Anything goes at the surprising Cirque Dream Holidaze from hula hooping to hair hanging

The imagination runs wild when there’s a story about a child who takes off to Nepal to join the circus. Did the fledgling entertainer become a lion tamer or a trapeze artist? Not Kate Ryan, who left Hudson Bay, Canada for India at age 17 to become an entertainer.

Ryan, 30, entertained crowds courtesy of the hula hoop.

“That’s my apparatus,” Ryan said while calling from Charlottesville, Virginia. “I’m a hula-hooper, and you won’t believe what I can do with the hula hoop unless you see me perform.”

After 13 years of training, counting 17 months in Nepal and 2 years in Australia, Ryan is a top-tier hula hoop artist, juggler and acrobat, who will perform with Cirque Dream Holidaze on Wednesday and Thursday at the First Interstate Center for the Arts.

“I’m thrilled to be part of a show that is so varied,” Ryan said. “There’s something for everyone.”

Cirque Dreams Holidaze features singers, comedians and some unusual acts.

“We have someone who hangs from her hair,” Ryan said. “You have to see it to believe it. She’s from Brazil and she does this incredible aerial act, in which she just is held up by her hair.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

There’s also audience participation and an act billed as the world’s tallest woman.

“It’s just me on stilts,” Ryan said. “But I’m up on stilts moving around at 10 feet. It’s fun.”

But it’s not as enjoyable as Ryan with her hula hoop.

“I love face balancing with the hula hoop,” Ryan said.

While growing up in rural Canada there weren’t a great deal of options for Ryan.

“I did gymnastics, but the only thing I was really good at was the hula hoop,” Ryan said “Who could have guessed that I would have turned it into a career? It’s certainly different.”

So is the garbage goat, which Ryan will revisit when she returns to town.

“I love that Garbage goat,” Ryan said. “I fed him garbage last year. My sister, who lives in Furnie, (British Columbia), was looking for something interesting to do, and so we visited Spokane last year and went to a comedy show there. We love that club (Spokane Comedy Club). We had a great time there but my greatest memory is the garbage goat. We fed it wrappers and leftovers.

“I’m going to take as many people from the show to the garbage goat. We’ll have time to see it and explore Spokane since we’re in town for a couple of days.”