Circus Arts

Once upon a time in a land far away, I moved to a town filled with colourful characters. By day I remained an analyst programmer, by night I learned to totter on stilts and hang by my arms. First inches, then feet and then metres above solid ground.

I spent some five years working within the exciting and creative world of contemporary circus. This traditional medium is no longer just associated with sawdust and big tops. today's circus crosses genres, blending dance, physical theatre, acrobatics and just about any other performance skill that imagination can create.

Cirque de Soleil helped to change the perception and reputation of circus and their influence has spread far and wide. In the shopping centres of Britain, you are as likely to see a stilt walker or an aerial angel as a guy in a duck outfit.

Together with a dedicated group I helped facilitate the incorporation of our group to charitable status in Bristol, UK. I organised volunteers and cabarets and was a director of the Albany Centre which still thrives today.

I have come down off my stilts now and no longer train fulltime. But, once a year or so, my creative ideas need expression and I devise a show for local events.

In April 2009 I applied for and received an art grant from the Greater Vancouver Interactive Arts Society (GVIAS) to create a performance for a residential weekend on the Sunshine Coast. The Mary Poppins Experience came forth - a mini extravaganza of aerial, dance and comedy - and enchanted one and all.