Poems in the Sky Arts Den at the Cheltenham Literature Festival

Sky Arts, the main broadcasting partner at the Cheltenham Literature Festival have chosen to do a display of my Circus poems in their Creative Wish Den from the 7th to the 16th of October.

A winner out of the three creative disciplines on display for the festival will be voted for by the public. The prize is £1000 which I would put towards writing a book of Circus poetry and short stories. I’ll be talking about the poems and doing a reading on the 8th of October in the Sky Arts Den, it’s free entry and it would be lovely to see anyone who has enjoyed the blog for support.

A World Away from the Ordinary

The Big Top’s sounds dance with one another
While field flowers wish to be rooted nearer,
To see circus silhouettes a little clearer,
Blackly lit by the moon’s pearly glimmer,
That glints though she wanes ever thinner.

Replace alarm clocks, traffic, routines
With flowers, fiddles, plucks of strings
That twing and twang around the ring
While voices hum and drum and sing

And you watch on,
Ready to expect the anything.

About the ring, white socked horses skipped,
Fine songs were sung and fine words lipped,
Jumps and bends of upturned faces,
In the most legendary of places.
Velvet curtains unroll and the hope of every soul
Is to once more know the secret wildness;
That magical charm that is the Circus.  

Bibi and Bichu -“The Jugglers”

The Jugglers

Eyes never straying
Balancing with their stare
Twirling, swirling objects
Swoop in curls of air.

Poised on the tip of a chin, cheek or nose,
Turns and flips, drums quicken, wrist flicks,
Under over arms and shoulders, a current of symmetry
Ducks and dives while eager eyes,
Watch on unmovingly

Sky touching spirals
Arcing, looping like a bird in flight
Forming painterly patterns
With the grace of a high flown kite,

Gasped breath resounds
From wide eyed, awe struck faces
Jugglers’ world renown
Even gravity, their act outfoxes.

For more information about Bibi and Bichu visit their facebook page on http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bibi-and-Bichu/202539465438 .

The History of a Circus Family

At the Circus there are people from all over the world; Hungary, Italy, France, Russia, Romania and California to name a few. Many Circus troupes involve all generations of a family, children will work with their parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents and as a result each part of the act will have Circus running through their veins.

Pat Bradford is part of a Circus dynasty stretching back four generations and he was telling me the other day about this extraordinary family. The Bradford’s have worked in all the world’s major Circuses including Knie, Bouglione (built by Napoleon) and Caroli. Pat’s Circus ancestry began with the infamous “Globe de la Mort” act. His great Grandpa, Grandma and her brother would ride a motorbike each inside a circular metal cage, continually criss-crossing and weaving around one another at breakneck speeds. It is known as the most dangerous Circus act of all and the Bradford family started touring in the fairgrounds of Belgium soon performing further and further a field as news of this daring act spread.

During the war the Bradford’s popularity continued to increase. They toured to entertain soldiers, in Belgium they began with performing for the Germans and then the Americans. Pat told me that during the war they were paid in everything from food to white mink coats. On one occasion, they were paid with pink diamonds which Pat’s Grandma would wear in the act, looking exquisite with Pat’s Grandpa wearing a bowler hat with all the dapper elegance of Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain”. Pat’s Grandmother, born in 1900 started hand balancing with her brother when she was just eight years old. They would jointly perform double one-arm handstands and flying trapeze acts. The Bradford troupe also did a Spring Board act and headstands 3 men high while Pat’s father did double somersaults which were very rare at the time and astonished audiences.

Pat’s Grandma also developed a perch act where she would balance her husband on a 7 metre high pole. They would move seamlessly between hand and head stands and the main attraction of their act was when Pat’s Grandfather would perform a head stand on the perch while also playing a mandolin. The level of balance and consistent concentration this would take is truly astounding. The involvement of music with hand-balancing is continued by Pat and Kate’s act this year, integrating the balancing skills into the quick beats of tap dancing.

At fifteen Pat’s brother broke his knee and rather than continuing veterinary studies, Pat began touring in his parent’s swing act. He learnt in 3 months what would usually take a year. The reasoning for this was his experience in trampolining that taught him to “know where his body was in the air” giving him the fearlessness the best acrobatic technique requires. The creation of this act was an amazing piece of foresight as only Russian troupes performed it previously and the swing act grew to be one the most popular acts in Circus. They worked in South Africa, Australia and European Circuses including the illustrious Franz Althoff Circus which dates back to 1660. Pat told me that it looked astoundingly impressive with 3 rings in the Big Top.

Pat and Kate met while working in the Moulin Rouge. Kate was a dancer and choreographer and by this time, Pat had been performing his act for 15 years. He told me that when Kate joined his act, the whole of Paris was wildly impressed, all asking him “where did you get this girl?”. She had toured with him during his solo performances but Pat saw that Kate’s “feet were itching to create” and so they choreographed an act at the Tiger Palace Theatre in Frankfurt. Since then their act has proudly upheld the world renown name of the Bradford family and all that it entails. Through the audience’s amazement in Circuses all over, we can see that still it endures.

