LANSING, Mich. — This traveling act of 11-year-old twins from Alto perform aerial arts around the state as Gemini Circus, but they are otherwise known as Lily and Summer Klein.
"Summer specializes in silks, and I specialize in aerial hoop," Lily said.
The girls have been honing their crafts for the past four years.
"I watched the movie The Greatest Showman, and I really liked the girl doing flying trapeze, but there wasn't flying trapeze in the area, so I tried out aerial silks," Summer said.
Lily said it was watching her sister that inspired her to give it a try.
"We do classes, which are once a week," Summer said.
"And then we set our rig up in our yard once a week too," Lily said.
The girls also create all their own routines.
"My favorite part is doing drops because it feels like you're on a roller coaster, but in the air," Summer said.
"Mine is spinning really fast and and doing a bunch of splits," Lily said.
The girls' very supportive parents, Mindy and Jeremy Klein, said Gemini Circus started their traveling act just this past June.
"Gemini is the set of twins from Greek mythology, and there's also the constellation Gemini, which is the twins," Jeremy said of the act's name.
In the past two months, the twins have performed at least five shows, including their school talent show, the Elsie Dairy Festival in July and Thursday at the Cascade Township branch of the Kent District Library.
Though this traveling act performs throughout the state, the duo has actually done aerial arts in Chicago, and "in Las Vegas we got trained by a few people that are in Cirque du Soleil," Lily said.
"Other kids that play the typical sports like basketball soccer—all of that—they have like, games and tournaments and things like that, and what the girls have with their thing is performing, and they love to perform for audiences," Mindy said.
"We're amazed every time we watch them," Jeremy said. "Even though we've seen them do it—how many times? It's so fun to see them every time."
"It's been really amazing, like we are so proud of them," Mindy said, holding back tears.
To find details on how to book Gemini Circus, click here.