It’s every devious little tyke’s fairytale to run away and join the circus. And the more time you spend speaking with performers in the circus, the more obvious it becomes that that’s what most of them did.

Lindsay Simpson is one example. At 17, after growing up in west London, where she learned to ride a unicycle, the daughter of an insurance salesman ran away to join the circus in Paris.

Not long later she moved to Brazil after becoming frustrated with European methods and formed a non-conforming troupe called Intrépida. It was in Brazil that she met Héctor Fabio Cobo Plata, with whom she would eventually start a national circus school, Circo Para Todos, in Colombia, thanks to a £250,000 National Lottery grant.

“I was running Intrépida Troupe in Brazil,” Lindsay says. “And Hector joined, then we toured the world. He got frustrated and wanted to give something back to his home country, Colombia. To tell you the truth it was a retirement plan we got funding for.

“But we didn’t retire, we went straight into it because it needs a lot of energy to make a school. That was in 1995 and it was the first international grant and it made the first professional circus school in the world, specifically with social objectives.”

The fruits are now ripening. Graduates plucked from the streets of Cali in the west of the country, where they might otherwise be living in poverty, have gone on to perform in circuses such as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, or to work on the top cruise ships. Lindsay says 18 of the 83 graduates have now bought houses.

“They are a leading light in their communities,” she says. “It’s a signal of peace and it’s a real outlet for people who are not necessarily academic.

“It’s very hard to get into a school. It’s a precious place with food, transport, a uniform, an education and a career at the end, not just a diploma.”

For the Circolombia show Lindsay has picked the best graduates since the debut students finished their four-year diplomas in 2001. Among the stunts they perform is the frontal perch, a rare trick considered one of the most challenging in the circus repertoire, which Lindsay says you will see nowhere else in Europe.

This is the first time the school has been commissioned for a piece and the graduates were asked to devise the theme. Behind the acrobatics a tale follows two gangs warring over territory and women, who eventually confront the narrow stereotypes they adhere to, before the beauty below is revealed. Music features heavily, too, with Latin reggaeton and songs composed by the performers.

“They soon start to discover the beautiful, pretty people they are below,” says Lindsay. “You see a bit of their past, something difficult, but that’s not where they are now. They’ve put it behind them, and they end up with this great song Salta Para Vivir, jump for life, and all over the place it turns into one big carnival.”

* Starts May 11 to May 20, 10pm, May 21 and May 22, 8.30pm, £15/£13. Call 0845 241 0530.