“I enjoy risk and the beauty of pain,” said ‘corde lisse’ (vertical rope) artist, contortionist, hand-balancer, acrobat… in short, circus artiste Lauren Herley, a member of the Internationally acclaimed Australian contemporary circus company CIRCA, which has returned to London this month with Its latest show, CLOSER as part of the infamous Udderbelly Festival.

Seattle-born Lauren trained at the National Circus School of Montreal. After graduating she become an original cast and creation member of Cirkopolis by Cirque Eloize, touring Europe, North America and Mexico. Since then she has worked with a number of universal circus groups including Nord Nord Est, Les7 Doights de la Main and Circque de Soleil and has taken part in large events such as the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. In 2014 she was part of the Broadway cast of PIPPIN THE MUSICAL.

Last  year she joined Circa at their training centre and studio in Brisbane under the direction of Yaron Lifschitz. Described as “The rock stars of the circus world” who push the boundary of circus art, blurring the lines between movement, dance, theatre and circus, with different casts performing simultaneously around the world. Last night they not only played London but also Santa Monica and Bologna.

CLOSER was commissioned for Udderbelly’s distinctive upside-down purple cow is an exhilarating journey to reveal the extremes and limitations of the human body in intimate encounter and runs until 12 June.

I left this drawing at the inverted iconic plastic plum ungulate and Lauren retuned it signed with a nice note.