Meet Beverly Wan, the 28-year-old co-founder of Singapore’s first acrobatic circus
As kids, we sometimes get inspired by our favourite cartoon characters and dream about becoming the next Kung Fu master, spy, or the best water bender. For Beverly Wan, it was Ty Lee from the Nickelodeon animation series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, who was an acrobat in a circus.
While these remain dreams for most of us, they lit a spark for Beverly to embark on a circus career—one that continued to burn and manifest through her teenage years and into adulthood.
When I was 15, I made a bucket list, and I wrote that I wanted to join the circus for two years.
Beverly Wan
At just 24 years old, Beverly decided to build her dream right at home and co-founded Singapore’s first acrobatic circus, Circus of Altrades, in 2020. Three years later, she ventured out to start her own troupe: Frisque SG, which made its debut at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) in Dec 2024.
Vulcan Post sat down with Beverly to find out more about her journey, as well as the lesser-known challenges she faced breaking ground in Singapore’s often overlooked arts scene.
From teaching herself tricks to co-founding her own circus troupe
Beverly has been in tune with the arts from a young age, having learnt parkour from her father and being sent to Chinese Dance lessons by her mother. She pursued a three-year diploma course in dance at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), with a major in ballet and contemporary dance.
As there were no classes specific to circus training available, Beverly took it upon herself to learn acrobatics and contortion by watching videos and practising her tricks in between classes or at empty studios. She also learnt her aerial silk and lyra hoop skills during her final year internship at Adedance Aerial studio.
As if that wasn’t enough, Beverly also saved up her earnings from working part-time at a cafe and performing at dance gigs (with some extra financial support from her parents) to make two-week-long trips to Australia, where she learnt flying trapeze.
Beverly had long desired to start her circus career in Singapore, but despite family support, she often faced discouragement from others, who told her to pursue it overseas. After all, there were no other local circuses at that time.
But even if she was accepted into an international troupe, Beverly was unwilling to relocate overseas because building her career abroad meant leaving home behind—and she often found herself getting homesick whenever she was away from Singapore.
That was when she realised the only way to pursue a circus career at home was to create one herself.
Hence, together with her former partner Koh Jia Sheng, Beverly co-founded Circus of Altrades in Jul 2020. That same year, she also launched the Circus Academy of Singapore, which offers classes, such as acrobatics, contortion, and trapeze, for all ages.
As Circus of Altrades launched at the height of COVID-19, Beverly was juggling to assemble her troupe, secure training spaces, and adapt to shifting social distancing restrictions.
Their debut show had to be recorded and staged online, but even that plan faced setbacks. Originally scheduled for Halloween in Oct 2021, it had to be halted when several performers, including Beverly herself, tested positive for COVID-19 just days before filming. The team eventually decided not to rush it and instead adapted their performances into a Christmas-themed show.
Fortunately, rehearsals were back in full swing after their recovery, and the recording went smoothly. The troupe held a three-day screening at The Projector cinema (now closed) and sold digital links to their performance for people who wished to watch it from their homes.
Over the next two years, Beverly went on to perform for several live events with the Circus of Altrades, including its second original production at Gateway Theatre in Nov 2023, before leaving the troupe the same year due to creative differences.
“The co-founder and I bumped heads and decided we don’t work well together, so I took my creativity with me and built Frisque SG,” she explained.
What goes on behind the curtain
Frisque SG’s debut, Lai Frisque Yi Xia Leh!, ran six shows over three days in Dec 2024 at MBS. Each 90-minute show featured fire-spinning, contortion, acrobatics, and performers hanging over hoops high in the air—all with a local twist.
Nearly every performer was Singaporean, with just two international guests—a Malaysian artist and a Cirque du Soleil performer from London. But creating a show and looking after over 50 performers and crew is far more complex than a single trick, as it took Beverly a whole year to produce Frisque SG’s first show.
Finding a consistent, well-equipped rehearsal space was a major hurdle. “Every space is too small, or there’s no rigging, or the ceiling is too low, or we can’t do fire,” she lamented, adding that most of her equipment was too big, heavy, and expensive to transport to their practice spaces, and could not be used until their final rehearsals.
On top of that, as every performer in Frisque SG holds a full-time job outside the circus, scheduling rehearsals felt like a constant juggling act. Coordinating their availability often meant that the only rehearsals with a full cast would be just one or two days before the show, leaving little room for full cast run-throughs or adjustments.
Beverly also had to manage the financial side of production by herself, reinvesting her own earnings from teaching at the Circus Academy of Singapore and ticket sales to cover costs. “We currently rely solely on ticket sales to pull through. We hope to find sponsors to support our show,” she said.
Producing a show at this scale is expensive. The costs quickly add up to over half a million dollars, covering essentials like stage rigging, sets, lighting, sound systems, and drapes, as well as performer and crew salaries, food, and welfare.
For Beverly, the stakes are personal: every detail, from the timing of acts to the safety of performers, rests on her shoulders. Yet despite these challenges, she remains resolute.
“I’ve sold tickets, I’ve booked the venue, we have to do a show.”
Beverly Wan, founder and creative director of Frisque SG
Frisque SG is preparing for its second show set for 2026, though more can be done for the circus industry
To the relief of Beverly and the troupe, all six shows last year were well-loved by an audience of 7,200 people, many of whom were so impressed they returned for a second performance. “Many audience members came to support us, expecting a recital-level show, and were completely blown away when they witnessed exactly the scale of what we have built,” she happily added.
Having been in two local troupes in the past five years, Beverly also noted that the audience composition has changed since performing as a circus artist for five years, from just friends and family at her debut to meeting total strangers at Frisque SG’s shows.
Frisque SG is currently preparing for its second show in 2026, which Beverly shared will be bigger and better than their 2024 show. She hopes to continue producing shows and eventually perform daily with the Frisque SG troupe, growing it into a must-see attraction for tourists.
But ultimately, Beverly believes that more can be done for local performers. She explained that for people to leave their day jobs to pursue their passion in the circus is to provide the same kind of stability typically found in conventional careers.
This includes CPF contributions, benefits, paid leave, and clear paths for career progression. “There are currently no full-time circus jobs in Singapore; the closest might be if you run an aerial studio or if you’re a freelance coach and performer,” Beverly pointed out.
With Frisque SG, she hopes to uplift and provide a stage for other Singaporeans like her to embark on full-time careers in the circus industry—one that they no longer have to think twice about pursuing.
I think it has been embedded in Singaporeans that everything locally done is going to be subpar, but we’re slowly starting to shift people’s perception that Singapore has the talent.
Beverly Wan
Featured Image Credit: Circus Academy of Singapore, @acmhphotos via Instagram
