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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
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Talia Hodge // Photographed by Talia
Look up at Juliette “Ruby Rabbit” Antony and Matthew “Major Scales” Edick towering on 3-foot stilts, as Edick juggles clubs and balls nearly 10 feet in the air. Watch Antony perform a gravity-defying aerial silks act. Marvel as Edick juggles flaming clubs and Antony dances with a flaming pronged hoop around her.
“I’ve always had a fascination with fire,” Edick says. “It has potential to be very dangerous. ... We enjoy being able to control that element.”
The Akron-based duo, who make up Divine Harmony, a neo-vaudeville circus act, taught themselves, with Edick starting on poi and Antony on Hula-hoops. They began performing variety shows in 2015, with local audiences of 20 to 500 and thousands at national festivals like Burning Man.
Variety shows feature the couple’s showstopping skills, with Edick juggling, balancing spinning plates and riding in on a horse and whipping targets, and Antony fusing modern and Filipino folk dance, doing aerial acrobatics and more.
“I juggle knives over her, teetering on a balance board,” Edick says, “which is probably the scariest trick I do because I would hate to drop it on my darling.”
Snag tickets to the July 30 neo-vaudeville Devilstrip Cabaret at Musica featuring under-the-sea-themed burlesque, variety acts and more.
“They don’t really see this in this area,” Antony says. “Our goal is to bring that type of entertainment back to Akron.”
