I am standing in the middle of a circus tent, smack in the middle of Cape Town, circled by the elevated ring road and shadowed by the omni presence of Table Mountain. This massive marquee dome is the  home of Zip Zap Circus - well home for another two years until the developers move in and move Zip Zap out.

But for now, on a Saturday morning, it is a teeming prism of spectacle and platform for adventure and derring do. There must be at least a hundred young people here occupying every pocket of air and invading cubic inches of space where earth bound mortals are not meant to go. Tiny tots are ricocheting off trampolines, muscular young boys are jack-knifing and spinning through thin air from solid ground which must have hidden springs and high above us elegant teenage girls are languidly leaping across canyons of open space to catch some distant trapeze. In a dark hidden recess there are even a couple of middle aged dads recapturing their childhoods and crashing into each other on wobbly unicycles.

 Bringing some sense of order to this exuberant mayhem are the eight young performers who we hope will be part of our Mzansi Cymru project next year in Cardiff and Cape Town. At the moment we only have enough funds to bring over two of them. Over the last week they have overwhelmed us with their talent, boundless energy and unstinting commitment. Today they are giving something back and passing on their skills to the underprivileged kids from the townships that surround this magnificent city and serve as an unwanted legacy to the terrible years of apartheid. This is not out of a sense of obligation but it is because of who they are, where they are from and quite simply it is what they do.

Zip Zip work with ordinary kids right across the spectrum, black and white, including ‘youths at risk’ and do not confine themselves to circus skills but include the whole gamut of life skills that will prepare these young people to be proud citizens of South Africa and worthy ambassadors. At the heart of everything they do is instilling a sense of self belief, respect and dignity.

When I started this project I could see no place for circus in the piece of musical drama that we were creating but my first taste of the Zip Zap experience convinced me that their breathtaking and heartstopping  feats could be the fuel and lifeblood of our story. In the early days of cold negotiation we agreed that  five circus performers would be the optimum number. Two days into our workshop rehearsal that figure had vaulted to eight and as I stand in the dome like some retired ringmaster surrounded by somersaulting energy and flying ambition, I believe the whole show could be performed as circus. But then I think of  the dancers, the singers, the musicians – I’ll come to those again.

We’re blessed with talent but not with funds. But if I sold my prized possession - my pinarello racing bike – that would pay for one more acrobat. Easy really. A sacrifice here, a sacrifice there.

Larry Allan 

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