Circus Skills Hoxton
Circus Skills in Hoxton
VO
The circus has been with us since the Romans invented chariot racing, but nowadays its much more about performing humans than performing animals, and as ground breaking troops like Cirque du Soleil wow audiences worldwide, more and more Londoners are flocking to a circus school in trendy Hoxton to learn the ropes for themselves.
IV
It was originally started by a group of people who were interested in circus but were frustrated with the fact that they had nowhere to train, so they found a disused warehouse space and converted it with you know rigging and so on that they could and it sort of grew from there and started teaching and most of them are still running the place.
There’s lots of different things on/off at the circus space, I mean we run everything from one day courses like this one to tumbling, flying trapeze, hand stands, anything, anything that takes your fancy.
VO
And if you’ve really been bitten by the bug, the school runs the nations first full time degree course in circus arts. But what kind of people are taking up the circus challenge?
IV
It tends to be more women than men, but we’ve had people in their, you know, fifties, sixties turn up right down to people who are just out of school, or 16, 17 years old. We do get people who would think it was a crazy, fun thing to do or people who were given an introduction day as a present.
VO
And what do the students think of it?
VOX
Its not the sort of thing you would normally get an opportunity to do
VOX
I’ve seen quite a few shows where people are doing fantastic things, so I just wanted to have a go.
VOX
It’s a lot of fun, these people are really professional, and it all felt really safe. When you feel safe, I think you’re inclined to take more risks as well.
VO
But just how fit do you have to be to do this?
IV
I think it helps if you’re reasonably fit and quite flexible. If all people have done is sat at a desk for the last twenty years or something than they to tend to have more trouble. The people who get on best are the people who had dance training or gymnastics training. A lot of the people who come regularly to the evening classes do use this as a fun alternative to going to the gym. Going to the gym is all very good for you and everything but it can be quite dull.
VOX
I’ve been going out around Hoxton and Shoreditch, I just never knew there was a fully equipped circus space. So now I do, and I’m going to come back more, yeah.
