Rebekah Burke
Rebekah "Bekah" Burke (born 1994 in Dallas, Texas) is an American circus artist and dancer. Recognized for her excellence in aerial arts, Burke was named U.S. Aerial Champion at the U.S. Aerial Championships (2015) and won second place in the professional division at the Vegas International Variety Act Festival (VIVAFest, 2017]). She holds the Guinness World Record for Most Aerial Hoop Spins in a Neck Hang (2023).
She first gained attention performing her aerial hoop act in the off-Broadway production Queen of the Night at the Diamond Horseshoe in New York’s Times Square, where she performed until the show’s closing in 2016. She also appeared in the movie The Greatest Showman.
Most recently she has helped invigorate interest in an historic circus act, en-pointe bottle-walking, that entails artistic ballet performances on empty champagne bottles while wearing pointe shoes. She appeared on Romania’s Got Talent (2025) with this specialty act.
Career
Aerial Hoop Her career highlights include multiple productions with Cirque du Soleil, performing as a featured aerialist in Zumanity in Las Vegas and with Joya in Riviera Maya, Mexico. She has also been a featured artist in Absinthe Las Vegas, Filament at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and in Palazzo shows across Europe, including Hamburg (2017-2018), Vienna (2023–2024), and most recently Berlin (2024–2025). Additionally, Burke brought her artistry to The Party with Strut N Fret at the Darwin Arts Festival in Darwin, NSW, Australia.
Burke’s international credits include performances with Celebrity Cruise Lines, The Act in Dubai, Illusion in Doha, The Box in New York City and The Box Soho in London, SAX in Washington, DC, Webster Hall in NYC, ArtScape in Baltimore, and many other venues worldwide.
Through her social media she has advocated for safe, collaborative environments where circus artists are empowered and supported.
En-Pointe Bottle Walking Burke performs this unique act combining classical ballet technique with circus arts entirely en pointe wearing ballet pointe shoes on glass champagne bottles. It’s a specialized discipline that few artists perform today. Burke has presented this act internationally while continuously developing and refining this unusual skill to elevate its place among the performing and circus arts.
This historical skill of balancing en pointe on bottles was featured in early 20th-century variety and cabaret performances. One of the earliest known photographs of a woman performing this act dates back to 1904. Throughout the 1950s similar images appeared in vaudeville and circus archives across Europe and North America. References to this history can be found in books like The Circus: 1870–1950 (Taschen) and other circus ephemera collections.
Early Life
Burke began her professional training in ballet and contemporary dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts under the direction of Ethan Stiefel, before attending Ellison Ballet and the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet in New York City, along with two summers at the American Ballet Theatre intensive. Ultimately, she discovered a passion for flight and transitioned to aerial arts, training under Seanna Sharpe in NYC, then with Jan Manke, and later at Nathalie Gaulthier’s Le Studio in Los Angeles, studying under renowned coaches including Joshua Zehner, Jason Berrent, Alan Ascencio, Petra Sprecher, and Michelle Sargent.