TWO former Cirque du Soleil performers are passing on their acrobatic skills and knowledge to others with their own masterclass in balance and acrobatics.

Nikita Sukhanov and his wife Rebecca moved to West Swindon last December so that Rebecca could spend more time with her family here.

They met while performing together in a Cirque du Soleil show several years ago and travelled all over the world with the company before leaving it to raise their son Oskar in America.

Deciding to turn their hand to teaching, they worked in a circus school and taught others the tips and tricks of the trade before moving to Rebecca’s hometown with Oskar and their newest baby boy Oliver.

Now working at Espirit Gymnastics, the pair are starting their own Academy of Balance with group classes at 24hr Gym in July, which will teach a mixture of acrobatics, hand-balancing and body-building.

Nikita said: “It's a bit of a workout but everything is balanced, what we do is a new thing, I'm quite excited about starting it.

"Both of us target different skills: I'm working on body conditioning and balancing while Rebecca targets flexibility and mobility.

"I truly believe that there's no big secret to it but after doing it for so long there are things that are obvious to me that are a surprise to the people I teach.

He remembers how his love of acrobatics began.

The 30-year-old added: “I was taking my younger sister to acrobatics classes and the teacher asked if I wanted to join and I said yes.

“A lot of the acrobats and gymnasts were joining Cirque du Soleil and I was inspired by that, it was a dream for me and eventually that dream came true.

"Then Rebecca joined our show and soon after, we started to date and then everything happened very fast - we got married a year later and then had our first child a year after that."

With more than 2,000 shows and several acrobatic gymnastics awards under his belt, Nikita wants to use his experience to help others get fit and learn impressive new skills which he first taught in Portland, Oregon.

He said: "In Portland, a friend invited me to practice with him and I was introduced to something new: a method which combined circus and bodybuilding. My mind opened to new possibilities.

"We had started from scratch in a new city and we didn't know anyone, then people started to come to us and learn from us, but something was missing - family.

"We decided to move back to Swindon and I love it here."

The classes are open to anyone, even if they've never done a handstand before and want to learn, or have practised for years and want to learn advanced techniques.

For more information, visit academy-of-balance.com