Trapeze school opens with high hopes for future

Adrenaline seekers with a head for heights can now fly high across what is believed to be the UK's first all-weather trapeze school.

The Flighthouse Trapeze Academy has opened on the seafront in The Empire building in Great Yarmouth.

Circus performers looking to hone their skills as well as budding performers wanting to try the art are all being welcomed to the venue, which originally opened as a cinema in 1911.

Founder Mathew Herman said the new venture could help turn the Norfolk resort into the country's circus capital and work as a launchpad for the "next generation of flyers... and help them transition into the professional industry".

The Empire stands just a short distance away from The Hippodrome - Britain's last surviving stand-alone circus - which could help bolster efforts to turn the resort into a circus hub.

Herman said he hoped the academy would become a destination for international performers who wanted to train all year round.

"It's good to finally have a space that we can train the next generation - because for a long time the UK trapezist scene has been exclusively seasonal, it's been outdoors," he said.

"People who are trying to break into the trapeze industry haven't really had anywhere to train outside of summer months and then they're travelling overseas- they're going to America, to Europe, taking workshops.

"But this project is really the first indoor full-time professional-scale trapeze school."

Herman said he had performed around the world as a trapeze artist, but wanted to settle in one place after 15 years of constant touring.

The acrobat said he plumped to stay in Great Yarmouth because of his relationships with both The Hippodrome and the town-based organisation Out There Arts, that offers year-round events and an annual festival attracting about 65,000 people.

The Empire, a landmark building on Marine Parade, has been variously run as a cinema, bingo hall and nightclub, before its most recent incarnation as a music venue closed in September due to rising costs.

Since 1947, The Empire has been owned by the Jay family, who also run The Hippodrome.

Herman said while performing in a flying trapeze troupe at The Hippodrome five years ago he attended a New Year's Eve party at The Empire, and spent the night trying to persuade the Jays that it would be perfect for the venture.

"At the time it was a bar [and] club, so it didn't make sense to try something like that," said Herman.

"But then it had been sitting empty for almost a year and over the course of the winter I spent enough time annoying them that finally they said 'Ok, let's try it'."

As well as a dedicated training space for professional trapezists and acrobats, the school will run beginners' courses.

Eira Vowles has been one of the first people to use the new equipment after trying trapeze while on holiday abroad seven years ago.

She said the new school was "so important" for trainee acrobats.

"We don't have any rigs because there aren't indoor spaces big enough in the winter and they can't be outdoors in the winter," said Vowles.

"It's really, really good to have somewhere to train all year round."

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