The interview series “Through Their Eyes” features various artists at the 2017 Folklife Festival. Whether they express their truths through spoken word or acrobatics, these artists share a part of themselves in every performance.

Dylan Wynne: regular teenager by day, circus flier by night. 

An experienced trapeze artist with the Sailor Circus Academy, Dylan performs with his girlfriend and fellow trapeze artist, Lydia Nord, an incoming freshman at the University of Florida. Adorned in elegant dark red outfits, Dylan and Lydia play out a love story on the trapeze, as well as in real life. Though the fear of losing his grip on Lydia occasionally creeps into his mind, Dylan focuses on catching her.  

“You can’t stress,” he says. “You have to be cool. Man, that’s good life advice. If you think more about dropping than you do about getting it right, then that can’t be good. If you think, ‘Oh, this is no big deal,’ and do it the way you need to and have been told to by the coaches, it’ll work out. As soon as you’re ready to go, it’s no big deal. We’re like, ‘Yes, we just did it! I didn’t drop her.’ I mean, we trust each other.”

Laura Zhang is a student at the University of Texas at Austin studying neuroscience. She is an intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and exudes a passion for social justice, stories, and dogs of all kinds.