Amanda Orozco used to do pull-ups every day in front of a window that looked directly out on her dream.
"Just two more," she would push herself.
Two more could get her in that building across the street, get her the part, get her in the air.
Now 22, Orozco is living her dream.
She graduated from the National Circus School in Montreal and the next day was offered a contract from the building across the street - the Cirque du Soleil headquarters.
"My job is to fly," she laughed. "Literally."
Since June 2010, the Orlando native has been a star of the Cirque du Soleil show "Dralion" on its North American tour.
"Dralion," which is coming to the Stephen C. O'Connell Center Oct. 11 - 13, is a show that combines Chinese acrobatics with contemporary circus performances.
Orozco is the female lead in the act entitled Aerial Pas de Deux, in which she portrays Azala, the goddess of air.
She and her partner tumble through the sky above the stage performing acrobatics, suspended by nothing more than long bands of blue cloth.
The aerial dancer said she knew she wanted to perform on the silks, or tissu, with Cirque du Soleil after her mom took her to a performance of "La Nouba" on her 12th birthday.
"I was just in awe of it," she said. "I literally came out of there and said, ‘Mom, this is what I'm going to do.'"
After graduating from Ocoee High School in 2007, she applied to the National Circus School in Montreal - the only school in North America that provides advanced circus arts training.
After a four-day, 40-hour entrance exam that Orozco described as "the most rigorous thing I've ever done," she was accepted and invited to join the 100 or so students training to join the circus.
Orozco spent the next three-and-a-half years studying aerial contortion and "minoring" in trapeze and contortion.
"I never expected to achieve everything I dreamed of by the time I was 21," she said.
Her professional life as a circus performer is now in full swing. She's gotten her makeup routine down from two-and-a-half hours to 45 minutes. She's figured out how to fit her life into two suitcases.
Though she knows her friends from high school are graduating college this year and starting jobs as teachers or accountants, she manages to find a sense of normalcy in her life.
To Orozco, normal is a "family" of 54 people from 14 different countries. It's the 19 semitrucks that follow her from city to city carrying about 1,500 handmade costume pieces, 300 pairs of shoes, and washers and dryers.
The young acrobat travels to a new city almost every week on the tour. Each week she'll perform in up to nine shows.
Orozco said she hasn't really gotten nervous since her first show in 2010 in Trenton, N.J., but when the tour stops in her hometown, Orlando, in September, she may lose some sleep.
"It's going to be a little intimidating for sure," she said. "I would've never pursued such an outlandish dream had I not had incredible support, which is why it's so amazing to come back to perform for them and why it's going to be even more challenging."
No longer a rookie, Orozco said she plans to continue performing with "Dralion." She also hopes to go on the show's world tour.
She's taking online classes to work toward a degree in medicine, just in case, but said she can't really see herself wanting to do anything else. She loves performing too much.
"I get to wake up and do exactly what I want to do every day," she said.
Tickets for the Gainesville show are on sale at the O'Connell Center Box Office or online at www.cirquedusoleil.com/dralion. Tickets range from $31 to $90.
Amanda Orozco, 22, of Orlando, poses in a promotional photo for the Cirque du Soleil show "Dralion." The show is coming to the Stephen C. O'Connell Oct. 11-18.
