Circus Space success stories tell why they chose to train at famous Hoxton Square centre

Ring masters: A circus arts BA is among the courses on offer in Hackney. Photograph: Bertil Nilsson

Like many children I wanted to run away and join the circus. On the drive home from Zippos’ Circus in Peckham I would sigh melodramatically and wish I too could be an acrobat and live a life on the road with knife-throwing big brothers.

Real-life circus artist and Homerton lad LJ Marles sets me straight.

“People hear the word ‘circus’ and they think of elephants, tigers, clowns and rings of fire,” he says. “That stuff exists in some circuses still, but circus form has evolved like every other art form.”

Marles graduated from one of the top circus training centres in Europe, Hackney’s Circus Space in Hoxton Square.

The school, built into a cavernous former Victorian power station, boasts the only BA degree in circus arts in the whole country.

Starting out as a street dancer choreographing routines in his local park, Marles first enrolled in the youth programme at Circus Space before going on to apply for a place on its prestigious degree course, which only accepts 24 students each year.

Is a BA in Circus Arts just another ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree?

The ‘taught hours’ received at Circus Space are impressive, and students attend every day from 9am until 4pm and are offered optional extra training after hours.

The guardians of more traditional academic courses would no doubt eye jealously Circus Space’s employability rates.

Ninety-two per cent of graduates are still employed in circus arts three years after completing the course.

Now a touring member of Canadian company Sept Doigts de la Main (Seven Fingers), Marles is one of Circus Space’s many success stories, but even he is used to being questioned about his ‘unusual’ degree choice.

“If it were easy, everyone would be doing it,” he says. “And as for being a Mickey Mouse degree, well, Mickey Mouse has his own theme park, so that must count for something. People don’t realise how much work everyone puts in on this degree. It is literally blood, sweat and tears.”

Elinor Harvey, 20, from East Sussex has just been accepted into Circus Space.

“People do a Circus Space degree because they want to become a circus performer, not a banker,” she says. “It makes sense to do a degree in something you want to have a career in.”

Miss Harvey, who at the moment specialises in aerial rope adds that she is “really excited and also a little nervous” about starting the course.

“It is going to be physically demanding and take a lot of sacrifices to train as much as is required,” she says. “You cannot go out partying on the weekend and just roll up Monday morning. You need to be in peak condition, physically and mentally.”