Connect
To Top

Meet Kelli Ramazini of The Ramazini’s in North Dallas

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelli Ramazini.

Kelli, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
If you told me at age ten that I would grow up to be a circus artist, I would have said, “Yeah, that seems about right.” (Though I hadn’t been to a circus until the age of 19) I never did gymnastics really, dance, cheerleading, etc., but I was a WILD kid. Climbing on everything I could find, jumping off high stuff, doing flips I had no idea how to do and just being rambunctious period. That later in life got me in trouble, but then lead the path towards my life in the circus.

During my childhood, I had a knack for drawing and won a couple of visual art competitions at my school. In my mid-teens, I started to discover my love for painting and thought that that is what I would do in life. Then, music came into my life. I started listening to electronic music like Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Peace Orchestra, ect. I decided that I could too, make Electronic music…so I did. My name was Nworbillek, and I had tons of songs up on Myspace Music. Ha! It was such a fun time in my life. One of my songs “Apocalyptic Distortion” even made it into a German Indie film! I definitely knew that I would pursue a life in the arts.

Around age 16, I started to hang around a rougher crowd, and started drinking, smoking and doing drugs and losing interest in school almost to the point of dropping out. I ended up graduating with summer school in my senior year though because I knew It would have been a giant waste of time if I hadn’t.

I shaved my head and got a couple of bad tattoos, and was living my happy little punk rock life. That rambunctious kid was now a fearless 18-year-old. I moved to New York with a friend and stayed for a few months, which was probably the most counterproductive thing Ive ever done. What an insane experience.

I moved back home after not being able to afford food anymore. Even sleeping on the streets on some days.

I had no idea of the value that this friend would have in my life.

It was that same friend who showed me the world of Cirque Du Soliel on VHS. It was Cirque’s show “Quidam,” and it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.

I knew right then that that is what I would do for the rest of my life.

He taught me how to juggle, and many other “clown” like skills. We practiced for several hours every day. We saw Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s show “Zing Zang Zoom” on my 19th birthday. It was my first time seeing a circus live!

During intermission, I guess because we just looked like weird people, in general, some of the clowns came up to us and asked us who we were, and we were just so elated that they were talking to us. We said we were clowns, and they told us the audition is coming up and we should try out. We did. We made it. We were offered contracts and sent to Rosemont, Il to train with The Greatest Show On Earth.

It was such an amazing time with Ringling Bros. If you want to do a secondary interview just to discuss my time there, it would be well worth it. I’ve got some stories! Haha!

I’ll make it short. Here I was, a 19 woman living on a circus train, traveling the country, performing for hundreds of thousands of people. What a dream come true! The entire time I was there, I would always at the end of my day sit on my vestibule reflecting on the situation I was in, compared to the life I was brought up in. What a change of events.

It became very clear to me early on that clowning was not all I would be doing with my career in circus. My fellow performers (which we refer to as “family”) had SO many amazing skills that they had been honing for their entire lives. Some of them handbalancers, contortionist, aerialist, tumblers, etc.

I knew I could do that stuff too and that I would be so good at it. I knew pain, suffering, hard work, and never had anything handed to me. This makes someone the best candidate to be an acrobat. So my circus family trained me.

After a year, I became very flexible, could hold my contortion handstands, had an aerial strap act, and was learning anything I could with my circus family. My eyes had been opened to how many circuses had to offer.

In my third year on the road, I started dating the love of my life, Julio Ramazini. He was in “clown alley” with me all three years, and he was just the funniest guy I had ever met. Helped that he had this silly accent because he is from Sao Paulo, Brazil, but learned English mainly from Russians in the circus! We always get, ” Is he Russian or something?” Haha!

Julio changed my life. The first amazing thing he showed me a more peaceful path, and helped me to stop smoking cigarettes and drinking so much. He was my coach, my mentor, and my best friend. He had been to a circus school in Rio De Janeiro and had so much knowledge about circus technique. He helped me with so many things along the way. We created a juggling routine (that we still perform today!) and taught me everything I know about juggling. I would not be the same performer I am today without him.

We both decided to leave the road in 2013. He went to Brazil, and I came back to Dallas. I got a job teaching at an aerial studio here and Dallas but knew my heart wasn’t in it. It was so hard being away from him, but I eventually went to Brazil to meet his family. I loved it so much; I thought we should stay! We came back to Dallas so Julio could meet my family and we were going to tell everyone that we would live in Brazil and then something amazing happened. People started calling us for gigs, and classes left and right, and in one month we made the same amount of money that our plane tickets costed. Without even trying! So, we thought, okay, let’s stay for a little while. A little while has now been five years, and we love the life and the business that we have created here. We have been booking gigs, performing for B3 entertainment, performing in circus shows, teaching at Lone Star Circus, and now Julio is a Funny Doctor at Cooks children’s for a non-profit organization called Laughter League!

In 2015 we got married, and in 2016 we bought a house here in Dallas paying our mortgage by living out our dreams.

We visit his family in Brazil every year and do some training when we can there.

Ever since then, the momentum has picked up and never stopped. I never stop learning and failing, but failure is the most important part of learning. There is nothing else in this world I would rather be doing than putting smiles on peoples faces. This is our mission. We are The Ramazini’s!

Has it been a smooth road?
You can say that I had a pretty rough childhood. Both of my parents were alcoholics at the time, and without going into detail, sometimes things got downright depressing. I had two sets of half-brothers/half-sisters from my mom and dad, but I was the only was living at my house. I would have to pick my mom up from wherever she had passed out and put her to bed every night. It was hard to see and harder to understand as a child.

I know my parents did the best they could with what we had. I always had a roof over my head and food. May have not been the fanciest of meals, but my mom did a great job of cooking from whatever we had. She was (still is) a great cook. My Mom ended up going to rehab and is now three years sober in September. She is my hero and my inspiration. They are now both doing great and healthier than they have ever been! What a miracle!

The current struggle is my spine injury.

I am currently on a break from doing any of the aerial acrobatics I usually do due to 2 herniated discs, along with a plethora of low back issues. I will continue to do circus arts but will adjust how and what I do. This is the challenge I am dealing with now, so Im still trying to work how everything will go. I am very nervous, scared, and unsure, but I will continue to the strongest version of myself possible. I have so many things to be thankful for!

I can’t tell you how many struggles I’ve been through, but haven’t we all? These are the two that I feel directly relate to my career, though.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
We are The Ramazini’s! We are duo circus artist specializing in duo acrobatics, juggling, and comedy. I specialize in trapeze, handstands, contortion, aerial silk, aerial Lyra, and pretty much anything I can dangle from. Julio specializes in unicycling, juggling, cigar box juggling, and he is just so damn funny period.

We are different in many ways. We are stage performers, mainly. When we are clowning, we use very little makeup. I guess you could call us contemporary in a way. We both come from troubled pasts, which makes us valuable as performers. When we are on stage, we can transfer those emotions into pure energy on stage in a way that is very readable to the audience. We really know how to give it our all, so that our hearts are open and vulnerable, which comes across very honest to an audience.

All we strive to do is make people happy. If someone is laughing because of something we did, that is the greatest pleasure of all. I will be a complete idiot all day long as long as its brightening the day of someone in need.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
DALLAS IS THE BEST PLACE FOR ENTERTAINMENT!!! I will tell you why… Dallas is FLAT. We have no mountains, oceans, or deserts. People have nothing else to do other than throw parties and festivals. What do you find at parties and festivals? Entertainment!!!

Contact Info:

 
Image Credit:
Julio Ramazini, Zan Keith

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition, please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in