But you’re just as likely to find her balancing on a rooftop, swinging from a bridge or hanging off a cliff, almost always with no safety net. Her self-belief, Millinger says, is the only security she has.
This applies in day-to-day life as much as it does on a cliff edge. Despite making tricks like doing the ironing with her feet look easy, Millinger has had to work menial jobs to pay the rent while devoting six-to-10 hours every day to training, all while ignoring the many critics who couldn’t see a future in her unusual, mind-bending acrobatic displays.
But now, with more than 400,000 Instagram followers, requests to promote big brands, and high-profile fans including US comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan, Millinger is proving she can carve out her own path – while mostly upside down, using only her feet.
Flexible working
© Rick Guest
The Red Bulletin: Have you always had a taste for acrobatics?
Stefanie Milinger: My mum could tell you a thing or two about that. When I was a kid, I constantly used to cartwheel my way around the place and dangle from branches or anything up high.
Did you get that from your parents?
My father’s an undertaker and my mother works for Austrian telecom. No one else in my family is an acrobat or gymnast.
So how did you discover your love of contortion?
I started vaulting when I was 13 – that is, doing gymnastic exercises on horseback, including from the handstand position. I liked the position and the range of motion that comes with the handstand, and I experimented with it at home. Then I couldn’t stop. It’s the same with tattoos – I wanted to stop at 10, but two weeks ago I had my 12th.
I enjoyed the sensation, and I gradually increased the number of minutes I could stay balanced on my hands.
On the roof of Hotel Daniel. The boat is an artwork by the Erwin Wurm
© Rick Guest
Did you have an idol or a specific purpose when you started out?
Neither. I was just doing it for myself. I enjoyed the sensation, and I gradually increased the number of minutes I could stay balanced on my hands. I cobbled together a training plan of core, strength and stretching exercises, and I got up at 4am every day so I could practise my vaulting before school.
When did you first consider making hand balancing a career?
During and after school, I was just as clueless as most people about what to do in the future. In my careers advice tests, I got “something with animals”, nothing very specific. But you’ve got to start somewhere. I often played circuses when I was a kid. I’d build a circus ring out of chairs, make popcorn and then do all the acts for my audience; I was an animal, an acrobat and a clown. I took a look at the facts and found something I enjoyed and that I wanted to build on.
In 2014, you spent three weeks with Cirque du Soleil in Canada…
There have been four requests by Cirque du Soleil, which is a huge honour for me, but I realised that showbusiness isn’t my thing. I see myself as an artist, and I need constant change. I want to reinvent myself every day.
“My body recovers quickly and is very forgiving. It’s a miracle.”
© Rick Guest
You were very successful at equestrian vaulting – in 2015, you and your partner Evelyn Freund won a bronze medal in the pas de deux at the European Championships. Why did you give it up?
I was 25 years old at the time, and I needed to make a choice. Vaulting is a marginal sport. You can put a lot of money into it, but you don’t earn anything from it. It was no longer working for me as a hobby. I don’t do things by halves.
Back then, you couldn’t have known that handstand artistry would be any more lucrative…
That’s true. In the early years, I just had to grin and bear it and do jobs on the side. I’d deliver