Dream chaser since 1987.

I was welcomed into the world of Cirque du Soleil in 2003, upon my first viewing of Dralion. My cousin Kerry was a lighting technician at the time. Having never heard of this French Canadian circus before, I became enthralled. Obsessed, possibly. I insisted on a second viewing, and out of city comps, I settled for viewing the show from the artistic tent. Sat upon a beat up couch watching a live feed on a 15” TV, surrounded by languages from around the world and watching first class artists performing the unimaginable around me. In this moment, at the age of 14, I wanted this to be my future.

Once hitting college, I was set on my path: Theatre Tech with a minor in French; for my future with Cirque du Soleil. Flashcut: I was shut out of all French classes and the one theatre class I took I wanted to rip my eyeballs out. So, I had to change the dream slightly to…famous Cirque du Soleil photographer. That’s it, that’s the goal. It’s not a thing, but that’s the road I began to take.

As life began to take over and reality set in, the dream quickly faded. I pursued the art degree, but the circus fantasy was gone. However, my greatest lesson was, don’t be a stranger to pecuilar adventures. I found myself around the world, learning photography in the UK, working in historical music venues in Nashville, setting Swedish tables in the Midwest, and one spontaneous move to Las Vegas led me to a plane ride to Vancouver BC in December 2023. The next day I started as a Hospitality Supervisor for Kooza, a show my mom and I saw back in 2007, the year it opened.

How wild life works out the way it does, and how often we never record the details that we wish to remember. So here I am, detailing my life as a fancy carny, the crazy life I always dreamed about.

Welcome to the story.

-HS