From farm girl to flying star: Cirque’s ECHO brings jaw-dropping stunts to Calgary

Cirque du Soleil’s ECHO is now running in Calgary under the Big Top at Stampede Park until Oct. 19.

The nature of a Cirque show is visual spectacle. But on the other side of the 20-tonne cube dominating the stage, is a full village supporting the 53 performers from 22 different countries, each with their own story.

One of them is Penelope Elena Scheidler, former Austrian farm girl who ,three years in, still finds herself in disbelief.

“Since I watched my first Cirque du Soleil show, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’  Seeing my face on the posters and seeing my face on the screens and stuff like that, it’s unreal,” she said. “Even though it’s been three years now, I’m still processing it and stuff like that.”

If you’ve seen the show, you remember Scheidler. She is one half of the hair suspension duo- and the one who eventually flies around the stage suspended by only her own jaw strength.

The hair suspension is exactly what it looks like, and starts with a ponytail.

“Then you integrate a hoop, then you tie it with ropes and stuff like that.  It takes around 15-20 minutes to tie it,” Scheidler explains. Her hair is only about shoulder length, strengthened with special products, “When you hang, the follicles in your scalp open up a little bit.  It’s really important to keep everything clean so you don’t get dirt inside or get irritations.”

Scheidler relies on the advice of a specialist hair doctor in Berlin, who measures how much hair she has with a laser. 

“We do this every year to see if I lose or if I gain hair… Since the four years, I started with 276 hairs per square centimeter. Now I’m at 340 hairs per square centimeter,” she said. “Basically, I’m gaining hair.”

Duo hair suspension is unique to ECHO. It was the act’s creation that brought Cirque to Scheidler, not the other way around as she developed it herself.

“Me and my previous partner, Charlotte, during the pandemic, we were both solo hair hangers We had the idea that it would be nice to combine that,” she said.

Her career didn’t begin with her hair or jaw; with a dance teacher mother and unusual flexibility, she leaned toward handstands instead of choreography, eventually leading her into circus arts. She is also the backup for ECHO’s principal contortionist, Sorio.

Cirque boasts what is considered by talent to be a very fair work life balance for a touring production. The ring remains dark on Mondays and Tuesdays, and each tour stop is usually around two months long, giving performers a chance to get to know the cities they visit. In between each stop performers get a week off as the big top and equipment is moved to the next place.

And there is a lot to move — the show travels with nearly a thousand costumes.

“In Montreal we have about 375 artisans that are working on the costume pieces from head to toe. We do everything from shoes to headpieces,” says Kevin Albert, senior publicist for ECHO. “This show here specifically, we travel with about 900 different pieces of costumes for 53 artists”.

The Big Top seats just over 2,500 people. The structure measures 167 feet in diameter and is supported by four 82-foot steel masts. Its light-colored canvas helps reduce energy use.

The tent takes seven days to set up, three days to dismantle, and all of it requires 72 trailers to move.

For more information, and tickets, click here.