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Nerveless Nocks member relishes travel, performing
with family
By Jamie
Hoffman Miami Beach Senior
High Posted
December 30 2005
For the many teenagers who think of the circus as an
abandoned childhood concept, Angelina Nock, 14, proves this to
be far from the truth.
A performer with Cirque
Equinox, which performed in November at the Broward County
Fair, Nock has devoted herself to this art all her life.
She is certainly not the average teenager, and her
larger-than-life experiences reflect this.
South
Africa, Bangkok, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, Alaska -- this is
just the beginning of the long list of places she has already
seen.
"My favorite part is traveling," said Nock, and
it is easy to see why. In the United States alone, her current
tour will travel to Dallas, Las Vegas and Georgia, before
returning to her hometown of Sarasota -- fittingly, the circus
capital of the world.
Homesickness is not an issue
because her extraordinary lifestyle has made the road her
home, and the stage her haven.
Her potential is
limitless and, at such a young age, she and her family of
circus performers and acrobats are world-renowned. "If there's
a circus there, they know us," said her father, Michelangelo
Nock.
Nock is a ninth generation circus performer and
it has become her duty to hold the torch and continue the
legacy of Nerveless Nocks.
Proud of her craft, she
embraces this responsibility with open arms.
Not only
is there a long line of circus performers in Nock's ancestry,
but many family members are in today's shows as well. She
performs alongside her father, mother Carolina, brother Cyrus
and cousins Chiarra, Fabio and Juliano Anastasini with Cirque
Equinox.
Having family on the road makes the life of
this performer easier.
"There's family in Ringling,
there's family in Mexico, there's family all over the place,"
she said. This network ensures she is never alone on her
circus escapades.
Nock's dreams go far beyond
inheriting the family business of performing. Unlike the
average aspirations of becoming a doctor or lawyer, Nock hopes
to go professional with her summer hobby of waterskiing.
In an upcoming waterski-based show the entire family
will participate in, Nock is, in her father's words, "the girl
on top of the pyramid."
With such an active life of
performing, it seems almost impossible to fit in the
necessities. But education is still a prevalent force in
Nock's life.
"I have DVDs that film an actual
classroom, and I'm pretty much in it," she said. In addition
to her virtual classroom during the average school year, Nock
will be tutored this summer.
Not only can Nock twirl
24 hula hoops simultaneously, she can juggle the demands of
teen life. With Nock, a performer, a star and a true teen role
model, it is evident that her success is only beginning.
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