Rising from the dust - EVE'S ALMIGHTY CIRCUS MISSION

How the high-flying performer's future came crashing down to earth

- Rebekah Hebenton

When Eve Gordon stepped on stage last month in Canada, they couldn’t have been happier. After spending the past two years recovering from intense burnout, The Dust Palace co-founder was thrilled to be back, sharing the craft of circus with the world and receiving rave reviews in the process.

But by the end of the performance, everything changed as Eve learned that a warehouse housing a decade’s worth of equipment and archives from their creative life had burned to the ground.

“It’s a very weird experience,” Eve, 43, says, speaking to the Weekly from Vancouver. “The shows in Canada have been going so well, and it’s very fun and uplifting. At the same time, I’m holding this devastating news and trying to figure out how to move forward.”

In the early hours of June 8, a fire tore through the storage yard in Auckland where The Dust Palace kept its equipment, sets, costumes and props accumulated over the past decade. It took nearly 50 firefighters to bring the blaze under control. By the time it was extinguished, everything was gone.