A Big Thanks to North Tyneside Council for supporting us in this new commission!

Saturday 5th August- We were a ray of sunshine in Stockton as we paraded in our yellow and white as the final group of the Stockton Carnival Parade. With over 80 participants we had youth circus performers doing stilts, Unicycle, Juggling, and Summer – “the strongest girl in the world” pulling the caravan…. All was going tremendously until the jockey wheel fell off and we were overtaken by the security vets… never fear the spare was fitted and Steve broadcast to everyone that we were here!!!  They couldn’t miss us with with our flags and big balloons. After the Parade we were received by Joe May aka Joseph d’Amour and all groups took their turn with a five min Act. Just as we got the last tings in the van the heavens opened and beat a hasty retreat to the Unicycle.com warehouse to sort it all out……

Sunday 7th August –  Thanks to Frank Wilson and the Stockton International Riverside Festival our Five Ring Circus Showcase (10 youth circus acts and Joseph d’Amour as compare) was held in a wonderful Spiegal tent “Salon Perdu”.  This was the first combined show with performers representing all of our clubs. We had a chance to meet other performers and were supported by them in our shows. There was a full house and some moving moments….  Afterwards – time to see the festival and share circus joy in the gardens with an improptu workshop! Good job everyone!

Gerry Cottle and Wookey Hole Circus kindly invited us to visit and train with their youth circus back in April, we were delighted to accept. A minibus full went down in August and have just returned having tried all manor of new circus skills including a Pyramid bike (where someone rides around while several others pile on), Cloud Swing, German Wheel (we brought our new ones down to have a first proper go on them), Trampette and balancing chair. It was really great to see the youth circus shows at Wookey (they do 3 shows a day) and to to see the trainers perform too. We think that we have a few clowns in the making following Bippo’s antics. We stayed in Wookey Hole itself  for 5 days and were able to see the clown exhibition, and old show-man’s coaches. we saw the cheese in the caves and  our favorite big fiberglass model has to be the 20ft red rabbit!
Thanks to one and all.

Five Ring Circus Street Theatre Crews were out in force at the Mouth of the Tyne event in South Shields. Young people came from all of our youth circus clubs and entertained the crowds as Jelly Ladies, Coral Gardeners and Starfish. High-lights included a Stilt-Off between the Jelly Ladies and a professional walkabout crew – who were drumming and wore spiky black costumes! Hide and Seek was also popular with the Starfish – but Kirk had them by their points when at last he found them in the caravan… Also popular were the public workshops on the “Donkey Pass”. No one in Shields knew where it was though – good job we had a map and can now tell you it is between the Rattlers Pub and the Amphitheatre – you will need to know this – because we will be back down there on Sunday doing another South Tyneside youth circus outreach workshop. Come and join us!!  Dan and Jesse will be leading.

On the 29th of April the Ring Leaders on a Residential to Nine Banks put on their (well mostly Helen’s) glad rags and archive of costume for a royal wedding photo shoot. These Photos were taken with out reference to the TV and an uncanny resemblance can be seen with the event in London.

Ring Leaders were also at Nine Banks to discuss the end of the first year of the Five Ring Circus project and to look forward to the year to come, The future looks event filled and very circusy! So all good!

This years investment in Equipment has been to get some German Wheels. This is something that we have been wanting to do for ages and finally we have taken the plunge. Inspired as we were by finding we had a five times German Wheeling World Champion resident in Durham, Julius Petri. Julius brought his German Wheel to North Tyneside and Stockton Clubs to share his skills and inspire us all.  Since then we have ordered 2 wheels from Germany and have had a session with Acro Jous at CultureShock  so we are all set……. Watch this space as we gather a crew of Five Ring Circus Wheelers.

The Social Circus training course has been made open to 20 select participants from across the UK and he will be bringing back to the North East a great new array of teaching techniques. What a fantastic opportunity to work with the world’s most renowned circus company – way to go Steve!