YOUNG Point Cook resident Sam Bognar will literally become a high-flyer in her future career.

The 13-year-old, who trains at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) two evenings a week after school, hopes to become a professional performer one day.

“I’d like to join a travelling circus or Cirque de Soleil or a big circus, but I’m too young,” she said.

“I love tumbling, I’d like to do acrobatics. I like to flip and then I like to fly.”

Sam began training at the circus school last year, after years of gymnastics classes.

She was so talented that the NICA instructors promoted her to the Serious Circus classes, which are usually only for people aged over 16 who want to audition for NICA’s Bachelor of Circus Arts university course.

“It’s called Serious Circus, but it’s not really serious, it’s lots of fun,” Sam said.

“There were adults in the class, so I was a bit wary at first.”

As the smallest person in the class, she is the one who always stands on top of an acrobatic formation, like a pyramid.

So far, she has learned to balance on top of three people, which sometimes requires her to wear a safety belt, in case everyone else topples over.

“If the second person, who doesn’t have a rope, loses balance and falls, I’m left hanging there in the air,” Sam said.

“Balancing on top of two people is really easy now.”

The talented teenager can do handstands, cartwheels with no hands and the splits, which impresses her friends at school.

“When I do a cartwheel, they’re like, ‘Wow, do it again’,” Sam said.

Sam hopes to complete NICA’s university course in the future and she has also been to see several circuses recently.

“I sit in the audience and think, ‘I can do that’,” she said.

NICA is urging aspiring circus performers who have completed Year 12 to submit their applications for entry into the 2011 Bachelor of Circus Arts course.

The closing date is 3 September. See www.nica.com.au for more information.