ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

No matter where Yvonne Meulenbroek travels, the road always leads back to Norman Wells.

The career wildland firefighter is now aiming to bring circus arts to the community.

"This is my home," she said. "This is where I always end up. I come back every year for fire season.

"This is just my first stab at trying to initiate a social circus at home. We want to do stuff like learning through play, accessibility, inclusion and diversity. We're trying to do some stuff with the long-term care facility too, bringing mobility exercises to the Elders in residence.

"They're big dreams, so we'll see how far I get with them."

First moving to Norman Wells when she was 11, Meulenbroek spent her teenage years in the community before heading south to pursue her passions. But her roots ran deep. Today, she has spent her last nine summers protecting the community from forest fires — which amounts to her entire wildland firefighting career. When she's not guarding the community from blazes, she's blazing a trail and travelling the world.

Seeing a gap in activities for adults in the area, she's acquired funding from NWT Arts and is offering free lessons in acro-yoga, aerials and flow arts — also known as fire spinning. She sometimes trains with a circus group in Australia, where she also finds wildfire jobs, and with another group in London, England.

Already she's had four students come out to her first class, for which Mackenzie Mountain School has donated gym space. Classes are open to all ages and body types, although children need to be accompanied by an adult.

Meulenbroek said her long-term goal is to get a steady active motion program in the community to help those with mobility issues keep active. But she noted she's still assessing how much interest there is, so she's starting small.

Once she has some dedicated students, she plans to use the funding to purchase equipment so students can keep up practice over the long, dark winter months.

"Everyone brings their own props and does their own thing together," she said. "It's a pretty low-pressure environment. People can come as much or as little as they want — they don't have to call and cancel. I can provide the props, I just need people to tell me what they want.

"It's the kind of thing people can do at home by themselves with videos, as long as we get a good foundation going. They can run with it and do what they want, which is my goal — more independence."

If there's enough interest, Meulenbroek mused about potentially bringing a circus group to the community in a few summers.

Classes are Monday from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. — except for fire season, which keeps Meulenbroek busy during her time in the town.