La Bonche

The Circus family name La Bonche was created in March 2012. It describes the participants of a North East of England-based youth Circus called Five Ring Circus. In March 2013 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a Young Roots grant to support the Five Ring Circus to research the Arthur Fenwick Collection of Circus ephemera at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, and to collect material from 1960 - to date on North East of England circus.
Launch
Five Ring Circus came into being as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Funding came from Legacy Trust UK in 2010 as a featured project. At its first Festival it worked with the Australian youth circus, Spaghetti Circus in July 2010. The ethos of the Five Ring Circus has been well described in the NE-Generation annual report of 2011. That report noted that "Five Ring Circus are passionately promoting youth circus across the (North East) region with weekly open access clubs".
Circus Training Centre
Five Ring Circus is based in Circus Central in Christ Church, Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne. Situated between the city centre and the artistic quarter of Ouseburn. Christ Church dates from 1861 and has in a partnership with Circus Central been awarded an English Heritage Grant to help preserve the building. "This Grade II* parish church dates from 1859-61 and was built by A.B. Higham."
Core Members of the La Bonche Family
Steve Cousins Co-Director of Five Ring Circus, international street artist and past alumnus of Britain's Got Talent 2008
Helen Averley Aka Madame La Bonche and Co - Director of Five Ring Circus.
Brothers La Bonche are 2 young performers specialising in Juggling yoghurt, knives and compering.
Further reading
* Five Ring Circus profile by Regional Youth Work Unit.
* The young people from the Five Ring Circus Troupe describe what circus means to them.
* The La Bonche Family Twitter Feed.
* [http://cuckooreview.com/?p=612#more-612 Matilda Neil's assessment] of Five Ring Circus in Cuckoo Review published 16 May 2013.

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