KATIE MULGREW
Temporary Artist, Mystere

Its an exciting moment for my life and career on a cold January night in Las Vegas. Im lowering from the ceiling on a trapeze bar with full makeup that took me almost an hour to complete and the most beautiful costume I have ever worn fitting my body perfectly. I hardly notice the constricting harness around my hips as I look at the amazed people below through the colorful lights and loud, but now very familiar music. I am nervous, but I think Im a little shaky because of the excitement of performing bungee at Mystere in front of an audience for the first time. As I say a little prayer to myself, Please, please, please catch every bar the routine starts and Im on my way to one of the happiest and most fulfilling moments of my life. The routine is over and I say to myself, I cant believe Im here right now. I just had so much fun out there!

But how did I get to this moment Really it all began when I was five years old and my parents needed to find a creative outlet for their overly energetic child and found that solution in gymnastics classes... but lets start this story in 2008. After working in San Diego for the summer as an acrobat and realizing that acrobatics is so much more than a sweet summer job, a group of friends and I decided to go to an open call audition for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. That audition wasnt successful, but I decided to give it another go in 2009. This time I made it through the long two-day audition and had a blast doing it!

The night in January that brought me that rewarding happiness made all the effort to get there definitely worth it.