“At what point do you say, ‘Wow, I really want to dangle upside down from silk scarves and play the violin for a living'?” This question was posed by myself and couple friends of mine as we reconnected over a cup of coffee. We were discussing life paths and career choices-- still trying to figure out what we wanted to do “when we grew up”, despite having  graduated from college and started various jobs, families, and all recently having reached the milestone 30th birthday. It was in this context that one of my friends mentioned the aerial violinist, Janice Martin. We collectively wondered: what is the secret to thinking so decidedly out of the box as this artist does?

To be sure, thinking outside of the box is a rather cliché concept now, the subject of countless self-help books, business seminars, and the like. Regardless, it truly is something people seem to have a hard time executing. We learn early on as children to draw inside the lines, follow all the rules, and act orderly and contained. Creativity, while not completely disregarded, is often more of an afterthought. Most follow the same pattern into our adult life: go to school, build a career, get married, have kids, and those who dare to do those in a different order or on a different timeframe are often questioned or ridiculed.

To add to this, our brains seem hard-wired to place everything into neat little boxes.  Psychological theory calls these boxes “schemas”:  mental structures to organize information. Every time your brain receives new information, it tries to fit it inside one of its already pre-conceived schemas. It is an efficient and quick way to store, retrieve, and process information, helping us to respond quickly and appropriately to many situations. However, when we encounter new experiences or information that does not fit into a schema, a common reaction is to ignore or quickly forget the offending information. Occasionally, new information that differs so completely from a schema but cannot be ignored will cause an existing schema to be altered or to create a separate schema for “exceptions from the rule”. The question is, do these schemas we have created for ourselves and our roles sometimes needlessly box us in?

Let’s go back to the aerial violinist. According to her <a href="http://www.janicemartin.com/">website</a>, Janice Martin is a classically trained violinist, pianist and vocalist who works with the Cirque du Symphonie, combining her talents aerial acrobats to be the "world's only aerial violinist", and also returned to headline the show <em>Encore!</em> aboard the <a href="http://www.showboatbransonbelle.com/">Showboat Branson Belle</a> in Branson, MO for the second season.  Watching the videos of her performances, I am struck by not only her musical prowess (and I am a classically trained violist, so I can tell you, the pieces she plays are difficult enough, let alone while dangling by scarves), but she also displays an amazing grace, power, and strength in her aerial performance. Her vocal and piano performances are equally impressive, even if not performed while hanging from the ceiling. Truly, she is a formidale artist, putting the often-touted "triple threats" to shame.

She is a unique artist to say the least, so it should be no surprise that her path there is equally unique. Musically trained at the Indiana University and the Juilliard School of Music, she found her first job in perhaps an unlikely place: The US Army, where she played in the US Army Band in Washington, D.C. as a solo violinist, including solos at the White House, the Capitol and the State Department for President Bill Clinton and other world leaders.

After her enlistment with the army, she was awarded honorary use of the 1708 Burstein/Bagshawe Stradivarius Violin by The Stradivari Society. She then toured domestically and internationally, soloing with the Milwaukee Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Portland Symphony, European Union Chamber Orchestra and the New York Symphonic Ensemble, to name a few. Her career and accomplishments as a musician alone is truly impressive.

So, then, how did she go from an internationally recognized musician to an aerial violinist? Where do the aerobatics come in to this story, exactly?

We also wanted careers or callings that were unique and interesting, even beyond moving away from the typical 9-5 office job.  Or more importantly, we wanted careers that were uniquely suited to ourselves. Are there gifts, talents and interests that I have that I previously thought I could not combine, that together would create one exceptionally unique career, much like the dangling aerial violinist? Wearing skin-tight outfits and dangling upside down from scarves and rings from great heights while playing the electric violin is not exactly something that appeals to me for my own career, but I would like to have this woman’s ability to completely bust out of the box.

God created us in His image, so we too are creative beings. Isn’t it high time we moved in more freedom in creating…and not just in creating more boxes? Life is too short to do things just to fit inside someone else’s or our own self-built boxes.

<em>Photo courtesy of  Silver Dollar City Publicity</em>

Further Credits:

Silver Dollar City Publicity (2012). From Humble Beginnings to Carnegie Hall [Press Release].