Strut n Fret production Purple Rabbit opens in the Spiegeltent Wollongong with Chinese trained slight-of-foot juggler Emma Phillips

The performer is part of the new Strut n Fret production, Purple Rabbit, which opens Wednesday night inside the Spiegeltent Wollongong. The show is a fusion between circus, magic and adult cabaret.

Phillips left her home at the age of 20 to head to one of the most prestigious circus schools in Beijing in China, before moving to a small village where she was the only foreigner learning the ancient art of juggling a parasol with her feet.

Read more: Here's the full Spiegeltent lineup announced for Wollongong

"Hard military training [like 10 hours a day] like drills, you do everything hundreds and hundreds of times," she said. "It's a Chinese art, so I thought 'if I want to do it, I should go to the masters'."

But fancy umbrellas aren't the only thing Phillips can make dance with her limbs, solid wood tables - around 10 kilograms - are also part of her act though quite hazardous.

"Each prop takes years to master," she said. "Having the delicate umbrellas and the table - it can kill me - like it's really table, I'll be flipping the table ... if you drop it you're gone. But I like the juxtaposition of having this delicate umbrella work and then I'm going to flip a table."

Read more: Set times announced for the Yours and Owls Festival

Phillips is the only performer to juggle a table and umbrella during her act, while she said there were only two other Westerners in the world who were able to juggle the umbrella.

"I really like that it's such a speciality, it's not so common."

Purple Rabbit is at the Wollongong Spiegeltent until Sunday. It's recommended for ages 18+ and contains strong adult themes and language, nudity, fire, smoke effects and strobe lighting.

It runs for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, with no interval.

The cast including the 'alcoholic Harry Potter' of magic Dom Chambers, official fooler of Penn & Teller The Unnamed Magician, eccentric Gold Medal beatbox-juggler Kerol, Chinese trained slight-of-foot juggler Emma Phillips and Harper Jones, the world's only Sexual Psychic-ologist. (Source: Merrigong)

To book a ticket, or to see what else is on, visit: www.spiegeltentwollongong.com

To read more stories, download the Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.