The Story of Chair

As we continue to adjust to a post-George Floyd reality, many institutions have had to reckon with the fact that they have been partaking in exclusionary practices against minorities and the circus is no different. New discussions have been had and are still being had about the history of racism in circus and how that culture still permeates circus shows to this day. It can manifest itself in the form of microaggressions that would probably be the subject of a different blog one day. But it can also start from just the audition process, where one pervasive and dominant group’s “preference”, elite training expectations, body-type requirements, aesthetic appeal, definitions of beauty or a desire for homogeny, can be terms used to justify the ostracization of people considered to be other. Despite all these barriers, a lucky few manage to penetrate the system and I was one such person, making my big show debut in the best production I have ever seen, my dream show: Le Reve - The Dream. 

Sadly now permanently closed in 2020 due to Covid after a 2005 premiere, Le Reve was truly amazing. It was created by Franco Dragone and set in an aquatheatre in the round with some of the best artistic team members, technicians, costume makers, and divers in the industry. The lighting effects, props, water fountains and stage that come move both high up out of the water and sunk deep below it were unmatched. Le Reve was the story of a young woman who, torn between two opposing love interests, goes on a path of self discovery in order to make her choice. She falls asleep and her dream is packed with jaw dropping acts from extremely talented acrobats, aerialists, divers, dancers and synchronized swimmers from all over the world using unique apparatuses that could not be seen anywhere else. A lot of history was made in that theatre. I was but a tiny cog in this machine and the magnitude of this experience was not lost on me. As a Black person I came behind greats like Dane Clarke, one of the original cast members who established the rope act; Eric Chambray who had many specialties including high dive, character work, aerial hammock and aerial chair; Tarrell Ervin one of the company’s long-standing dancers and Pamela Donohoo, the first Black Woman in Le Reve.

Dane Clarke and Tarrell Ervin


Having to manage a show of this scale must not have been easy and equally challenging was having to navigate the optics with regards to race. One of the most beautiful segments of the show, if you could pick one, was called Winter, where the Dreamer girl, guided by the Oracle, witnessed three short aerial solos on Cage, a Rope hanging from a giant bell and a lamppost made out to be a hanging Pole, all under the canopy of a light snowfall. Being a traditionally male-dominated show, these rarely allocated solos were for a long time performed by men, with Cage, arguably the most coveted spot, having a history of White and Hispanic aerialists. The tide was beginning to turn for the other apparatuses as women started doing rope and pole, but the cage was the final holdout. It was also primarily done with the performer completely covered in chalk which looked gorgeously poetic especially as they flipped and caught themselves and you could just catch the specks of chalk flying in the romantic, low lighting. This last detail, unfortunately, wasn’t taken into consideration when a Black performer was finally tapped to perform this role. 

Pamela Donohoo and Darielle Williams in Piece Montee


Eric Chambray worked for months crafting the perfect, most fantastic solo he could muster to fill the shoes of so many before him. However, after taking in his act on stage, the powers-that-be realized that they could not put a Black man, covered in chalk, in a cage. Would anyone else have seen it that way? Would anyone ever know whether or not he was Black under all the chalk? Would they have been offended? Could he have just done the solo without being covered in chalk? We’ll never know. The solo was taken away from a devastated Eric. 

Eric Chambray and Darielle Williams in Chair

Fortunately for both of us, the Acrobatic Apparatus Designer and Aerial Coach Didier Antoine saw my artistic potential following the improvisation in my audition and had the idea to give us both that solo with a new apolitical apparatus in mind - a Chair. These solos were performed by a small rotation of performers in the show at a time. With more than one Black person performing that spot, it was worthwhile to implement a new apparatus that would suit the people performing it. And so Chair/Cage was born. Whenever either one of us was soloing, the Cage would become a Chair. To my knowledge, we were the only ones that performed it. I appreciate Didier’s determination to set things right. Eric and I were able to live out our artistic potential and happily perform our pieces because of this unique opportunity. I may not have been given this role without Eric’s setback having taken place, and I may not have been in Le Reve at all if it were not for another Black female - Pamela having paved the way before me. I loved that Didier always believed in me. He helped develop my chair act and with his encouragement, I went on to perform Amazon Gris - the female high dive character, Angel Baby -  an aerial hammock feature as well as Grosse Bertha - a two person chair and table set vertically rotating in the sky.

Darielle Williams in Grosse Bertha

As I started performing Chair, it came to some people’s attention that a woman was now in this Cage role albeit on a Chair, so was Cage now open to women? There was now no reason it couldn’t be. So, in a way, the previous setback that made it possible for me to be the first woman in the Chair/Cage role also made it possible for White women to perform Cage since Black people were not allowed to do so.

Some people were upset with me for mentioning these actual facts before. They may think that White women would have eventually been allowed to do it. We’ll never know that. They may even be exasperated by the thought that whenever a Black person does something a White person does, they get on their soapbox and receive societal medals of achievement. Well, those people must really not understand White privilege at all and don’t care to. If they cannot recognize the odds of getting into a show of this caliber as a Black person, let alone as a Black Woman, and on top of that getting a featured solo, then they are missing the entire point. It is not my responsibility to educate everybody. I will continue to celebrate my wins and those of my brothers and sisters because if we don’t tell our stories, who will?

Darielle Williams in Amazon Gris and Angel Baby