Aerial artist Erin Ball is striving to dismantle the separation between circus performance and the Mad / d/Deaf / Disabled / Neurodiverse / etc. and QT2SBIPOC communities.

Erin uses aerial arts and ground acrobatics to tell stories in performances. She loves to move and to connect with others through movement and play, collaborating, adapting, and creating new/different ways of executing skills. In 2017 Erin developed a course and manual for movement-based coaches (specifically for circus but  applying to movement in general) called Flying Footless. The course centres around dismantling ableism, Disability theory, access and methods of teaching, and suggestions to work towards welcoming the Disability community into movement-based classes.

“From a person who thought it was the worst thing to ‘be in the wheelchair’ to fully embracing it today, I think of it not as a hindrance, but as a tool and a necessary uniqueness that exists within human beings.”

Erin Ball (she/her) is a Queer, Mad (from the Mad Pride movement) and double below knee amputee circus artist. She is a white treaty inhabitant and is based in Katarokwi/Kingston, Ontario. She runs Kingston Circus Arts and is the co-founder of LEGacy Circus (a performance company co-created with Mad artist Vanessa Furlong). Erin achieved Disability membership in 2014 and took a year off. She currently thinks a lot about Disability theories and creative access in relation to performance. She travels internationally to perform, teach, and collaborate, and has recently spent time learning about the digital realm and the accessibility it offers.