me, nearly falling off during a performance,” Emmaline recalls.
“I did a trick where I did a backward flip above the bar and it was quite high.
“Something happened and the bar was swinging underneath me.
“I had to hold my whole body weight six foot in the air and I couldn’t reach the bar that was moving.”
While it’s hard to believe while watching her play with fire, Emmaline initially had more-mundane career visions of becoming a nurse.
But the passion to perform became so great the aspiring artist quit child care studies for National Institute of Circus Arts.
The tricks that have audiences a gasp are from a mix of Russian and Chinese techniques. Her teacher is an acclaimed Argentinan whose daughter, Gypsy, has made a name with Silver’s Circus.
Training under a Cirque De Soleil mime helped Emmaline turn the sometimes spectacular into a personal art of storytelling.
“You can only learn from the right person – you can’t learn any other way,” she observes.
“It is a lineage, an oral tradition and you have to seek it out if you want to learn more.”