Infinity Circus

28/01/2025

CIRCUS HISTORY MONTH

IVOR ROSAIRE

The family Rosaire are a generation of the circus family. They were particularly renowned for their skilful animal training. Ivor became known for his elephants.
Ivor Rosaire, born 8th July 1911 and died 24th December 2005 at the age of 94.
Ivor married Lucy Garner and had two children, Juliette and Derrick.
During the 1930’s Ivor presented elephants ‘Salt and Sauce’ which have become legendary. This was first at the circus Rosaire and then later on at other circuses.
Ivor grew up into a proud, powerfully built man who seemed very much ‘at home’ when walking into an acrobatic act and also when immaculately attired in safari style clothing. He was never photographed in the circus ring or on stage without a very confident showman’s smile.
Salt and Sauce came to Billericay in 1936 when Cissy Rosaire and Wally Shufflebottom married at St Mary Mogdelen Church in the High Street. The elephants were playing bridesmaids by carrying both the bride and groom from the church. A year later, Salt and Sauce appeared in the film ‘Elephant Boy.’
There were very famous in their time.

27/01/2025

MEET THE TEAM MONDAY

MANIC

Favourite:
Nunchuck isn’t really a circus prop so i think I’ll have to say staff? But in reality, just give me something I can set on fire and I’ll have a blast!

Worst:
Juggling....I don’t like Juggling.....

Prop I wanna learn:
Diablo

Something no one would know:
I came into the circus world completely by accident! I was an avid martial artist beforehand. But I got badly injured and couldn’t train properly for 8 months. So I got back into weapons training to stay active, without taking any impact.
Give a guy a stick?
He’ll play with it.
Set that stick on fire?
Ok now we’re talking!

20/01/2025

MEET THE TEAM MONDAY

TWISTED SARAH

Hi, I’m Twisted Sarah and I’m the group’s contortionist! This means I’m really flexible and can fit in small spaces (check your cupboards to see if I’m in there!). I am also an acrobat and love climbing on things (including my friends).
I’m really clumsy so you won’t see me doing a lot of any prop, but you can often find me dancing around to the music at any event.
I hope I can meet you soon!

16/01/2025

MEET THE TEAM MONDAY

BLUE SICX

Hi, I’m Blue Sicx
My main skill is contact juggling. That’s where I make a glass ball float.
I also juggle and stilt walk. And when we have show I introduce the acts and hype up the audience.
I want to be more flexible so I can help my friends with acrobatics. I love circus work and a great audience.
If you see me around say hi

16/01/2025

As we continue our reminiscence into the history of the circus, we take a look into Mabel Stark.

Mabel Stark, whose real name was Mary Anne Haynie was born on 9th December 1869 in Princeton and died 20th April 1969 on Thousand Oaks. Her parents were Hardy Haynie and Lela Haynie. Mabel Stark is perhaps the greatest tiger trainer of all time.
At the age of 17 Mabel began training as a nurse and also got a job at a hospital in Kentucky. She later left her nursing job and gained a job as a carnival dancer.
In 1913 Mabel opened her own act for the Barnes circus, working with 10 tigers in the ring. It was the biggest act of the that time in the US.
Stark adopter a sick tiger and nursed him back to health. His name was Rajah.
Mabel died from an overdose at the age of 79.
Mabel Stark was introduced in the circus ring of fine in 1996.

16/01/2025

CIRCUS HISTORY MONTH

Next we look into the history of Jules Leotard
A French acrobat performer and aerialist who was born in Toulouse on 1st August 1838 and died 16th August 1870 from smallpox. Jules Leotard invented the Leotard in 1860’s. He wore the tight fitting and stretchy garment whilst performing to show off his muscular body. Jules studied to become a lawyer but his father owned a gymnasium where he worked and was often found hanging and swinging from bars within the gym, this was the birth of his trapeze act.
Jules often performed to the song ‘The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze’ which was a song inspired by Jules sung by George Leybourne.
On 12th November 1859, Jules Leotard performed his first flying trapeze routine on three trapeze bars at Circus Napoleon where he would continue to work and perform his acts.
In May 1861 Jules made his music debut at the Alhambra Theatre Leicester Square with his flying trapeze act. He was flying over diners during this act.
Jules was paid £180 per week which is nearly £5000 in modern day times.
Jules Leotard often performed with a pile of mattresses as safety.

09/01/2025

It's Circus History Month!

Here at Infinity Circus, we always enjoy learning about circus acts who performed before us and leaning all about their history. So to see the new year in, we thought we would bring you Circus History Month.
Join us in stepping back in time to meet some famous historical figures and some more recent ones who have made history in the Circus world.

We'll be starting with P.T.Barnum so keep an eye out for the posts. Let us know in the comments if anything surprises you or if you have any suggestions on who we should feature.

