Genie Cartier starts her workout with a handstand on a chair.
The fourth-year English student has an aura of complete control as she slides down to twist in a graceful, seemingly impossible arch before rotating to land lightly back on her feet in the Yates Gymnasium at the John Wooden Recreational Center.
An acrobat, aerialist and fire dancer, Cartier has been performing since she was 11. A member of Los Angeles circus troupe Machina Candeo, She is also a published writer who pours the same creative passion that she brings to acrobatics into her writing.
“The first night she came in here we all stopped to watch,” said Terri Kinsley, gymnastics supervisor at the Yates Gym in Wooden Center where Cartier has been practicing every Tuesday since arriving at UCLA. “She draws you in with what she’s doing. … It’s artistry to watch.”
Growing up in San Francisco, Cartier got her start in gymnastics when her parents signed her up for gymnastics lessons at age 4. After realizing that she didn’t like the intensely competitive nature of gymnastics, however, she switched to acrobatics.
First trained by internationally renowned master Lu Yi at the Circus Center in San Francisco, Cartier then went on to other trainers at the center before attending the center’s summer camp. Joining a class run by the camp head, she discovered a love and specialty in aerial rope. She had her first show at 11 and went on to do various other shows and student gigs while attending the French American International School and later the International High School of San Francisco.
At UCLA, Cartier quickly found a place in the Los Angeles circus community by joining Machina Candeo, a multi-talented circus troupe specializing in fire, dance and music as well as more traditional acrobatic arts. The troupe puts on shows at various venues, including corporate events and private parties, with audiences as diverse as the Church of Scientology and the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival.
“Genie is unique among fire performers,” said Ty Cy-Phy, creative director of Machina Candeo. “She’s not primarily a fire spinner so she approaches it in a different way. She does stuff with fire that I haven’t seen anyone else do.”
As Machina Candeo’s only acrobat, Cartier is allowed almost complete autonomy over her own acts, choreographing her own moves and choosing her own music. As both an acrobat and an aerialist, a rather unusual combination, she also occasionally gets hired to do individual acts.
Cartier’s creative bent is not limited to acrobatics, however ““ she’s been writing almost as long as she’s been performing. Inspired by one of her English teachers, she began writing poetry and short stories in middle school, and she has had poems published in “Westwind,” “Matchbox” and “Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.” She is currently the senior poetry editor of “Westwind,” UCLA’s literary journal.
Cartier’s writing is heavily influenced by her acrobatic activities, with many of her poems focusing on circus. “The creativity that goes into both (poetry and circus) is pretty similar,” Cartier said. “Circus is not just gymnastics. … It’s a performative art. … You are expressing an emotion or telling a story.”
After graduating, Cartier plans to attend a prestigious master’s of fine arts program at San Francisco State University.
She said that she plans to write a book of poems or short stories or both that includes photographs of her performances ““ a production that would blend both her passions.
Cartier also hopes to keep up her circus activities.
“They have a lot of really amazing, more underground (circuses),” Cartier said. “The circus in San Francisco is really high quality.”
Of her unique first name, Cartier said that “Genie” was not originally a reference to the magic being.
“It comes from Eugenie. … It was my great-grandmother’s name,” she said.
Like a true genie, however, Genie Cartier makes magic in everything she does. From poetry to fire dancing to aerial rope and acrobatics, she creates magic through her words and performances.