BOONAH born performer Latonya Wigginton is remembered as a child by show secretary Beth Hern as ‘preferring to walk on her hands than her feet’.
It’s a description the now 29-year-old agrees with.
“I’ve been doing circus and acrobatics since I was 12-years-old,” she said.
“I even had a little club I ran in Boonah with my friends, we would put on performances and entertain.”
Latonya left town after completing high school, flying over oceans and joining a circus school in Beijing.
“I’ve been away from Queensland since 2007 and have only just moved back,” she said.
“I’ve been performing with lots of different circus companies all over the world and within Australia.
“Now I run a business in Brisbane doing performances and main stage touring, this means I’m able to come back to Boonah and do the show.”
Her business is called Sparkle Society and she has a team of acrobatic performers.
“My signature act is what’s called a dance trapeze act,” she said.
“The trapeze is a metal bar with ropes, normally a trapeze is swinging from side to side, but I do it spinning.
“I’ll be performing that at the Boonah Show.
“I’m really looking forward to bringing my signature act back home.”
She said she didn’t use a harness and it wasn’t a particularly dangerous act but to an audience it may appear rather risky and on the edge.                                                                                      “I stay fairly close to the ground and all the tricks I perform are very well rehearsed,” she said.
She said the show planned for Boonah is named Big Swing Circus.
“There are going to be a whole range of different acts over four shows on the Saturday,” she said.
“There will be a lot of aerial acts, hula hooping, fire eating and a really cool spinning apparatus called a roue cyr.”
“There is a metal rig that all of our different apparatus hangs off.
“We were supposed to do last year’s show but there was so much rain the roads were all flooded.
“We kind of feel like it’s two years’ worth of shows that we are bringing.”
You will find Latonya and her Sparkle Society troupe of performers within the netball courts at the Boonah Show.
She said there would be hay bale seating and plenty of space for spectators to watch as her crew do what they do best and that’s sparkle!