Enrique Valencia – Show Producer, Wheel of Death

Enrique was destined to be a circus performer. His family’s roots in the circus business go back seven generations.

At age 5, he made his very first appearance as a clown alongside his grandfather and uncle in their family circus, “The Valencia Variety Show”. His father was a flying trapeze artist from Chile. Enrique’s mother was an aerial acrobat from Cardiff, Wales. His parents met while performing in Circus Tihany – the internationally-acclaimed show that has toured the globe for several decades. Some 30 years later, Enrique met his future wife while the two performed in the exact same circus.

Both Enrique’s older sister and younger brother are also circus performers. He and his siblings grew up traveling the country performing for thousands of spectators all around the world. Enrique credits his dedicated work ethic and passion for the circus to his parents. Both of whom home-schooled all their children while on tour and always encouraged them to strive for excellence. The Valencia family eventually settled in Gun Barrel City, Texas.

While performing throughout his youth, he learned everything from flying trapeze, Argentinean drumming, hand-balancing, trampoline tricks, the Rolla Bolla (a balancing act with planks and cylinders), tricks on horseback, high-wire acts, tumbling, aerial silks and even good-old fashion juggling.

Today, Enrique is both the producer and star performer for Cirque Polynesia. Not only does Enrique perform the lead act – the Wheel of Death – he is also the architect and engineer who built the 33-foot-high metal apparatus from scratch. He is certified as a welder to create specially-designed contraptions for circuses. In fact, the Wheel of Death that Enrique built for the show is already his third one.

Enrique brings more than 20 years of gravity-defying experience to Cirque Polynesia each and every weeknight. He was instrumental in working with the show’s Managing Partner, Doug Harris, on the choreography, lighting, staging and original music.