09/01/2025

CIRCUS HISTORY MONTH

P.T.Barnum

Born 5th July 1810 in Bethel. P.T.Barnum was an American showman involved in all forms of presentation for the amusement of such items as the public museum, musical concert, and three-ring circus. Alongside his partnership with James A. Bailey, he made the American circus a huge, popular spectacle. They created "The greatest show on Earth.''
However, before taking part in the Barnum & Bailey Circus, P.T. Barnum took over the American Museum in New York City.
For over 20 years, the museum attracted tens of millions to see the ‘curiosities.’ Examples of these are: Chang and Eng - Conjoined twins connected by a ligament just below their breastbones, General Tom Thumb who only stood only 25 inches tall, Jumbo the Elephant and the Bearded Lady Annie Jones.
P.T.Barnum wasn’t always involved with the circus. He ran several businesses, including a general store, a book-auctioning trade, real estate, and a statewide lottery network. He also started a weekly newspaper in 1831 called The Herald of Freedom in Bethel.
P.T.Barnum was married to Charity Hallett from 1829 until her death in 1873, and they had 4 children together. A few short months after her death, Barnum then went on to marry Nancy Fish.
The Barnum and Bailey circus was one of the first circuses to be transported by train. It was difficult as they had grown so large and only played larger venues.
On 17th May 1884, the Barnum and Bailey circus was used to demonstrate how strong the Brooklyn Bridge was by using 21 elephants and 17 camels from his circus performing group.
P.T.Barnum died at the age of 80 on 7th April 1891 he died after a stroke.
After Barnum’s death, Bailey purchased the circus from Barnum’s widow and continued touring until the circus entered Europe. This tour started 1897 and ended 1902.
The circus was then purchased by the Ringling Brothers in 1907 after Baileys death, with their last show being on 21st May 2017.

06/01/2025

MEET THE TEAM MONDAY

So as it’s a new year we thought we would reintroduce ourselves and give you all a little fact file about ourselves. Each week on a Monday you can expect to see some old faces popping up and some new ones too with information about ourselves and the acts we do within the company.

So we have to start with the main lady and the brains behind the company, Violet Streak.

Hi I'm Violet Streak
I'm the owner and founder of Infinity Circus but don't worry, I'm down to earth and love a chat (much to my teams annoyance sometimes 😂)
I've got skills in multiple props with my favourites being staff, fans and stilts and my all-time favourite hula hoops. Something about spinning with plastic circles just makes me happy.
My least favourite things are juggling, I'm awful at it, and balancing anything (for a stilt walker that seems weird I know but I just can't do it).
I've dabbled in aerial pursuits and I really want to take those further.
I'm a bit of an open book so most people know most things about me. Something you might not know though is that when I was a child I wanted to be a dancer, then as a teenager I switched to music and decided singing was the thing for me, I'm also a grade 5 pianist though its been a while since I last played. Thank goodness I switched to circus because I wasn't very good at either of those.

We're looking forward to seeing you soon.
Ciao for now from the purple haired circus lady 😁💜

05/01/2025

They say that work feels the best and most fun when you have a great team of people working together.

Well we think we have the very best team so as it's a new year we're going to be introducing and re-introducing the Infinity Circus team members to you all. Keep an eye out for our posts and don't forget our booking diaries are now open so if you'd like first rate entertainment from a fantastic bunch of performers then drop us an email
[email protected]

Happy new year everyone 😁💜🎉🎊

18/12/2024

7 sleeps till Christmas!
Mrs Claus is taking a break from the North Pole to come and help you all celebrate Christmas in style. Make sure to book her in for your Christmas celebrations 🤶

14/12/2024

Did you spot our festive Elf and Nutcracker Soldier entertaining in Purfleet for their Christmas Lights Switch On parade 🧝‍♂️🌲🎅

If you're looking for new years entertainment drop us a message via [email protected]

We have stilt walkers, performers, LED and fire acts and our full Fire Show as well as party entertainment for all ages and circus workshops available to hire

#2024

14/12/2024

A short video with some of our performers showing what we all got up to during the Creative Basildon Shine ON event on the 16th November 😁❄️🎄🧚‍♀️

Creative BasildON's Shine ON! Christmas 2024 - festive entertainment in the heart of Basildon's town centre by Creative Basildon's team. Video by Jason Lynch...

09/12/2024

Need last minute entertainment for your Christmas party? Don’t panic, we’re here.
Drop us a message and see how we can accommodate.

07/12/2024

Our elves have been incredibly cheeky this festive season!

We still have some availability for December and New year's, so if you are looking for entertainment, drop us an email
[email protected]

30/11/2024

Team 1 today had so much fun teaching circus skills in Laindon Library for Creative Basildon ShineOn event

29/11/2024

Shout out to these kind strangers who took the opportunity of holding my phone to take both this photo of our performers with the mayor and mayoress (as we asked them to) and this cheeky selfie which I found hours later at home!

25/11/2024

Don't forget about this event happening on Saturday!!!

Come and say hello 👋

Join us and on the 30th November in Laindon Library for some Christmas crafts and circus fun!