Every year, Six Flags hosts a special Family Night benefitting Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. Performers under the age of 18 from all over North Texas are invited to perform on the various stages.

This year, I was one of the students from the Lone Star Circus School invited to perform. We were on the Carousel Stage, just inside the main gates.  It’s not a very big stage, but it’s quite high. 

People are walking around right behind you, getting on and off the carousel, and the sound system is in front of the stage, so the music is coming from behind you and in front of you.

Everyone at Six Flags was very nice! My act is 2:42 seconds long — and they gave us two tickets, plus a VIP parking pass. That works out to about $85 per minute for my little act — awfully good money for an 11-year-old performing at the park for the first time, I think!

Grandma and Grandpa bought two extra tickets, and came with me along with my best friend Devin. We had a lot of fun, and stayed out pretty late riding rides. I was pretty tired after this morning’s rehearsal and circus work-outs! Especially after the contortion teacher was done with us!

But it’s worth it. It’s just four weeks until the Lone Star Circus shows May 17-19 at the Granville Arts Center. The act I did at Six Flags is one of three I’m doing for sure in that show — and I might do a bit part in another show.

This is the first time I’ve performed this diabolo routine in public — and probably the last. On Wednesday, Fanny Kerwich (the artistic director and founder of the Lone Star Circus) changed my music, and that will change the choreography, too. Oh, well!  Now I have two completed diabolo routines, plus three with my rola bola — and by the end of May, I’ll have another one.  Guess you can’t have too many — you never know when you’ll get to perform!

I hope I get invited back to Six Flags next year. It was a lot of fun, and I even got my name in the Dallas Morning News!

The video below shows  Jesse Patterson’s hula hoop act. I love watching Jesse perform! She is always great.

The Episcopal School of Dallas had performed their jump rope and pogo stick act just before us, and several of their kids used hula hoops in their act. They were really psyched by what Jesse could do with hula hoops. But, then, anybody would be — she is the BEST!