In her bright red costume and matching lips, junior Rian Briscoe put her audience in a state of awe as she showed off her mastery of the aerial lyra, a circular apparatus suspended from the ceiling, at the 2015 TEDx Plano event in the show titled “Beyond the Expected: Cirque Youth.” Her trainer, Kimberly Adele, led this talk by showing off her students and the skills that the Youth Troupe had mastered at Dallas Cirque Theatre.

“Cirque encompasses a wide range of specific disciplines and apparatuses,” Adele said. “It is a fusion of athletics and artistry. And it is an extremely difficult physical activity that is presented in a theatrical way.”

A Cirque du Soleil performance and a serendipitous find on Groupon five years ago fueled Briscoe’s ambition and enthusiasm.  Over time, her fascination with this genre of performance continued to grow.

“After I watched my first Cirque du Soleil show I started taking a class that my mom found on Groupon,” Briscoe said. “So I started building up my strength and eventually my trainers asked me to perform with them.”

Every year, the members of Dallas Cirque Theatre Youth Troupe are given new assignments that they work on throughout the year. Briscoe’s assignments ranged from Spanish web, a rope covered in a sheet, to acrobatic acts with a partner. Currently she is working on trapeze acts with a partner.

The assignments are given every summer and in May they perform their skills for the parents.

“The excitement of the performance to the audience is my favorite part,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe has been able to travel and experience many opportunities where she has been able to showcase her acrobatic skills for different audiences.

“Rian is a very seasoned performer,” Adele said. “She’s been involved in a very wide range of performances ranging from community events to TEDx to a four city tour this summer to even being invited to perform with professionals.”

This summer, Briscoe along with the other members of her circus troupe toured theatres in Dallas/Fort Worth, Plano, San Antonio and Houston. The tour was decided in the middle of the year and the condition was that if an individual learned and mastered certain skills, then they could be a part of the tour group. This increased the amount of motivation in the troupe and everyone ended up touring Texas.

Along with this tour, Briscoe also performed at Wildflower Arts and Music Festival in Richardson, Texas. With a total of six performances there, Briscoe nostalgically describes this show as iconic.

She is often spoken about with pride and love for her impressive shows.

“What amazes me the most about Rian is her ability to do cirque and have the strength and endurance to do it all,” Plano East junior and close friend of Briscoe, Anjali Shah said. “She also enjoys it so much that you can see the pure joy when she performs.”

Her one-of-a-kind personality comes out in her performances as she continually impresses her audience.

“She is definitely really kind and hardworking and puts her whole heart into anything she does and this shows through her cirque,” Shah said.

Through her acrobatic training, Briscoe not only masters skills she can use in her future pursuits, but she also learns characteristics that are crucial for life.

“She consistently handles herself with such poise and maturity under pressure,” Adele said. “That is a skill useful in life, in general, and is something incredible that she does consistently.”

With these characteristics, Briscoe has the ability to pursue secondary education in circus acrobatics at The National Circus School, a prestigious and competitive school for higher education. This goal is what encourages her and is the root of her ambition.

“There are five National Circus Schools, but I want to go to one of the ones in Canada,” Briscoe said. “If I don’t get in, then I’ll go to college here and will keep training until I get in. I want to do this for a while.”

For Briscoe, her training is her escape. With the stress and turmoil of school, this is a place for her to unwind and do something she truly loves.

“It’s my favorite place,” Briscoe said. “Just to go there and work makes me feel better and if I’ve had a hard day, it helps me get my feelings out. It’s my emotional outlet.”