Big top fun rolls into Hartlepool with international cast of performers

Circus performers who are all set to entertain in the circus ring at Jacksons Landing. Picture by FRANK REID

The Netherlands National Circus is in town this week as part of a new nationwide tour.

They are promising something for everyone with laughs, thrills, suspense and lots of action in a two hour show under the big top.

Ringmaster Dani Ligthart told the Mail: “We’ve got clowns, we’ve got acrobats, bicycle artists.  “We have even got a 4,000 litre water tank which is set on fire and the acrobats dive into.

“It’s too much to explain, you just have to come and see it yourself.

“It’s an international company. We have got 22 nationalities working here.”

Clowing around with some old-fashioned slapstick are Sarita and Kim Leon who have been making audiences laugh all over the world for seven years.

Kim Dekker and Tara De Jong who are performing their acrobatic skills in the circus at Jacksons Landing. Picture by FRANK REID

Kim, whose home is in Spain, took up clowning 35 years ago.

“I was a musician originally,” he said. “I realised I loved to be a clown. Each audience and each country has its own sense of humour.”

Also among the cast are the Jackson family of acrobats from Spain and Portugal who have been circus performers for five generations.

The circus opened yesterday and is on now at Jackson’s Landing, on Hartlepool marina, until Sunday.