Delilah Wallenda returns to the highwire in Sarasota holiday performance

The secret to gliding on a wire 35 feet above ground is all in the core, according to Delilah Wallenda.

The 71-year-old highwire performer credits a regular workout regimen geared toward strength and balance, as well as hours of practice on a wire in her backyard, with how she maintains her mastery at the jaw-dropping stunt. Though technically retired after several surgeries, Wallenda is still in top condition thanks to the steady routine and an unstoppable determination to keep performing.

“The best thing is just to do what I do,” she said. “Just go on the wire and practice.”

A lifetime of training in a family that’s spent more than two centuries perfecting the act, she said, helps with muscle memory too.

Wallenda, of the famous Flying Wallendas family circus act, dazzled the audience at University Town Center Thursday with two special highwire walks during performances of the A Brave New Wonderland holiday show. Wallenda’s cameo came as a belated holiday gift from her son and one of the show’s producers: world-renowned performer and highwire artist Nik Wallenda, who worked in partnership with The Circus Arts Conservatory to put the show on.

Known for his record-breaking walks across Niagara Falls, the Little Colorado River Gorge and more, Nik Wallenda said his mother’s persistence inspired his own adventures in acrobatics as well as producing performances. He and his wife run the Big Apple Circus in New York City, where the performances are all themed around completing the impossible.

A Brave New Wonderland continues that theme, he said, but with a holiday touch. It takes after the European tradition of hosting circus events during the holiday season, and each part of the show adds to a greater storyline of unity and togetherness.

And for the Wallendas, this run of shows is personal. With Delilah Wallenda’s appearance and a hometown crowd filling the seats, Nik Wallenda said A Brave New Wonderland is more special than most shows.

“Even if it’s the community, that’s my family,” he said. “The support has been overwhelming.”

While A Brave New Wonderland has been months in the making, Wallenda’s cameo was a last-minute addition. Nik Wallenda said his mother had hinted at wanting to join the act only a few weeks ago, first mentioning it to his wife before making the request to him herself.

“She sort of subtly but not subtly kept bringing it up,” Nik Wallenda said.

With the restrictions of her age and prior injuries, Nik Wallenda was hesitant at first to add his mother to the lineup, he said. But after watching her practice with ease, he said he knew she was ready for the spotlight — something she’s basked in since she was a teenager.

The Wallendas are daredevils by blood. Karl Wallenda — Delilah Wallenda’s grandfather — began performing circus stunts as a child in Germany. After a move to Sarasota in 1928 to perform with the Ringling Family Circus, he was on his way to making the Flying Wallendas a household name.

Delilah Wallenda, a Sarasota native along with her son and family, caught the performance bug early too, and she’s not keen on losing it anytime soon.

“When I don’t perform, I feel like I’ve lost part of myself,” she said. “How do you explain something you feel is part of you?”

Delilah Wallenda hopes the special appearance won’t be a one-off, she said. As Nik Wallenda plans to bring A Brave New Wonderland to Sarasota every year, Delilah Wallenda said she’s set on making her part of the performance a tradition too.

And she’s not stopping there. For her 75th birthday, she said she wants to do a daredevil skywalk with her son. (She hasn’t told him yet and is using this article to publicly put him on the spot.)

Between her own persistence and her family’s history of defying the odds, Delilah Wallenda hopes A Brave New Wonderland is a point of inspiration for audiences of all ages.

“I want nobody to give up on their dreams,” she said. “Keep forging ahead.”

A Brave New Wonderland will run until Jan. 7 under the Big Top at UTC. For more information, visit the show’s website.

Contact Herald-Tribune Growth and Development Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Delilah Wallenda makes special cameo in Sarasota holiday show