Balance is something we strive for in our professional and personal lives.  When we practise Pilates we’re aiming to achieve a balance in the way our body works, nothing overworking, nothing underworking, everything in the body taking its fair share of the load.

Lara Jacob’s performance in Cirque de Soleil’s Amaluna can teach us a lot about harmony and stability. The Balance Goddess act creates a world in equilibrium with a mobile made of thirteen palm leaf ribs. The soundtrack to the routine is beautifully spare, largely using the sound of Jacob’s breathing. Her movements are slow, deliberate and almost meditative as she concentrates all her attention on building the mobile.  The Balance Goddess act reminds us of the fragile nature of harmony.

Lara Jacobs was born into an artistic family. In fact it was her father who created the Balance Goddess act and he continues to perform it himself all over the world.  At the age of six Lara Jacob’s began performing and touring as a trapeze artist with her parents’ theatre, Rigolo Nouveau Cirque. When she was 16, Lara went to New York City and enrolled at the prestigious Alvin Ailey Dance Centre. She later travelled to Istanbul where she trained in dervish dance, a traditional Islamic dance also known as Sufi whirling, which consists of spinning the body in rapid, repetitive circles. With this new talent, she began performing a solo fire burning skirt routine for Rigolo Nouveau Cirque, for numerous galas worldwide, as well as the famous German circus, Circus Roncalli.