A century ago, the idea of dropping out of school to run away and join the circus was common enough to be a cliche. But Canyon resident Abby Moldenhauer went to school to join the circus.
After graduating from Canyon High School, Moldenhauer began rock climbing while living in Taos, New Mexico, during her twenties. When friends started taking lessons in aerial arts in Santa Fe, she joined them. 
“It was an easy transition from rock climbing,” she says of the acrobatic, suspended-in-the-air discipline. “I was a big athlete and immediately took it up.” Aerial arts involve disciplines common in the performing arts—including the circus—like aerial silks, which involve poses, drops and movements while suspended from a long piece of fabric that hangs from the ceiling. The discipline requires a harmonious balance of flexibility, control and poise as performers climb, wrap, swing and spiral their bodies into and out of various positions, all while hanging several feet above the ground.
Moldenhauer quickly got hooked, becoming so serious about the discipline that she decided to become a professional aerial artist. In 2008, she was accepted into the New England Center for Circus Arts in Vermont, where she majored in trapeze and minored in aerial silks. At the end of her two years of training, she signed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Just like in the old days, circuses traveled on trains from town to town. “It was amazing being on the train and being out on the vestibule and waving at people when you are going through towns,” Moldenhauer says. “It was pretty magical.”
When she was a child, she remembers seeing a circus train between Dallas and Canyon, and waving at the performers.
“It was pretty awesome to be the person on the other side bringing the magic back,” Moldenhauer says.
Elephants and Injuries
After two years traveling with the circus, she signed with a family show in New Jersey that performed in a tent next to a casino. Moldenhauer lived on the casino premises and had access to “really good food and to the spa” where she could be pampered daily.
Because aerial artists aren’t afraid of heights, they tend to be the performers assigned to riding high atop elephants. That was the case with Moldenhauer, and these moments remain among her favorite circus memories. The elephant would lift its leg, she would step onto it, and the elephant would then quickly hoist her over its head onto its back. She kept her feet behind the animal’s ears to maintain balance.
She says people tend to have misconceptions about circus performers, starting with the belief that “it’s not a ‘real’ job,” she explains. “Some may view circus performing as a hobby or a transient lifestyle rather than a legitimate career. In truth, performers often engage in rigorous schedules, with physical training, rehearsals, performances and travel. Many are also involved in choreography, teaching and the creative direction of performances.” It’s definitely a full-time profession.
A profession, of course, that left her dangling and spinning from ribbons up to 40 feet in the air, or flying from trapeze to trapeze. Remarkably, Moldenhauer was never injured during a practice or performance.
But unfortunately, she didn’t escape that period of her life injury-free. Late one evening, in the casino parking lot, a violent carjacking left Moldenhauer with critical injuries that ended her career.
After work one night, a man jumped into her car and attacked her. She fought back, kicking him. When she fell out of the car, he attempted to run her over with the car as he sped off. Eventually, he hit a curb and the car flew into the side of a house. The assailant later went to prison.
Meanwhile, she was more concerned about the car—a rental—than about herself even though she had recently signed a contract to perform in India. That gig and all others ended as a result of her injuries.
Return to Flight
After her high-flying career ended, Moldenhauer returned to Canyon in 2013. She opened her own aerial arts school, Flying Fitness, in Amarillo off of South Western Street.
“I had always planned to have a gym of some sort,” Moldenhauer says. “That led me to have aerial arts as my focus. I always planned on coming back here after I was done [performing].”
Today, she offers classes ranging from beginner to professional level, and focuses heavily on what she calls “safety and progression” when it comes to new students. “We work in steps to get there. That way, when they try an actual skill, it’s easy for them,” she says. Her students practice one to five hours a week on the 20-foot silks, and range in age from 4 to 60 years old. She has around 75 students—a number that continues to grow thanks to Facebook and local performances for public events.
Classes at Flying Fitness include silks, aerial yoga and “aerial bungee,” in which a harnessed student leaps into the air. Her students learn choreography to perform yearly showcases for family and friends. She also teaches traditional workout classes, such as a slim-down class and yoga.
Conditioning includes push-ups and pull-ups with focus on flexibility and staying nimble. Moldenhauer takes pride in the fact that she’s never had a student injured in her gym. One of those students is Brooke Locke, 25, who became interested in aerial arts four years ago after seeing a Facebook post about it from a former high school cheerleading friend. “I thought, if she could do it, I could do it,” Locke says. “I like the activity. You can feel accomplished after every workout. I like creating a performance. I get nervous when I perform, but not when I practice.”
At first, working on the silks high in the air was scary, but not anymore. “We do so many drops that you get used to it,” she says.
Karla Figueroa, 26, remembers how she loved watching the trapeze artists when her parents took her to the circus as a child. She was surprised to learn that Amarillo had a gym where she could learn aerial arts and jumped at the chance to join two years ago.
“I am partial to the silks because I have been doing it the longest, but we have started the Aerial Lyra, which is the circle that hangs from the ceiling,” she says. “We also partake in workshops at the studio.”
Ten-year-old Berkley Reese had seen videos of aerial artists and decided to “give it a try” a year ago. Her favorite silks trick is a “candy cane” which she describes as looping her foot around a silk, passing the silk behind her back and then wrapping it around her leg.
Occasionally, she gets scared when new tricks involve heights. “You have to go higher because you can’t do it down low,” she says.
Gracie Cearley, 19, has been one of Moldenhauer’s students for at least five years. She says doing aerial arts keeps her healthy and boosts her confidence. “I am going to stick to it because it’s fun,” Cearley says.
Just like the circus.
