Jane White interviews women who ‘changed their lives’. Here, Lucy Morgan
talks to Jane White about how she escaped from her old life.
‘I abandoned a high-pressure career.’ | When I got there, it was hard work. | |||||
Lucy Morgan, 38, a trapeze artist, lives | I started classes at 8am and had daily | |||||
in London. Lucy gave up her high- | lessons in trapeze, choreography, | |||||
powered job as a lawyer to enrol at | acting, juggling and acrobatics. | |||||
5 | circus school. | 45 | After three years’ training, I got a | |||
job with the Harlequin Circus, a | ||||||
“By the time I finished training to be | traditional British circus. We lived in | |||||
a lawyer, I felt like I’d spent my whole | caravans and were always on the | |||||
life doing exams. I was 26 and had | move, doing two shows a day. You do | |||||
10 | been in higher education for eight | 50 | it because you love it. It’s not | |||
years. My father is a lawyer, so it | glamorous. Each night, I had to make | |||||
seemed natural for me to study law. | my way in the dark across the ring to | |||||
I worked freelance on immigration | find my rigging while avoiding the tiger | |||||
cases for about 18 months but | poo on the floor. | |||||
15 | I couldn’t help feeling a little | 55 | After 18 months, I met Suzy Barton, | |||
dissatisfied. | my performing partner. We were cast | |||||
I took up gymnastics after leaving | in several fantasy films as flying | |||||
school and practised throughout | fairies, appearing in Merlin and The | |||||
university. Then, a year after starting | Tenth Kingdom. Owing to our double | |||||
20 | work as a solicitor, I heard that | 60 | act using silks - lengths of material | |||
London’s The Circus Space School | strong enough to perform on, the | |||||
held flying trapeze classes, so I signed | bookings flew in for parties and events | |||||
up. As soon as I got onto a trapeze, | worldwide. We commanded £600 a | |||||
I loved it. I swore to myself that I would | night, comparable with the money | |||||
25 | master this skill, or die trying, and the | 65 | 65 I could have earned as a lawyer. | |||
passion has been there ever since. | But in 2000, Suzy had a horrific | |||||
I always skipped after-work drinks | accident: she fell 20ft and broke her | |||||
with the lawyers to practise trapeze, | back. She’ll never perform again, and | |||||
dividing my time between two worlds | it certainly made me realise the | |||||
30 | which couldn’t be more different. | 70 | dangers of the job. | |||
Eventually, I was itching to get away | A couple of years later, the BBC | |||||
from the courtrooms and police | asked me and two others to perform | |||||
stations, so I was thrilled to land a | our silks act for one of its programme | |||||
place at the National Circus School in | interludes on BBC1 - I’m the woman in | |||||
35 | Montreal. | 75 | the middle of the screen. And I have | |||
But my family weren’t pleased. | recently been involved in the | |||||
I was giving up a good, safe career, | choreography for the fifth Batman film. | |||||
which I had spent years training for to | I could go back to law, but that would | |||||
run off to Canada and do something | be just a job. Once the circus is in your | |||||
40 | very dangerous. But I was [id:42915] | 80 | blood, it never leaves.” |