Sydney Clara Nagy
Professional Aerialist and Contortionist
About Sydney
Sydney Clara Nagy is a professional aerialist and contortionist who, from 2013-2019, trained and performed with Pendulum Aerial Arts, an innovator in both aerial performance and education in the United States, mixing dance, acrobatics, theatre and storytelling with contemporary circus arts. In 2015 she graduated from Pendulum’s highly selective two year Professional Training Program, and performed in the company for five years, coached recreational aerial and contortion classes, and trained over 25 hours/week. Prior to beginning training in the circus arts, she was an elite competitive rhythmic gymnast for seven years. She Is a five-time Junior Olympics qualifier and competitor and a four-time member of the USA Gymnastics National Future Stars team. In September 2017, she and her duo contortion partner founded Twisted Sisters Circus––their professional performing partnership showcasing their imaginative, dynamic, and elegant contortion and circus arts duo––and competed in Circus Star USA, a prestigious national circus arts competition in Hollywood, California with judges from Cirque du Soleil. She placed in the top three. She also competed in and won the international circus competition Viva Fest 2018. In addition to these competitions she had the honor of performing on The Ellen Show and The Gong Show, both airing in 2018.
Her circus arts vocabulary is comprehensive and broad, and she has vast knowledge and expertise in disciplines across the spectrum including contortion, cerceaux (aerial hoop), tissu (aerial silks), corde lisse (aerial rope), trapeze, aerial pole, acrobatics, hand balancing, aerial straps, and more unconventional and inventive apparatuses such as aerial triangle and aerial kite.
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In addition to training and preparing for performances, she creates and performs her own choreography and designs solo and group acts for herself and her students. In 2018, she led the creation of Pendulum’s annual student performance entitled “BlancNoir,” and in 2019, she did the same for the performance entitled "Adieu: An Homage to 20 Years of Productions," Pendulum's final show. In addition to performing in the leading role on stage, she was responsible for marketing, budget development, advertising/promotion, choreography, rigging, set design, make-up, hair, costuming, lighting, and sound. This experience was extremely rewarding, as the entire show was designed and executed entirely by the youth students at Pendulum under her leadership.
Disciplines
Aerialist
Sydney has been privileged to work and professionally train with many past and current cast members of Cirque du Soleil and graduates and instructors from the prestigious circus school, École Nationale de Cirque (ENC).
Contortionist
From 2013-2019, Sydney has received unsurpassed professional contortion and hand balancing instruction from world renowned Mongolian contortionist, Tsengee Byambadorj.
Human
In addition to her professional circus career, Sydney is a graduate of Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in Human Biology and minor in Creative Writing. She is currently a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis as a candidate for both an MD and PhD degree as a part of the renowned Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP).