IT’S not the backflip. It’s not the fire spinning. It’s not the handstands, and it’s not the human pyramid formations that captivate circus artiste Beverly Wan.
It’s flying in the air. Those acts that happen above the ground, high up in the air. Sometimes it is through hoops, sometimes it is the thrilling trapeze act.
“That’s me. I love everything that’s in the air. I love everything that’s upside down. There’s the magic of the moment, there’s the spotlight. I love it all,” she tells The Sunday Times in an interview.
Ms Wan, 28, dreamt of being in a circus when she was 15. She doesn’t remember how it all began but does recall connecting with the character of Ty Lee (an acrobat who was part of a circus) in Nickelodeon’s animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
She could vividly see herself in a circus even though she hadn’t even begun circus training.
Over the years, she started posting on social media. In a series of posts on Oct 28, 2015, she wrote excitedly: “Why is everybody asleep? Is anybody awake? OMG, I can’t keep the excitement in.
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“Can anyone entertain my amazing circus idea? I have my future planned out.”
There were hardly any responses.
‘Don’t do it in Singapore’
When she spoke with others about setting up a circus here, there was often discouragement. “They would say, don’t do it in Singapore. There’s literally nothing here,” she says.
“If I want to do a circus, they said, I should go to China. I should go to America, or wherever but not here. If I stay here, my dream is going to die.”
It didn’t daunt her. It solidified her resolve. It amplified her desires, and she’s been ardently chasing her dream to establish a circus that will perform seven days a week.
“If you go to the United States, you must go to Broadway. I would like our circus to be like that. For people coming to Singapore, they must catch our circus show, it will be like that,” says the petite, vivacious yet fiercely committed Ms Wan.
Her parents have had a big part to play in her dream. “They would encourage all of us to think bigger with our lives and try to make an impact with what we are capable of doing,” she says.
From her father Jonathan Wan, she learnt parkour. From her mother June Leo, it was Chinese dance from the age of seven. The scaffolding equipment from her dad’s construction business served as props, while her mom lent a hand by sewing costumes for participating artistes. Meanwhile, her sister Evangelista Wan recorded her performances.
The second of eight children, Ms Wan sought professional training at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2017, where she focused on contemporary dance and ballet. But wanting to do much more, she sought further coaching from professionals in Australia, the Philippines, the US and Japan after earning enough through part-time jobs at cafes and bubble tea shops.
In between, she connected with several groups in Singapore to learn new skills and perform with them, including a trapeze act, a callisthenics training team and an aerial arts community.
First steps and a fallout
In 2020, she co-founded the Circus of Altrades (a play on “jack of all trades”) with her ex-partner Koh Jia Sheng at the height of the pandemic to bring performers together for shows at a time when commercial opportunities were scarce.
Training took place at the void decks of Housing Board blocks and playgrounds. The group produced a digital video that was shown exclusively at the now-defunct Projector in 2021 for an audience of roughly 500 people.
“The reaction was great, so many people said they can’t wait to see us live,” Ms Wan says.
That year, she also set up the Circus Academy of Singapore, which offers classes in a range of circus acts for students of all ages. To date, with the help of five coaches, she has trained over 100 students, five of whom continued their pursuit of performing in the circus and are now professionals or on the way there.
In 2023, Ms Wan had a fallout with the team at Circus of Altrades and decided to do her own thing.
A year later, with her new group called Frisque Sg, she directed and produced a show billed as the biggest circus in Singapore, featuring a team of 50 predominantly local performers. She kept the title for the show as Lai Frisque Yi Xia Leh! “Frisque means to live vivaciously, so the title was an invitation to people to live,” she explains.
Performances took place at the Marina Bay Sands from Dec 12 to 15, 2024. There were acrobatics, fire spinning, juggling and more during a 90-minute live circus extravaganza. The six shows drew an audience of 7,200 people.
