Roll, roll! Older people find joy and fearlessness in the circus | Circus

RUman Talukder’s favorite circus method is called Mermaid. Every Sunday, the 60-year-old IT consultant drives from his home in Stanmore to a sports academy in Ware to train. Hanging from a trapeze by one arm, her back arched and her legs wrapped around a rope, she says it makes her “strong and graceful”.

He said: “My wife thinks I’m angry, but when I was about to turn 60, I decided not to do things against people my age.

Talukder is one of a small but growing number of circus performers after 50 years.

In Hertfordshire, Generation Circus has spent the last year running a trial run for older people and is now running weekly sessions. Their oldest student is about 97 years old LondonThe National Center for Circus Arts in Hoxton has just started training for seniors and is due to start a six-week aerial course later this year. In Eastbourne, Sweet Circus has recently started monthly sessions. They are all looking for extra money.

Emma Taylor, founder of Generation Circushe said these sessions were revolutionary. “Many of the participants signed up for the classes because it sounded like a fun way to get healthy,” she said. But at the same time sports games open up a new world, and suddenly they are buying hula hoops and fixing sports equipment in the garden.

The evidence for this game is still limited but small studies have found positive changes among adults who learn juggling and poi, and some report gains in maintenance and running. Different brain imaging studies have found that learning to juggle can change brain structure.

For Talukder, however, the attraction has little to do with neuroscience. She said: “To get something so physical at my age makes me feel like a failure. “I look at people in their 70s and 80s, and I realize there’s no age limit to trying something new.”

The cultural aspect is also important. Taylor said the members of the circus school felt like they were in the same group: a great achievement at a time when Age UK estimates that almost one in 14 people aged 65 and over in the UK are often lonely.

“They start dressing differently: they shine in a different way,” Taylor said. “They watch magic tricks on YouTube and talk about them and go to shows together. And it’s all because, every week, they teach at a small circus school.”

Carol Masson, 70, admitted frankly that she wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the circus school. The retired housekeeper was devastated after the death of her daughter four years ago. He said: “I used to sleep and sometimes I thought about killing myself.”

“Now I can’t wait for Sunday to come. When we finish class I feel like I have my life in my hands. There is so much fun and excitement. Everything else is wasted.”

Masson had a hip replacement in February but isn’t letting that get in the way of her newfound passion: she returned to the classroom last month, focusing on juggling and hula hoops while rebuilding her strength. “Generation Circus is a lot of mental and physical support,” he said. “I just wish I could do it every day.”

Claire Howard, 54, who uses a wheelchair and has had 121 transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), often called mini-strokes, never dreamed she would be able to do sports. “In the first round, I looked at the trapeze and I just wanted to turn around and leave,” he said.

But he stayed – and a year later he is so good at preparing hula hoop wheelchairs that he trains healthy participants. He said: “I stopped being aimless in life and rediscovered my inner child.”

“Circus has shown me that life can be fun. I forgot that. As a wheelchair user you are constantly reminded of what you can’t do. Here, I have a skill that most healthy people don’t have. I can be of help,” said Howard.

The circus has made a similar difference to Corinna Hartwig, who lost her mother when she was 12 and her father four years ago. “I was advised to reconnect with my inner child but I didn’t know what to do until I started doing sports,” he said. “Now, once a week, I can play, have fun and create.”

Diane Bernier, director of entertainment programs at the National Center for Circus Arts, said the sport helps seniors “realize that their lives don’t have to go one way because of their age”.

He said: “People realize that they can still learn new things and that is the most powerful revelation.”

In Ware, Sarah Hodson, 63, still jokes that she spends weekends learning circus skills with her 96-year-old mother Jane.

“I never thought in a million years that I would be able to do sports,” she said. “People our age often think they are good at water sports or yoga.” Then you look around the room and see people older than you kneeling on the trapeze, and a much older person swinging in their arms.

“In some ways it’s better than being young,” he added. “Because we have rediscovered the joy, fear and freedom without the self-pity of youth.”