For more information about Circus history and to see some beautiful Circus photographs visit http://terenceruffle.co.uk/20090223-terence-solo-blog-bostock-and-wombwells-circus.

The Big Top

We’re now on our last ground of the season in Cirencester. The pull down and build up of the Big Top really is an amazing sight to see. Everyone in the circus is involved like a huge humming hive of bees, each one knowing exactly what they have to do. Every job is designated according to the skills each person has; if you’re small you crawl underneath the seating and weave the wiring in and out of the ring boxes, if you’re strong you carry the biggest wooden seating boards (the largest of which is taller and wider than me). From the moment the first part of the walling is unhooked to the last piece of sawdust being swept up, everyone is busy. On top of this is an overwhelming feeling of togetherness, the quicker you finish your job, the quicker everyone can rest. The speed of the dismantling and creation of a Big Top is incredible and it’s this inter-reliance that allows such a magical sight to be made and re-made in the blink of an eye.

By the end everyone is exhausted. From setting up the instruments, carrying the metal stringers which tier the benches, checking the lights, the sound, the ring, every job has to be done in an unbelievably short interval. My favourite part is when the two king poles, the tallest points of the Big Top, are taken down; everyone has to be holding the rope as the King Pole slowly falls and everybody gives a cheer of relief signalling the end of the work and beginning of a hot dinner in the restaurant. The only trace left is a circle of trodden grass which was the ring as the circus travels to another field in another town.

Tap dancing on hands instead of feet!- Pat and Kate Bradford

Pat and Kate Bradford’s “Petrushka and His Doll” Act is the first of the show. I spoke to them today about their rich circus history. Pat’s family has four generations of circus and he began perfecting the art of hand-balancing when he was just 16 years old after being inspired by the Danish Elvardos act. His first circus was the 1975 Willy Hagenbeck Circus in Germany. Since then the couple have performed in all the world’s most famous circuses and said that in comparison, Gifford’s style set it apart from the rest. The originality of this traditional circus is what draws so many exceptionally skilled artistes back again and again.

Like Gifford’s, Pat told me that he created the unique solo act through innovation. Theirs is the only hand-balancing tap speciality. When they began their act in the 80’s, the skills of acrobatics, dance and hand-balancing were always separated. Instead, Pat and Kate combined hand-balancing with tap and invented a detailed choreography. No-one else was doing this at the time and they have since enjoyed a wonderful career spanning circus, casino, review and variety shows.

The constant physical endurance and perfection in the synchronisation of the act is astounding. Every tap has to be timed exactly with the music as Pat’s hands move in the technique of a tap dancer’s feet. In addition to this, Pat spins on his head and jumps down stairs while only using one hand! Their insatiable passion for their act is compelling, loving life on the road and reveling in the audience’s enjoyment. As Pat said himself; “my heart is in the circus”.

With thanks to Pat and Kate Bradford.

Interview with the world famous Ethiopian jugglers Bibi and Bichu!

Bibi and Bichu are the longest-serving of all the acts in Gifford’s Circus. This is their 7th season with Gifford’s and their act in this year’s show is a tantalising performance as they juggle with fire when the French Grande Army arrives to torch Moscow.

What’s your favourite thing about being in Gifford’s Circus?

Bichu: Definitely the fact that Gifford’s is small and family run which gives a strong sense of community while working and living in the circus.
Bibi: I love the response from the public and the excitement of being on stage and performing. The sense of community in the company with lots of parties also makes living in the circus lots of fun.

How long does it take to learn to juggle to a basic level?

Bibi: To learn to juggle from scratch, three clubs takes roughly a week on average. More complicated tricks, such as balancing bottles on your chin or learning to juggle backwards take longer.
Bichu: We have been juggling for 14 years in total, since we were 13 and 14 years old.

What do you find most difficult about juggling?

Bichu: You need to have 100% focus all the time and very strong co-ordination. In our act, one of the skills is juggling whilst standing back to back, so we have to be reliant on each other. Brothers have this special communication needed for such a co-dependant act.
Bibi: Fire and knives are the most difficult because they are the most dangerous. The glass bottles in the show this year are also tricky because they have short necks and so much less room for throwing and catching.

Have you had any injuries from juggling in the “War & Peace” show this year?

Bichu: During rehearsals, we were juggling with fire and I burnt my eye. I had to stop juggling for two weeks to recover. Knives can also be tricky if they’re caught wrong.  

When did you decide you wanted to juggle?

Bibi: In Ethiopia, there is not a strong circus tradition, so when we were young we began with training in Acrobatics. This is still shown in the backflips we do into the ring. We were approached by Cirque Du Soleil and introduced to juggling and soon became addicted to performing these acts. We haven’t stopped juggling since.

What work have you done outside of the circus?

Bichu: In 1999 we moved to London from Ethiopia. Since then, we’ve worked in the Gandini Juggling Company, the Young and Old Vic theatre companies and many TV production companies such as ITV, BBC and Channel 4. We’ve also worked in huge venues such as the O2 Arena and all over the world in different juggling festivals.

With thanks to Bibi and Bichu.