‘Bigger and better’
Her next project in 2026 will be bigger and better, says Ms Wan. As she prepares for it, her mind keeps ticking about building the uniqueness of her circus and injecting Singapore elements.
“The ringmaster has a key role to play. He has to be a guy who speaks English, actually fluent Singlish,” she says.
“We are straying a bit further from the traditional circus, so there will be clowning. But there will not be full fake make-up clowns.
“Animals? Yes, I want to have a lion in the show. Maybe others too.”
There are also issues Ms Wan needs to tackle.
“We are often doing our own thing. Everything is self-taught. There’s no blueprint. It’s all in my head but to make it all happen on stage takes time.”
For stress relief, she relies on her boyfriend Oscar Xie, 26, a musician who plays the guitar in her shows.
“I also have to find sponsors,” she says. “Business-wise, I have no idea how things work. I can only fathom the creative aspect of things. We rely on ticket sales, but I want artistes to be well-paid.”
There is also this thing about public support. “I would like to say that many Singaporeans don’t believe that Singaporeans can put up a good show,” she says.
“In a sense, many people who have seen our circus show came to support us, expecting a low-quality recital-level show, and were blown away when they saw what we were capable of.
“But these were only the ones who gave us a chance.”
‘Where dreams can come true’
Ms Wan features in an ongoing advertising campaign by OCBC, which is supporting this series in the digital version of The Sunday Times.
Despite the challenges, she wants to do her shows in Singapore.
“The more people tell me that I cannot make it big here, the more I want to do it here, and I do want to prove that it can be done here,” she says.
After a pause, she continues: “Sometimes, I feel the idea of Singapore having a circus is beyond the idea of having a circus.
“It is about being in a place where dreams can come true, in a corny sense. I think what I am doing is to fight the narrative that Singapore is a place where dreams go to die,” she says.
“And if something as far-fetched as a circus can succeed, then I think anyone can do anything,” she says before adding, as if to explain her thinking: “You make a leap and expect that you will land.”
Singapore has seen circus acts and travelling circuses previously. In 1902, this paper reported an incident where a tiger wandered from its travelling circus on Beach Road and was shot by the then-principal of Raffles Institution as it hid below a billiard table at Raffles Hotel.
The photobook Life Beyond The Big Top captures the history of Tai Thean Kew Circus, which was founded in Singapore in 1932 and operated till the 1980s. There have been other circus acts but none that opened year-round.
‘Be obsessed, be confident’
Australia-based Chris Carlos, Ms Wan’s mentor and founder of Spin Circus, describes her commitment as “exceptional”.
“Singapore is a difficult place to grow in performing arts given the focus on financial security over passion, but she’s been at it and facilitating several others to take to the profession,” he tells The Sunday Times over the phone.
“To succeed, you need to be obsessed and have the assurance, the confidence to make it work when there are so many people expecting you to fail.
“But performing acts are becoming more and more important for society in an era of the TikTok generation where viewers are not suitably exposed to a realistic depiction of life,” he says, hoping Ms Wan fulfils her dream.
“Art provokes thought and deserves its space in every society,” he adds.
Ms Vivyan Yeo, 21, aspires to be a company dancer but having become part of Ms Wan’s circus, she’s confident that it can offer another pathway if dance doesn’t work out for her.
There’s also Mr Louis Tan, 32, who has been cheerleading and street dancing for several years but seems to have found a place for his many interests with Ms Wan’s company.
“Frisque has opened a new road for me. It allows me to combine my skills together with coaching and mentoring others,” he says.
“I love performing. When I am on stage, apart from the nervousness, anxiety and all, I forget all of life’s problems. I am in the moment, seeing people smile. And when it ends, I am tired but happy.”
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Shefali Rekhi is a senior editor & writer working on special projects. She joined The Straits Times in 2000 and has helmed two Asia-focused projects, efforts to grow the paper’s international reach and fight fake news. She writes on a range of issues.
