Features / Interviews
From suburban Bristol to urban circus
Watching circus performer Kieran Warner twisting and moving inside a six foot metal wheel is an astonishing sight.
As he spins and contorts it into gravity defying positions the wheel seems to become an extension of his body.
The 24-year-old grew up in Keynsham, where he says becoming a circus performer was definitely not on the cards: “My friends were becoming mechanics and apprentices but I already had staked myself out as a bit different”.
Different meant his passion for dancing.
He specialised in urban dance; hip hop, house, street and breakdancing but when he was looking to develop his skills further he couldn’t find a suitable course.
Friends of his who had already joined a circus school urged him to consider the career but at that point he says he still had a very traditional view of a Big Top circus.
However, once he visited the National Centre for Circus Arts he said he “fell in love [with what he saw] and thought wow you can do this as a career”.
“I had the very old fashioned view of circus in my head but contemporary circus is so different and that’s what I want to do.”
Telling his parents he wanted to join a circus “was funny” says Kieran. “I just had to tell them it’s not all lions and tigers and bears.”
He quickly found his perfect apparatus the Cyr Wheel which “enables me to explain and express myself myself in a different way”.
“When I first saw it I thought wow that looks like fun and I want to try it. I had to use lots of other apparatus during my assessments but I was hooked on the wheel.”
And the wheel is surprisingly elegant and versatile pieces of equipment.
“Anything a coin can do you can do on the wheel,” explains Kieran. Although it does have it’s challenges: “I’d had a lot of performance experience but this was a whole new pressure.
“When I dance if you make a mistake you can catch up with the music and can cover – but when you have a big heavy wheel if you make a mistake it’s very obvious and you are a lot more nervous.”
It’s the ability to merge his two passions dance and the wheel which sets him apart as a performer: “Contemporary circus ranges as much as contemporary dance – it can be deep and emotional – sometimes beautiful and mesmerizing,” says Kieran.
In his final year he now has ambitious plans to put on a full-length show to tour the UK.
“The wheel is part of me now – and I’ll keep on pushing my performance.”
Kieran is taking part in Depart until 29 June. This ensemble show is taking place in the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in Southern Grove and features some of the circus’s top performers.