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The modern circus is a place where sport and show business collide.
While some performers graduate from circus schools, many come to the stage from the upper echelons of competitive gymnastics.
That was the case with tumbler Lucie Colebeck (pictured above) who won world and European medals before joining the cast of Cirque du Soleil.
When the world’s biggest circus company brought its show Alegria to the Royal Albert Hall at the start of this year, Lucie stepped into the spotlight to set a world record for performing 36 continuous back handsprings in 30 seconds.
The decision to go for the record was sprung on the 27-year-old, who normally does only five of the back flips in a row during the show.
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“Guinness World of Records contacted Cirque and said, ‘Do you have anyone who would be interested in breaking a record?’” Lucie remembers. “Our publicist said, ‘I think you could do the record for the most back handsprings in 30 seconds.’ I said ‘Yeah, why not? Let's give it a go!’
“We call them ‘spotters’ and, funnily enough, when we were in Japan, just for fun I decided to see how many spotters I could do, and I got 25 before I stopped. So I knew I could do the minimum that they wanted. But when I did 36 I really surprised myself.
“On the day, I was really excited, and my nerves were going crazy. When I started and got up to ten, I thought, ‘Yeah, I have a good pace.’
“I counted to 25 and thought, ‘Great, the lady with the stopwatch hasn’t said stop yet, so I’ve got the minimum that I need.’
“After that, I tried to count, but my body was just going and going and going. I had no control of it.
“When I stopped at 36, the room was still spinning. It took me a good five minutes to sit down and relax and get my head around it.
“To say I have a Guinness Record title is incredible. It’s something I never thought I’d have. To do it in the Royal Albert Hall… as a British person, you can’t get any better than that.”
Lucie began taking gymnastics classes when she was nine. Her potential was quickly spotted.
“I was playing around on the trampoline when a coach said, ‘If you join my tumbling squad I can make you the next best tumbler.’ I trained with him for the next fifteen years.”
Lucie was just 11 when she first competed in her age group in the British championships. She went on to compete at European and world level, winning bronze and silver medals.
All the while, she nurtured a dream of running away with the circus.
“I saw my first Cirque du Soleil show at the Royal Albert Hall in 2009, and it was so cool,” Lucie recalls.
“I’d heard that some tumblers go into Cirque du Soleil. But it wasn’t until I watched Alegria a couple of years later, and there were some tumblers in it, that I thought, ‘Maybe this is something I could do.’ That’s when my dream of joining Cirque came alive.’”
Lucie auditioned for the company in London in 2017.
“I wasn’t ready to retire from competitive sport but I’d heard it was good to get your name on their books,” she says.
The following year, she got a call to say Alegria was being updated for its 25th anniversary, would she like to be part of it?
“I said yes right away. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Lucie grins.
Joining the circus meant moving to its headquarters in Montreal, which the young gymnast found hard.
“I’m a real home girl and it was the first time I’d moved out of my family home.
For the first six months I hated it!” she admits. “I loved what I was doing every day, but I hated being so far from home.”
After a long winter of rehearsals, her happiest moment was when her mum and nan flew to Canada to watch the premier of the revamped Alegria.
“My mum is my biggest fan. In my whole career, she only missed one competition. So to have her at my first show was really emotional,” Lucie says.
Since then, Lucie has travelled throughout North America, South Korea, Japan and Europe.
“I’ve been able to travel to places that I didn’t even dream of going to. The beauty of it is that when I went abroad competing, I wouldn’t see anything apart from the gym and the arena. Now, with a month or more in most venues, we have so much more time to explore the cities we go to.”
Although she is travelling 50 weeks of the year, her homesickness was alleviated by having her partner Amy join her on the road.
“In the beginning, Amy was flying back and forth to see me, but half way through the North American tour she managed to get a job with the show, working front of house, so we’re travelling the world together and having a great life.
“Not many people can say they’ve got their dream job,” Lucie concludes. “I’m able to, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
(Lucie Colebeck picture credit: Ollie Colebeck)
For more tales of life in the circus, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book for Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus.
