UK

UK's best circus performers will compete in bid to develop a 'British Cirque du Soleil'
Nationwide search for acts in effort to prevent homegrown talent moving abroad for work

 

Canada’s Cirque du Soleil has been hugely successful around the world. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
The Observer, Saturday 23 February 2013
When economists bemoan the foreign drain on homegrown talent and skills, they probably don't have trapeze artists, acrobats or high-wire walkers in mind. Yet Britain has lost a generation of highly-trained performers to circus troupes based abroad.
In response, the first nationwide attempt to keep more skilled entertainers working on these shores will be launched Monday . Circus Space, the only training organisation in Britain that offers a degree in circus skills, will announce a competition to find the best new acts and keep them performing inside British big tops.
"Sadly, we have produced very few performers who go on to work in the UK. At the moment they all go straight to rivals abroad," said Daisy Drury, director of development at Circus Space. The charitable institute, which is based in east London, was at the vanguard of the burgeoning interest in circus arts in this country at the turn of the millennium and has since trained thousands of artists.
read more at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/feb/24/british-circus-performers-competition