The Aerial Rope Master, Emiliano Ron

Emiliano Ron has devoted many years to various aerial techniques, choosing to specialize on rope. With an academic background in Cinematography Arts (Editor and Director of Photography) and spending his adolescence mixing his passion for martial arts, punk rock, books and skateboarding, he decided to leave everything and become a circus artist. Learning with great teachers and training alongside others he has become a living legend on the rope. Currently he divides his profession as an artist and teacher; creating new movements and developing a particular eccentric and unique style. A freak on the rope. Raw, wild, brutal and different.

I´m very happy to interview a great talented aerial rope artist, the rope Master, Emiliano Ron, who is travelling the world performing and giving workshops.

1. Emiliano, could you tell me about yourself.

How did you start circus? How was your artistic way to circus?

I´m Emiliano Ron. I´m a rope artist. I’m from Buenos Aires. Argentina. I’m based in Barcelona. But I’m not to often there. I like to live close to the sea and at the place that sun shines every day.
I start practicing martial arts when I was a kid. I was “problematic” kid so my psychologist recommend my mother to send me there. There I learn about self control and how to train hard.
When I was an adolescent I discovered skateboarding. It was a perfect mix. The discipline of the martial arts and the wildness and freedom of the skate. This is something that I still keep when I’m performing.
I started with the circus when I was at the university studying cinema. I was dating with a girl that was doing rope. She was my first teacher and she even show me how to make my own rope.
Suddenly I started to get bored of working on cinema. Too many hours on a studio, too many hours in front of a computer. I love cinema, but I needed to move my body!
I quit everything and I decided to run away with the circus …

2. In which countries do you perform and give workshops?

Almost everywhere. I try to go to all the places I can. If someone organizes it, I’ll go. I work with schools, but I also like the punk spirit DIY, do it yourself. I keep contact with students from different countries and they organize their own workshops.
The same with performances. I perform in different places and I enjoy them all, from traditional circus, to punk circus cabarets.
I’m really open on that.
I’m not so good working on group creations and shows. I have a rope solo act and I like to perform it.

3. How does your usual training look like?

Do you train daily? How long do you train? How do you prepare your performance and how do you choose the place?

I train everyday. I love what I’m doing and it’s my job. I work around 8 hours per day. Office work, emails, social media and papers and training.
I’m not all day on the rope. I also stretch and do some acrobatic training too for the most difficult tricks.
My act is based on technic. It’s just me and the rope. I need a good rigging for it and a nice crash mat.
I’m also a rigger so I check every detail. Sometimes if the rigging is too bouncy it’s more annoying and the beats are not so good, but you just need more time for rehearsal. I always ask extra time for this. Also lights are really important on my act.

4. How long does it take you to prepare an aerial performance?

What is the most important for you in a performance? What do you appreciate the most in an artist?

I´ve been preparing my act all my life. I put everything there. I’m here, right now, for all the things I’ve done before. My act is also evolution of my previously acts.
I like artists to be honest when they perform, and I like to see when they give it all. When you go back stage, you can really see this, tears, sweats and blood.
If you also honest, you gonna be unique, you don’t need to copy anyone. Only you, can be you. And I enjoy that. Knowing honest and unique people.

5. Emiliano where are your next workshops and where one can find when you give the workshops?

During 2016 I’ll be touring different places. It gonna be an endless rope tour.
I’ll start in Lanzarote, I go there for a festival and making some photoshoot with my rope at a vulcan!! After I go to Sheffield, U.K. And at the end of January I go to Paris.
This year also I’ll start with a new personal project that I called : “Rope without borders”. As a rope teacher I’ll like to teach at social circus schools. Go for one month to this places and work there every day. Give the chance to became a high technical level rope artist to students that can’t pay. Education should be free for everyone. And I wanna work on that. I’m still working on it, it’s a big project but I’m happy to do it.

7. What are your favorite circus shops or rope providers?

I use Barry ropes. It’s a brand from Canada. They are my favorite ones. Covered ropes make more easy your training, also your fingers and your hand will look better.
My others sponsors are Pole Junkies, which provides me my training clothes, I love colorful clothes for training.
And I also work with BlackRoll, whom make amazing foam rolls and recovery products. After performing I run into my Black roll and my back is grateful to that. I also use them for warming up before a performance. I take my BlackRoll everywhere, even on holidays.

8. I know that a travelling artist has a lot of adventures.

Please share with our readers one funny or surprising adventure during your travels.

Budapest was one of the hilarious contract that I have done. I was working with my friend Noe Robert, an amazing artist on the swinging trapeze. The first thing that we noticed, there is that none of the workers at the circus spoke English at National Circus… Rigging was insane, it took   us for ever to rig on a wood ceiling that it was almost 100 years old. We were always sick at that season, from the bed till the circus. We were changing rooms there. The food was amazing and really cheap. But too many shows. When we were almost finishing the contract, happy to have survived it, we had a little accident…
Noe left a candle on at his room, never do that please. I was at the stage at the end of the show and he came running and screaming. I couldn’t understand anything. I told him to calm down. And he screamed: “Fire in   the room, fire!”
I ran to the rooms and it was all on fire. I took the fire extinguisher and I kicked the door like in the movies, in real life is not so easy. There was almost nothing there, and the extinguisher decided not to work. I opened the shower and tried to turn the fire off with water. We lost almost everything. 1 hour after when the fire was off and I was covered in dust and ashes, the police and the firemen came. They took me to the ambulance of course I was feeling dizzy. On my way to the ambulance I met   the director of the circus, he just look at me and said: “problems, you always problems” finally he spoke English at least.
30 minutes after we were performing again. Show must go on!
After that we had to pay for the rooms that we have burnt and the firemen. It was a long day, and I didn’t even had time for a shower. #circuslife …

Thank you very much Emiliano! It was awesome speaking to you. I hope that our readers feel inspired to learn great rope tricks with you or to start learning the rope.

Emiliano´s training video