Street performer finds international success.
Kensington Market area resident Kate Mior started her busking career as a street performer but has gone on to internationally success in her chosen field as a corporeal mime. Mior will perform during the Scotiabank Buskerfest at St. Lawrence Market Aug. 25 to Aug. 28.
Photo/COURTESY
After starting out as a street performer as a way to make some quick money to help her get through university, Kensington Market area resident Kate Mior has become an internationally-renowned success in her chosen field.
Mior, a corporeal mime, has several popular characters she rolls out for events and special occasions. She has performed around the world and will reprise a couple of her more beloved personae when she returns to the Scotiabank Buskerfest at St. Lawrence Market later this month.
She will appear as the crowd-pleasing Marie Antoinette, her version of whom she calls "a mix of Paris Hilton, the Queen Mum and my grandmother", as well as her relatively new living statue character Coppelia, a wind-up doll who becomes animated when crowd members turn the key on her back.
Though she has worked tirelessly on a number of characters, her Marie Antoinette is always her most in-demand persona.
"She likes to eat cake, seduce the men and just have fun," she said.
Mior embarked on her current career while studying film and animation at Ryerson University, mostly to help cover costs and pay down some debts. She also felt taking up the art form would help her become a better animator.
"I was working with stop-motion animation and I thought mime would help me be a better animator because it would help me break the body down," she said. "After a while, I decided I liked mime better (than animation) and I was getting international contracts, so I decided to stick with it for a while."
Even then, however, she was not convinced she would follow that career path long-term. She assumed she would always return to film or animation and even planned on making a break from street performance on more than one occasion, finally deciding her current vocation was her true calling over the past year or so.
"I resisted it for a long time even though I was good at it and was pulling in (money) that living statues don't usually bring in," she said.
Mior's living statue act is in demand overseas and at corporate events, breaking down barriers in North America, where mime is often derided and wrongly stereotyped.
"I don't do the striped shirt or whiteface; I've never trained in pantomime and that's not part of my repertoire," she said. "I've been told time and time again by corporate clients and circuses I've worked at, 'we don't like mime, but we love what you do.'"
She is looking forward to returning to Toronto's annual Buskerfest event, in part because she loves performing before hometown crowds and partly because it always opens up opportunities for the performers.
"It's incredible because it attracts international festival organizers," she said.
After living around the world and in a few Toronto neighbourhoods, she has happily settled in Kensington Market.
"I can't imagine ever leaving the market," she said. "I've lived in many cities, but I always love coming back to the amazing patios and my amazing roommates here."
Mior will appear alongside dozens of street performers from around the world when Scotiabank Buskerfest takes over the St. Lawrence Market area from Thursday, Aug. 25 to Sunday, Aug. 28. Admission is free, with visitors asked to make donations to individual performers in support of Epilepsy Toronto.
For more information, visit www.torontobuskerfest.com