Last updated at 09:16, Monday, 10 August 2009

Performers from the Netherlands National Circus which comes to Barrow park on August 11- 16

KRISTEN Finley’s route into the circus can only be described as unconventional.

She was working as a mechanic for the US brewer Anheuser-Busch when she got the opportunity to try the trapeze.

“A friend of mine was flying and I went to watch her one day,” explains Kristen.

“After trying it recreationally for two years, I wanted to take it on the road.

“And after four years I got involved with this.”

She’s never looked back since.

“I’ve no regrets at all,” adds Kristen.

“All my family’s in Los Angeles and California, but I talk to my friends and family quite regularly and the people I’m with now are my second family and I don’t feel lonely, ever.”

Kristen is part of the Flying Bull Dancers trapeze troupe.

Their daring act finishes with the girls flying into the air and letting go of the swing bar 20ft up, finishing with a triple somersault performed by few people in the world.

Kristen explains that the company is constantly striving to improve the show to maintain the high- level you’d expect from a respected national institution.

“We try to practice four times a week to improve our act and do bigger and better tricks,” explains Kristin.

“We haven’t been working with each other that long but we have developed a trust.

“You have to really trust your partners because they have your life in their hands.”

The Netherlands National Circus tour is a contemporary Big Top, complete with clowns, jugglers, illusionists, acrobats and lots more bedsides.

There are no animals, and innovation and quality are at the top of the agenda for the international company of human performers.

Show producer Ross Presto gives the Evening Mail a tantalising glimpse of what to expect: “Once the lights go down we will start off with wonderful choreography – dancing, jumping and acrobatics.

“Then we have the acrobatic numbers where we build up to a point where we launch one of the girls into the air.

“She performs somersaults and lands on top of three guys standing on each others’ shoulders making it a four-person high tower.

“Rarely does that trick get done anywhere in the world.

“Some of the specialty stuff that’s brought in is very unique.”

Other acts include the mystifying illusions of Ross Presto; the handsome and muscular Pavel on the Aerial Silks; the Bugrovi Sisters from Russia on the deceptively dangerous Rola-rola and Holland’s Best Juggler Gordon Marquez.

From Mongolia, the Gymnastics Fantastics troupe throw one another around and take skipping a hop, a skip and a jump higher.

With capacity for 850 people, 30 international performers will perform giddying tricks in the purpose-built Big Top.

THE Netherlands National Circus performs in Barrow Park, every day from tomorrow, August 11 to Sunday August 16.
Showtimes: Tues - Fri: 3pm & 7pm
Sat: 2pm, 4.45pm & 7.30pm
Sun: 12.30pm & 3.30pm
Followed by Grasmere Sports Ground in Ambleside, every day from Monday August 17 to Wednesday August 19.
Showtimes: Mon: 7.30pm only
Tues & Weds: 3pm & 7.30pm

BOX OFFICE on site daily 10am to 8pm, or ring 0870 444 1505

BOX OFFICE on site daily 10am to 8pm, or ring 0870 444 1505

First published at 13:09, Friday, 07 August 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk