FEATURE - Fearless Grace
For six years Nambour local Lisa O’Neill has looked up and watched her daughter Mia take on the world of becoming an aerial artist.
by Rebecca Mugridge
From up high, aerial artist Mia O’Neill moves through the air with a fearless grace, the kind that makes the audience forget just how much strength, training and discipline sit behind every move she makes in quiet precision.
Aerial artistry is where grace, strength and storytelling meet – in the air. From the powerful, fluid elegance of the silks, to the dynamic, bold and fearless trapeze that can leave an audience gasping, it all tells a story through an artist fuelled with courage, hard work, talent and bucket loads of passion.
“I don’t think you ever stop being proud,” says mum Lisa. “Every time I watch her, she has grown in some way, she has upped it again and just keeps doing it.” Lisa says.
Australia has an exciting developing aerial arts community, with competitions such as Aerial Eclipse where Mia recently placed 1st for trapeze and 2nd for silks. Events like these are an important celebration of both the athletic skill and artistic expression of the young aerialists, like Mia, who may want to pursue a national or international career in performance.
The Sunshine Coast, it turns out, is a great place to live for those interested in aerial arts. Mum Lisa says they found not only Mia’s passion, but a welcoming and kind space.
“The community around them is phenomenal. The mums and kids are wonderful, and everyone is so supportive. It is so beautiful. We found our people at AerialCatz, and it’s friends that are now family.”
Once quite small, it’s grown exponentially. “Mia started in Yandina,” says Lisa. “The studio was originally at the coach’s house and just seven minutes from our house.”
Mia says the competition team has grown a great deal. “I think we had 12 routines go to Newcastle for Aerial Eclipse, and nine of them left medallists.”
One of Mia’s award-winning performances was a powerful, artistic rendition of anxiety.
Mia says the audience is a part of the performance. “I feel like everyone has a story, and having the audience watch us performing it through our routines helps us to feel that.”
Mia says encouragement and support are a foundation built behind so much of the growth of herself and the other aerialists. For this she credits her coach and mentor,
Ashleigh O’Brien, who owns AerialCatz, where she trains.
“She has a really big impact on me performing. She helped me get to where I am today, and inspires everyone when she performs. She is so beautiful to watch.”
Mia performs and trains, and she coaches too, passing on encouragement and support herself now.
“I love coaching, it feels really good seeing people move forward and coming along so far; watching all the little kids grow. It is honestly one of my favourite parts.”
Mum, Lisa, can watch her daughter skilfully performing at heights and not feel nervous now. “You get used to it (seeing them up so high), and I know she is very capable and very well trained.”
The athleticism in aerial arts is what makes it look graceful, effortless and fluid to the audience - something that takes work to achieve.
“I remember first starting and I couldn’t even climb to the top of a silk,” Mia recalls. “It was so hard. And now I wish I could tell my younger self that it’s all going to be okay, and I’ll get there!
“It takes a lot of strength both from the aerials and strength training for comps. Strength everywhere; muscles you didn’t even know you had,” she laughs.
“We do an hour of strength beforehand, as you always have to get the strength in before you go up.”
Mia, at just 15, impressively balances training, coaching, a part-time job and high school, and has more competitions and life goals firmly in her sights.
“I have two more comps coming up this year with Bend the Air. I am taking my silks, doubles and a new routine in trapeze to Brisbane in September and then my performance routine to Newcastle in October.
“There is also now an Australian team for aerials, so I’m thinking about trying out for that next year.”
Mia plans to pursue performing and see how far she can go. “My cousin does it in the circus, in Melbourne. She does aerials and trapeze and silks and just started doing the balance stick. It sounds really cool and it’s fun knowing I can travel with it. I want to go as far as I can with it.”
Born at Nambour Hospital, with grandparents well known to the Nambour community, having owned and run Dunckers for 30 years, and her mum even a past student of Burnside school, Mia is definitely representing Nambour in the arts and just won the
Above & Beyond Community Award for Young Achiever of the Year.
But through all the success school is still important too. “I definitely want to finish high school, and I want to go to uni and study something in medicine. Doctoring, midwifery or something like that.
Mia says the secret to achieving is just trying and having a go. “Honestly just follow what you want, you may as well try, there is nothing stopping you from trying. Things are going to happen, but it also could all just work out too.”
AerialCatz is located at 4/81 Wises Road, Sunshine Coast and can be found on Facebook and Instagram; Mia’s journey can be followed at her Instagram misoneill52
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