2010-13 Rob Thorburn (known as Blue Cat in the juggling world) was born in 1979 in Aberdeenshire and two years after learning to juggle he met the Beltane Fire Society crowd in Edinburgh and worked on a circus toy stall in the Edinburgh Fringe. He then moved in with Steve Cousins and joined fire performance… [Read More]
North East Circus History
These North East England circus profiles and notes are created from many 1st & 2nd hand sources, researched by the Family La Bonche. Including: documents & notes from Arthur Fenwick’s Scrapbooks held in the Tyne & Wear Archives; stories from NE based or visiting circus artists and NE circus communities, and documents from their personal archives; photos and articles from local newspapers; online research and, of course, some of our own stories too. The profiles form a time line from 1237 – 2013.
Five Ring Circus aka Family La Bonche
2010 to date Five Ring Circus started in 2010 and was founded by Helen Averley and Steve Cousins, because they wanted to give young people opportunities to enjoy a regular youth circus club and access to structured, ongoing training. It is a Youth Circus which focuses on the five main areas of circus; aerial, acrobatics,… [Read More]
Vladimir Burgrov & Family “Circus Ring”
b. 1950 Vladimir was born in 1950 in Ukraine, and grew up in Moscow. He started in a circus when he was 12, and in 1966 he went to Moscow Circus School where he learnt acrobatics, juggling, balancing, clowning and making acts! He has now been in the circus for 43 years. He has lived… [Read More]
Lost In Translation Circus
2012 Annabel Carberry was born in the UK and raised in Australia and Massi Rossetti was raised in Rome and Born in Milan. Together they are “Lost in Translation Circus” and both teach in the NE of England. Massi joined the circus in Spain because of what he describes as the freedom, the journey and… [Read More]
Robyn Hambrook
Resident 2012 – date Born in South Africa, Robyn moved to New Zealand in at the age of 11. At 20 she saw and was intrigued by the poi for the first time. She got some when she was 21, with no one to teach her she taught herself. She went traveling to Europe and… [Read More]
Circadium
2009 – date Circadium is a day long Circus Convention which is a free event for the local community. It is known to be a stadium of circus and is inspired by a similar tent-based circus venue in Australia co-founded by Reg Bolton, Let’s Circus and Gabe Monson for the Woodford Folk Festival. Organised and… [Read More]
Forma Fortis
2012 to date Marion Schenk b. 1966, began her acrobatic career as a gymnast and Alexander Lenz b. 1970 as an Olympic weightlifter. In 1992 they started doing acrobatics together in Munich. They founded the acrobatic group “formafortis”, with which they performed internationally – mostly as duo, but also many times as trio or in… [Read More]
Netherlands National, Planet
2012/13 In 2012 the Netherlands National Circus visited the Town Moor, Newcastle, with an 11 day stand as part of a UK tour. With their ‘All Human Spectacular” Show. Tour Manager/Spokesperson was Chris Barltrop. Chris has also been ringmaster for Gerry Cottle’s Circus and Moscow State Circus where he was on the Town Moor in… [Read More]
Lee Tinnon
b.1990 Born in Newcastle, Lee, from Ponteland, had his first circus encounter with No Fit State Circus as a young free runner in “Park Life”, SIRF 2009. He’s main skills are acrobatics, wall trampolining, juggling and parkour/free running. He studied maths at Newcastle University and was a key member of the University Circus Skills Society,… [Read More]
Ross Taylor
b. 1993 Ross was born in Newcastle and started was a gymnast between the age of 10 – 14, later becoming assistant coach. He got serious about free running when he broke his collar bone and quit gymnastics. He left school with A Levels in Business, Media & Philosophy and Ethics. He trained circus at… [Read More]
