March 2nd 2015
So, it’s been a couple of weeks now since heading off down to London for the National Youth Circus Event and we wanted to tell you how we got on!
Joe & Lizzi took Mackenzie, Beth, Poppy, Katie and Alice down to the NYCE 2015 and lots of fun was had. We set off on the train journey down there on Friday 13th Feb arriving in London at around 4pm. We manoeuvred the rush hour underground ducking and diving circus style through the crowds and arrived at the National Centre around 6pm, after many pictures doing the splits on various landmarks on our journey we made it from New Street Station in Birmingham to Old Street Underground in London. We checked into our hotel and headed over for dinner and some very fun acrobatic ice breaker games with Mimbre Acrobats, which our group did absolutely fantastic as they mixed and mingled with other circus youth from all around the country.
We finished off the evening with a CircusMASH game of articulate which had us all in fits of laughter! Team Joe lead most of the way… but team Lizzi snook up behind and stole the game at around 11pm so thought it best to get to bed for the long day ahead in the morning!
We all rose at around 9 to have breakfast and head over to the National Centre for 10. Everyone, including practitioners Lizzi and Joe were scheduled in for some training and skills sharing through the day. It was fantastic that everyone tried things on Saturday that they had never tried before like Chinese Pole, Swinging and Flying Trapeze. The morning shot by and as the afternoon went on as we all met up in our breaks it was obvious everyone was getting more and more tired. Hands started hurting and muscles started aching but everyone trooped right on through and by the end of the day the energy was back because the National Centre surprised EVERYONE with a trip to Cirque Du Soleils Kooza at the Royal Albert Hall. We set off very quickly after dinner and across London we shot in two coaches and the show was absolutely amazing. A huge thank you to the NCCA for doing this for everyone. We made it back just after midnight… and the CircusMASH girls entertained the coach all the way home singing!
Here is a sneaky peek at Mackenzie as she embarks on the Flying Trapeze: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=856742967718960&set=vb.161897463870184&type=2&theater
Off to see Kooza we go!
We woke up on Sunday, had breakfast and off we went to our first sessions of the day and then straight to our tech rehearsal for the Tea Party Cabaret which the CircusMASH girls were performing in. The tech rehearsal went fabulously and after a bit of practice, some food and costumes on… off we went to perform along side other youth circus’ from all over the UK. Everyone did sop well and it was great to see so much talent from everyone. The circus of the future!
Here is a little clip of CircusMASH youth in action:
And of course on the way home we had time for more splits…
Overall we had a brilliant time and look forward to next year! Hopefully we’ll be picked again 🙂 The NYCE is funded by the National Centre for Circus Arts and they do a fantastic job. The event is professional, well put together and the team are just the best! From the trainers to the organisers they represent the centre and circus in the UK very well and were were just so happy to be part of it!