FOR the past 10 years Bruno Gagnon has toured the world as an acrobat and circus performer. It sounds like an interesting, leisurely vocation but Gagnon assures The Guide it is no easy ride.

The 28-year-old, says, “If you want to be a professional circus performer, it takes six or seven years. We spent years practising.” Gagnon is reunited with his friends of many years growing up in Quebec City, Canada, after they went their separate ways to hone their skills at different circuses including Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize.

He says, “Those careers were essential for doing our own shows. It’s the best school to work in – the real world. The public are different and every show is important.” Gagnon, artistic director of Flip FabriQue, has been a circus performer for 17 years, having started at the age of 12. Acrobatics, clowning and juggling are his specialities.

He is one of the founder members of the company and one of the six performers bringing a first run of shows to England. The gang, who came back together in 2011 after working separately from the mid-2000s, come to Brighton with Catch Me (a show which tags on the French name Attrape Moi).

High-flying and fearless, the sextet aim to impress with feats of skill and daring (including some dramatic turns on a trampoline wall) in a crowd-pleasing display of athleticism and showmanship. Gagnon says to expect twirling hoops, dancing diabolos, acrobats soaring through the air and more.

Speaking with the French inflection that comes with growing up in the Canadian province, Gagnon says, “We met as friends as children and then went on to circus school. “We had brilliant careers in the circus but decided to create our own show.”

Catch Me received rave reviews from a run at Edinburgh International Festival in the summer, and received a nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience at the Drama Desk Awards in New York last year.

The company has already performed in 32 cities and seven different countries. Gagnon says it was a great experience: “It’s tough to be out there with a show people talk about but the response was amazing. They really went nuts.”

The team have enjoyed their work together, too. “Everybody is really having a blast,” he says, “It’s fresh, young and energetic. “It’s about six friends having fun on stage and it’s contagious. People need that – to feel happiness and dive into our show. Sometimes things go wrong and, whoops, he dropped this, or someone came off a trampoline. It’s a live show; it’s not a movie.”

Gagnon is confident people will embrace it. He says, “I expect a really good reaction. We are neighbours so I wouldn’t know why an English audience wouldn’t like it. The show charts a semi-autobiographical trajectory based on the reformation of the group’s own friendship.

“It’s pretty simple,” he says, “It’s about friends who are gathering for the weekend and haven’t seen each other for 10 years so it’s about what remains in their memories and what they find out again.

“We all left each other and then gathered again to create this. So it is a retrospective of our own story. It is absolutely the story of our lives. It’s us – we play what we are.”

CATCH ME!

Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Church Street, Monday, December 26, to Friday, December 30, Starts 7.30pm, 5pm on Dec 26, 3pm on Dec 30, also runs at 3pm on December 27. £10-£22.50, call 01273 709709