The inspiration behind Mimosa Performance 25th January 2019

A rich cultural heritage

Welcome to the first in a series of posts covering the start up of this newly conceived business venture, Mimosa Performance. My name is Ana Cerrato and I am the founder and artistic director.

Throughout my performing career and since I moved to the UK from Spain in early 2000’s, my cultural background has always been present in my creative output. Adapting to life in a foreign country is an enriching experience but one that requires a great deal of energy, especially when basics like language and customs differ so much from those of your mother land. Over the years I have swayed between trying to attune to the unique British idiosyncrasies and wanting to pack up and return to my beloved home country. This process repeats itself each time I come back to the UK from a visit to Spain. As this has happened four to five times a year for over a decade, this friction has become an intrinsic part of my life.

The desire to share

It was not until my son was born in 2015 that I seriously considered channelling this constant oscillation between cultures into something positive that I could share with the world. As a physical performer, it took me some time to recover from the ordeal of giving birth and adapting to the challenge that is motherhood. During that time I looked for alternative ways to make a living that wouldn’t imply the exertion of hanging upside down on aerial equipment, and so I joined a wonderful kiddie’s Spanish teaching franchise. I found out through talking to mums that booked me as a tutor for their kids, that there is a real take for the Spanish culture here in the UK.  This is hardly surprising considering the rich cultural heritage of Spain and the different civilisations that have made up the diverse landscape that it is today.

A multicultural society

 After all these years away from home, I now fully accept myself as an immigrant with a story to tell through stunning circus and dance performance. Despite the current polarised political climate and mixed attitudes to global concerns, I believe that circus and dance can unite us all with its beauty without words. I aim to create acts and shows that transport the viewer miles away to the world of romance, guitar chords and beautiful aerial performance.

Mimosa and the company’s name

Anyone that has started a new company will know how difficult settling on a name is! I knew that I wanted it to be something representative of Spain but I wanted to avoid obvious clichés. After a lot of pondering I found myself scanning Google for names late one night, I came across a little blog post titled ’31 Spanish words with no English translation’. On number 22 , there it was, Mimosa. I got instantly transported to my childhood, the overwhelming scent of the flower, its short lived beauty. I could hear my mum calling me mimosa, using the other meaning of this word that refers to someone seeking affection. I knew straight away that this was the perfect name. Oh, and I found the blog post to be quite an entertaining read.  You can do so too here:

http://www.peppyburro.com/blog/spanish-words-with-no-english-translation/