Cutting Edge Circus was set up by Sandy McClure and Tim Chown. They met in 2004 at a performers convention and immediately struck a chord through their mutual love of contact staff. Recognising the skills that they each had, they decided to work together to try to push the boundaries of this developing art. Over the next few years they put together critically acclaimed staff routines, some of the first video tutorials in this area and developed a working relationship that has gone from strength to strength.

In the same year as they met, Tim co-founded Chimaera, one of the first fire-troupes in the UK, who became known for their tightly choreographed and innovative shows. Performing at venues which include Glastonbury festival, Chimaera have performed to large audiences across the globe and remain at the forefront of the fire performing world.

Also in 2004 Sandy started Inspinerate.com, one of the earliest sites to provide tutorial videos for people wishing to learn contact staff, and which, over the years has taught and influenced hundreds of performers the world over. These ventures have brought the pair great acclaim with requests to perform and teach from Japan, Australia, India and the Americas.

In 2006 their working relationship had developed to a point that Sandy moved to Bristol to work more intensely on joint projects and joined Chimaera. Working and performing together in Chimaera’s 2007, 15 person show, ‘The Secret Garden’ they gained indispensable knowledge of the many different aspects involved in putting together a production of this size. The show was a huge success and received rave reviews at every venue they performed at.

On the back of these successes, in 2007 both Tim and Sandy had more work than they could handle and were regularly out sourcing to other performers.

In 2008 the pair decided to formalise this out sourcing and started Cutting Edge Circus. Using the contacts and experience they had built up over the years in the performance industry the pair has been able to access many different performers and shows so that they are able to find the right performer for any event.

Cutting Edge Circus’s performers have performed around the world for clients that include the BBC, Visa, Ed Hardy Clothing, Take That and Butlins.