Twenty years of Cirque Bijou

From humble beginnings to creating work for a global stage, 2019 marks 20 years of Bristol’s Cirque Bijou.

The company’s story began in 1999, when circus artists Julian Bracey and Billy Alwen began to make work together. At the time, contemporary circus in the UK was a fledgling art form, and the duo’s decision to form a company dedicated to making an accessible and creative form of modern circus was ahead of its time.

Twenty years later, Cirque Bijou is a creative powerhouse with a team of producers and a global network of collaborators, supported by a unique mix of Arts Council project funding, local authority commissions and wide-ranging commercial projects.

One of their most memorable projects was to create the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing events in Weymouth. The show was four years in the making and included over 5,000 community participants in 52 different regional performances culminating in Battle for the Winds, a sensational collaboration between Cirque Bijou, Diverse City and Bristol’s street-theatre legends Desperate Men.

We caught up with co-founders Billy Alwen and Julian Bracey to talk about Bijou past, present and future.

Well, chaps, congrats on 20 years of eye-opening circus. Did you envisage being around for that long when you began?
JB: I don’t think I ever looked that far ahead. We were quite ambitious as a young company, but I don’t think we ever thought about how long we’d be around for. When we started out we were inspired by some great modern French circuses and were determined to create contemporary modern circus in the UK to rival them, and we knew that would take time. Hopefully after 20 years we’ve created something to give them a run for their money.

Billy Alwen

What were your objectives when you started Cirque Bijou?
BA: To make professional, well-produced contemporary British circus. I come from a theatre and street theatre background, so have always been interested in telling original stories and love using circus as a medium to do this, but this skill took time to develop and it’s something we’re still working on to this day – you can never stop learning. But in all honesty, when we started our main focus was to create a sustainable business doing something we loved, and it’s great to look back over the past 20 years to see just how far we’ve come.

JB: Similar to Billy, my objective was to create a job that I was passionate about. Before I found circus, I was travelling the world doing all sorts of work – I initially trained in 3D design and at one point was making a living doing street theatre shows in Australia – but would always get bored and move on to the next thing. Thankfully I found circus – it’s an ever changing artform and so there’s always something new and exciting to learn.

Julian Bracey

Tell us how a) Cirque Bijou and b) Bristol’s circus landscape have changed in those two decades.
BA: Cirque Bijou has grown organically. Starting out, it was just me and Julian but we’ve brought in the right people along the way without trying to become too big too quickly. Our core staff have been with us for years and have learnt along the way. Our work has evolved over the years and enabled us to make original shows with higher production values as our skills, knowledge and network of artists and collaborators has developed.

Much of this has happened in Bristol, with homegrown talent from Circomedia and local collaborators like the Desperate Men, who are based like us in Mivart Studios, Easton. Bristol’s circus world has definitely become more established and professional, but it still has its political and anarchic heart, which has been there since day one.

Bristol performance of Cirque Bijou’s show ‘Weighting’. Pic: Joe Clarke Photography

JB: There are many more modern UK circus companies now than when we started, and technology has transformed the way we find artists and promote our work. When we started, you had to meet artists face-to-face. Nowadays, people send us videos of their work from all over the world. There’s also a lot more crossover in all artforms. A lot of theatre companies have been influenced by the power of circus, and now it’s quite common to see aerial work in West End shows.

Can you pick out a highlight or two from those 20 years? 
BA: For me, it has to be the 2012 Paralympics show that we produced with the Desperate Men and Diverse City on Weymouth beach. It sparked an incredible partnership for us in the form of Extraordinary Bodies, where I feel like we’ve been able to create some really incredible work and shown circus in its best light – as an inclusive artform that can push boundaries in an accessible and spectacular way.

JB: We performed an incredible show outside the National Theatre called Project 3Sixty, featuring a very young cast of circus performers, free runners, break-dancers and musicians. It was a real celebration of the power of youth, and many of those young artists have gone on to do great things. One of the singers, Nao, has just been nominated for the Mercury Prize and one of the dancers has just been directing an opera in Norway.

I also have to mention some of the awesome stuff we’ve been able to do on rock n roll tours over the years for clients such as Muse, Katy Perry and MTV – massive CO2 breathing robots, flying performers under a giant lightbulb, and a 11-metre UFO to name just a few!

Choreography for the 2013 tour by stadium rockers Muse. Pic: Darren Hayward

Forthcoming plans?
BA: Well, that would be telling! We’ve got some large-scale international shows in the pipeline but we’re keeping those under wraps for now. What I will say is that I’m working on a new high wire touring show with the Bullzinis that I can’t wait to get out of development and in front of an audience, but that’s all I’ll say for now. Watch this space!

JB: Just to keep finding new, exciting artists to collaborate with and be inspired by. We have been working in places such China and Taiwan recently, and working in those cultures is fascinating, so we are planning to expand in those areas and take Cirque Bijou to an even bigger audience. But we’ve haven’t forgotten Bristol, where it all started. We’ll always have our roots here, and we love any opportunity to collaborate with local organisations who want to deliver a spectacular show. It’s what we do best.

Main photo: a typically eye-catching and epic show from Cirque Bijou – this one for Goodwood’s Festival of Speed. Pic: Andre Pattenden

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