By Ed Chatterton via SWNS
A paraplegic acrobat who broke her back in a horror fall has defied the odds to return to performing with the circus – using only her upper body.
Silke Pan, 51, was severely injured after plunging from a trapeze in 2007 which left her in a wheelchair and paralyzed from her stomach down.
But the inspirational acrobat refused to let her disability get in the way and is now once again wowing UK circus audiences 17 years later with gravity-defying stunts.
During her rehabilitation, Silke competed at an international level in para-cycling and para-triathlon events becoming a European Champion and World Championship bronze medalist.
But her dream was always to rejoin the circus where she had performed in theaters all over Europe between 1992-2007.
Swiss national Silke is back on stage as a circus performer and touring the UK with Gravity Circus.
She said: “Although I have never dwelled in the past, being an acrobat again is like a huge gift to me.”
Her life as a circus performer came to and abrupt stop in September 2007 when she fell from a trapeze breaking her back at 10th and 11th dorsal vertebrae and ended up in hospital for a grueling period of seven months.
Silke added: “During rehab I had to learn to accept this completely new body.
“I kept trying to form trapeze figures in physiotherapy but it was impossible to turn my paralyzed pelvis.
“Floor exercises, headstand, handstand – none of it worked.”
However, Silke was determined to not give up athletic activities and began training on a handbike from the first day she left the hospital.
She added: “Sports allowed me to better accept my disability.”
In 2012 she began competing professionally and became a champion at hand biking.
And at the end of 2016 Silke switched to alpine ultra-para cycling with the ascent of more than 80 mythical passes in the Swiss Alps, the Maritime Alps and the Pyrenees.
In 2017 she competed in international races as part of the Italian team but in 2019 after being naturalised as a Swiss citizen, she started competing on the Swiss team.
In 2018 she crossed the Pyrenees and in 2019 she competed in the Tour des Lacs – 1,000km and 30 Swiss lakes crossings in para-triathlon mode which consisted of handbike, racing chair, swimming, and bellyak (a modified kyak).
After being a paraplegic for nine years – Silke was able to stand up and walk thanks to an exoskeleton and now for the first time it is being adapted for children.
But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. At first, races were postponed, then canceled, and training sessions could not take place.
She added: “That’s when I set up a small fitness studio at home and tried out new shoulder exercises as recommended by the coach.”
Silke asked her husband Didier to help her get into a handstand. To facilitate this, he put her body on an old snowboard, fixed legs and hips with straps and pulled her upside down onto her hands.
She added: “After only ten minute it was as if my body and muscle memory kicked in and remembered the positions from the past.”
Her hands and shoulders automatically took the correct positions to perform an acrobatic exercise.
On her fourth try, strapped to the snowboard, she got into a handstand all by herself.
Silke said: “We were both crying for joy. Because we knew that this would open completely new opportunities for us.”
She invented a unique technique to balance on her hands again – an acrobatic discipline which she used to practice before the accident.
Silke added: “This looks great with stretched legs, although I am still working on making everything look more graceful.”
Silke admitted getting enormous stage fright before her first performance back for Gravity Circus but went on to get a standing ovation.
She said “I was just about to live my dream again.
“However, I was scared that my performance would not be a success but that I would only be pitied instead.”
Her brave return makes her the first professional hand balancer with complete paraplegia below the spine.
Silke will be in action with Gravity Circus in Plymouth Central Park until September 22 before the show continues touring across England.
Anthony Andreson, director of Circus Extreme who organized the UK leg of the Gravity Circus tour, added: “Silke defies gravity and expectations, showcasing the sheer power of the human spirit.
“Their brand new show “Equilibrium” promises to challenge the very laws of physics with incredible feats performed by some of the world’s most talented circus artists.”
