Lisburn's chance of having its own community circus school was given a boost when local youth club members treated an invited audience to a special circus performance at Island Arts Centre, Lagan Valley Island recently.
| It takes patience to learn things, but it's really good fun and anybody should try it. |
Thirty-two young people from Dromara and St. Patrick's Youth Clubs worked hard with trainers from Belfast Circus School over ten weeks putting the performance together.
Belfast Circus School's Katherine Montgomery hopes this perform-ance and another scheduled in August will add weight to plans for setting up a full-time circus school for young people in Lisburn: "The young people in the community involved here proved that there is a desire and a need for something like this in Lisburn," she said.
"We've received tremendous support form Lisburn Council, so let's hope we could make a community circus here a permanent fixture, like it is in Belfast."
Nicky Glasgow, 10, was one of the show's acrobats: "Everybody says it's brilliant, and they like it a lot. Everybody says 'I want to have a go, I want to have a go'."
"It takes patience to learn things but it's really good fun and anybody should try it," she added.
Jo Williams, Belfast Circus School circus organiser, explained the reasoning behind the project: "It's really helped them. It's an incredible boost for their confidence to be able to do that after only 60 hours of practice," she said.
"They've all come together from various areas in Lisburn and worked really well as a group."
Damien French, a youth leader from Lisburn Youth Club was equally enthusiastic: "When I saw the show I was absolutely amazed," he said.
Children as young as six years old opened the show. Avoiding all normal circus traditions, performers streamed out onstage, unannounced by a ringleader and began a series of acrobatic feats.
As the show progressed it became even more interesting - performers balanced on tall unicycles and huge colourful balls.
Lively acrobatics, with cartwheels turns and somersaults held the audience in suspense and, in between acts, pictures of flowers were projected onto the screen and relaxing music was played.
This wasn't your average circus show with all the traditional trimmings. Taking into account how much work has been put in, it's hard not to see what a spectacular show it was.
About the team
This story was produced by Michael Leathem, 15, Stephanie McCann, 15 and Daniel McCrisken, 11, from Belfast, and Jenny Matthews, 16, Natalie Ansell, 15, Laura Smith, 14, and Liam O'Reilly, 14, from Sheffield. It was published by the Lisburn Echo.
