The moment you walk into a Pacific Northwest forest, you’ll feel magic in the air. It’s hard not to look under toadstools, inside hollow trunks, or around rocky outcroppings just to see if a curious faerie is there looking back at you. One Bellingham performance company strives to create a world where that flight of fancy comes to life.
Photograph courtesy of Cirque Cadia
Cirque Cadia is a performance company founded in 2017 by Director Natale Luma, who is also a member and marketing manager of the Bellingham Circus Guild.
“I’ve been performing all my life,” says Luma. “I moved from theater and film into circus arts and variety entertainment a little over 10 years ago. After doing it for a couple of years as a soloist, I kept getting more and more gigs where folks were asking me to bring out a group of people… So I knew I needed to start an official group.”
Photograph courtesy of Cirque Cadia
Luma’s two main inspirations when creating Cirque Cadia were interactive performance experiences and Pacific Northwest nature, hence Cirque (Circus) Cadia (Cascadia).
Cirque Cadia’s performers have been seen at music and arts festivals like Cascadia NW, large events like Winter Karneval at Leavenworth, corporate parties, concerts, and at community events like Fire & Story in Bellingham.
The company has a wide array of acts on offer, including fire eating and dancing, LED light shows, stilt-walking, hula-hooping, juggling, silk fan dancing, clowning, and costumed characters.
“I would say the core of Cirque Cadia, and what we’re really the most known for, is our cast of characters that I like to call the Cascadian Creatures,” says Luma. The first three Cascadian Creatures that Luma designed were the Mushroom Gnomes: Anita Amanita, Sheldon Chanterelle, and Momo Morel. They’re cheery, rosy-cheeked sprites in elaborate mushroom garb who always seem to be causing well-meaning mischief.
Photograph courtesy of Cirque Cadia
These three have been joined over the years by towering tree stilt walkers, the greenery-gilded Forest Guardians, a troupe of cheerleading fairies called the Prance Team, and most recently the 10-foot-tall Barnabog Bigfoot, a stilt-and-puppet-combination character whose costume was built by Monique Green of local business Mo’s Parlor.
Cirque Cadia has recently moved into producing large-scale shows in collaboration with Bellingham Circus Guild (which Luma joined in 2021). Their first show, Gnomecoming, took Bellingham by storm last October.
“Imagine that all these enchanted forest creatures, their mood board was a corny homecoming dance from like the ‘80s, and that’s their idea of what they’re trying to recreate for the humans,” says Luma.
Photograph courtesy of Cirque Cadia
Gnomecoming is a dance party with live DJs, interspersed with 15-20 minute performances that follow a storyline. When not performing, characters mingle and interact with the crowd. 2023’s single-night, adults-only event sold out two weeks ahead of time, and Bellinghamsters showed up and out with elaborate “enchanted forest” and “gnomecore” costumes. Gnomecoming returned this year in September with two nights for adults and a much-requested matinee for all ages.
Because of their collaboration with the Bellingham Circus Guild, Cirque Cadia is able to stage their shows in the Cirque Lab space, which has all the trimmings for elaborate events and aerial points throughout for air-born performances. Luma says that being part of the Bellingham Circus Guild has been “integral” to Cirque Cadia’s success, as “they’ve done so much work to build up this incredible community of circus appreciators.”
Cirque Cadia’s second stage show, the Cascadian Creatures Talent Show, had its three-day run in May 2024. In it, the Cascadia Creatures put on a talent show to prove to humans how wonderful their enchanted world is so that we can work together to preserve and steward our forests. In addition to these shows, Luma has been enjoying working events where people of all ages can engage in circus arts, which are a fun, playful way to get in touch with your physicality and self-expression through movement.
“My focus has kind of shifted with Cirque Cadia to wanting to go more toward community events that are more accessible for a larger group of people, focusing on kids, focusing more on teaching,” says Luma.
