Singing for the Circus

I’ve been a member of a choir for several years. Originally, the Newcastle City Council Choir was formed as a staff wellbeing initiative. Over a decade later we have evolved into the Toonful City Singers (if you aren’t local, Newcastle is known round here as “The Toon” and we are pretty tuneful). We’ve done some interesting performances over the years. I even got to do some beatboxing in Newcastle Cathedral to accompany the choir once.

Some of us are currently taking part in Novum, Newcastle’s Summer Festival, providing backing vocals for Cirque Bijou, who are staging a mesmerising performance each evening until Sunday. Each short show includes acrobatics, aerial work with both silks and trapeze; juggled bowler hats, all performed to music from a fabulous singer (backed by ourselves and also Indigo Choir) with a brilliant pianist playing a flying grand piano!

Indigo Choir’s Musical Director, Jake, has put us through some vocal warm ups before each show, then we’ve taken up position on the Civic Centre Balcony, where we get a brilliant view. It’s reasonably sheltered too, though the performers had to put up with rain on the first night and gusts of wind on the second, which was not ideal!

The show begins with singer Alba perching on the piano as James begins to play the intro of Love and Hate in a Different Time.

As Alba starts singing, the piano rises up into the air, and a pair of disembodied legs appears underneath. They belong to aerialist, Rachel who has remained hidden beneath the piano until this point.

She moves down the red silk trailing from the piano, wrapping and unwrapping the fabric round her wrists and ankles to secure her position as she strikes each pose.

It’s stunning display of skill and strength.

There’s a heart-in-mouth moment as the material unrolls from around Rachel’s body and she drops suddenly – but it’s all part of the act.

They all descend to the ground again and James begins to play something with a slower tempo, but performer Gracie isn’t happy – she wants to hear something more upbeat, so James plays Do Your Thing (that’s the name of the show).

Alba belts out the song – she has a great voice – as she struts across the concourse.

Gracie juggles some hats and is joined by Rachel for more acrobatics.

The silks are replaced by a trapeze and the piano ascends again, with Alba and James on board again, performing Sinner Man. Gracie springs up, grabs the trapeze and begins her act, swinging and hanging onto the trapeze in a series of daredevil moves , rising higher into the air and moving faster as the music builds.

They descend just low enough for Rachel to join Gracie on the trapeze with their luggage for the finale: Rocket Man.

The piano, with all on board, rises up once more and swings away as they depart.

It’s a real spectacle, with great music and the performers were all brilliant – it’s been quite a privilege to work with them. With two performances completed and two more to go I think we are gaining confidence as Alba’s backing singers. We are all thoroughly enjoying taking part.