"My act is more about the relationship," says Houcke, who shudders at the thought of making her cats climb pedestals or jump through rings of fire. "This isn't about me sticking my head in their mouths and proving I'm the strong one. It's about trust." Her kinder, gentler performances have been enchanting children of all ages since the 23-year-old made her debut with the Ring-ling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus in January. "People are absolutely taken with her beauty but also by this extraordinary rapport that is very seldom seen," says circus chairman Kenneth Feld. "It is the ultimate feminine, soft approach. It gives the audience a great feeling of love between Sara and the tigers."
The bond runs in her bloodlines. Houcke (pronounced "hook") was born in Torquay, England, to Judith Benson, 52, an assistant with Kaleidoscape (Ringling Brothers' one-ring circus), and Sacha Houcke, 50, an animal trainer with Switzerland's Circus Knie and a sixth-generation performer whose 18th-century ancestors toured Europe as wire walkers. Houcke—whose sister Karin, 17, is another prospective trainer—started out as a 2-year-old clown in Knie. She began training horses at 9 and by 14 was an acrobat who performed with elephants, rhinos, camels and zebras. Ringling Brothers' Feld caught her show in Europe last year and recruited her for the tiger act. "She does everything with calm and confidence, which is why I knew she'd be fine," says her mother. "Still, I was so nervous at her debut that I could barely watch."
The felines took to Houcke right away. "I had to clean cages at first just to get contact, to know each individual's character," she said. At her first training session inside the cage—just last September—"I wasn't scared; I was more like in shock. When I came out, my knees were shaking, my heart was thumping." Houcke has since learned to speak tiger, after a fashion: "When they whuffle—it's a greeting sound, like a purr but deeper—they want me to give them affection. If they don't whuffle, it means, 'Leave me alone.' " And the cats have boned up on sign language. "They're so in tune with her that she can look at them a certain way and they know what she's feeling," says circus director Phil McKinley. "Sometimes in the act she'll just nod her head and they'll go, 'Oh, okay, time to leave.' "
Houcke's approach still hasn't won approval from Gunther Gebel-Williams, 65, the celebrated trainer who is now a vice president with Ringling Brothers. "He's scared for me because, he says, I'm much too nice and have so much hand contact with the tigers," she says. Though aware of the danger, Houcke—who is single and enjoys club-hopping with pals—puts it out of her mind during the eight-minute act. "I don't want it to appear that I'm working my butt off," she says. And sometimes she just plain forgets, still awestruck by what she feels is the greatest act on earth. "It's so unbelievable that I can go in there. When I'm holding and touching them, I'm like, 'You know, this is a tiger. This is so cool!' "
Paula Chin
Bob Meadows in New York City
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