I ran away to the circus when I was 32, now I teach its skills
BY JAMES DAVIES
toby@slpmedia.co.uk
Lucy Francis realised her life-long ambition in 2002 when she found herself swinging high above the National Theatre.
She was finally performing flying trapeze to a spellbound audience after years training as a gymnast, acrobat and picking up the odd British Masters High Diving Champions medal on the way.
But disaster struck in late 2002 and Lucy, 42, found herself lying in a hospital bed.
She broke her neck attempting a dangerous trampoline move and faced an injury which threatened to end her career as a circus acrobat and aerialist.
She said: “It wasn’t fun. I was told I’d never be able to do it again.”
Lucy knocked herself out with her knee and landed on her head, fracturing two major joints in her neck.
Doctors told her she may never walk again. But Lucy fought back and defied the doctors – thanks to her determination, successful surgery, a metal plate and a period of recuperation.
She eased herself back into performing against the odds and went on to amaze audiences around the world.
Lucy said: “I love it, pure and simple. That’s why I’m still doing it: passion, stupidity and pig-headedness.”
That year Lucy had already met another budding circus performer.
Nik Litton had been looking for direction. He had been kicked off his Russian and Serbo-Croatian degree and was waiting for inspiration.
He said: “I was never very career minded and often got bored, but I always loved sport.”
Nik, 52, finally found his calling when he discovered a circus-related degree at Circus Space – now the National Centre for Circus Arts.
He said: “People who fall out of society often run away and join the circus. I pretty much did that at the age of 32.”
Nik met Lucy while rehearsing for a show named the Flying Dudes before setting up an early version of the school with two friends in Stratford, east London.
This soon grew in popularity. But in 2007, they were forced to move with the onset of the £9billion London 2012 Olympics development, as the school was in the middle of the proposed park.
Nik said: “The move could have quite possibly killed off the school. But it all came good.”
A new location was found with the support of the Olympic planning organisation – LOCOG – in a former industrial estate a stone’s throw away from the Thames Barrier.
AirCraft Circus Academy is now set in Thames-Side Studios, Greenwich.
Since 2007 their doors have been opened to rookies and professionals alike.
The site is just six miles downstream from where Philip Astley – the father of the modern circus – is believed to have put on his first shows in the 1760s in a field near present-day Waterloo railway station.
Nik said: “When we moved there was a small amount of industrial activity, but the site was mostly empty. Since then it has flowered, blossomed and bloomed.”
“Thames-Side Studios has a large community of artists, designers and craft-makers.
“The vibrancy of the area seems set to continue as the owners say they are “committed to the continuing development of this provision.”
A short walk across the site to the academy reveals a bustling area teeming with galleries, studios, education spaces and an arts café.
The duo went on to marry in 2004 and have their own troupe with eight-year-old daughter Bina and lively one-year old Chihuahua Jacob.
Nik and Lucy’s vision for their school is to make the circus accessible for all ages and abilities.
Nik said: “This stuff wasn’t around when I was a kid.”
The academy hosts a variety of classes and taster sessions ranging from acrobatics, silks, Chinese Pole and all things in between – lion taming excepted.
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