Leaping into a new role

Leaping into a new role

Leaping about in free abandon atop a trampoline is as common an Australian childhood experience as Vegemite on toast.

While most of us are forced at some point to leave behind these carefree days, there are a lucky few like Ji Wallace who are able to use this love to jump-start a bona fide profession -” complete with Olympic medals and a foreign posting in Macau.

Former Olympic silver medallist Wallace has just taken up his first position with the internationally acclaimed circus troupe, Cirque du Soleil, in their Zaia production.

Based in the Chinese province of Macau, Wallace took some time out this week to check out the Olympics and talk to the Sydney Star Observer.

I’m really looking forward to watching the trampoline finals in Beijing. I want to see how good the Chinese are going to be -” word is they’re on fire, Wallace said.

Of course, when he started as a serious trampoline athlete, thoughts of Olympic glory weren’t even an option.

I started trampolining way back in the mid-80s. I started jumping around in the backyard until Mum took me up to the local gym -” to keep my crazy bouncing under control, he said.

Mum tells me that I always said I wanted to compete at the Olympics, but who knew it would be on trampoline? It wasn’t in the Olympics back then.

It was fate though, I guess, because at the height of my trampoline career my sport was chosen to join the gymnastic family, paving the way for it to be included as a full medal sport.

Now eight years on from that defining moment at the Sydney Olympics, Wallace has found a new way to continue jumping and expressing his artistry through wowing choreographed sequences in Zaia.

There is a little showgirl in us all, so when they offered me a role in their new production, I jumped at the chance, he said.

Being involved in the sport for so many years, it has been a breath of fresh air being able to express ideas and create something new with the acrobatic world.

My sport is a judged event so you have to conform to what the judges are looking for but with Cirque, if you can make it look amazing they love you.

I just love performing and that rush you get when the crowd starts responding with oohs and ahhs.

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