It’s always a pleasure watching the graduating students of Circomedia perform their showcase pieces after two years of work, and this year’s crop of individuals as talented as they are bendy, as creative as they are gravity-defying, are no exception.

Unusually, Iona Godbold and Chris Lawrence performed as a duo as well as individually; Italia Conti-trained Godbold drawing laughs with her fun-loving character while Lawrence played the straight man.

As well as providing his partner with arms to reach up high, Lawrence manoeuvred a wooden cane around like it was a fifth limb.

But the show was stolen by Godbold on the high swing, as she spun off and then back on, ending a not quite always fluid routine with an extraordinary aerial leap from the swing to a waiting rope.

The intriguing trio of parkour, aerial straps and voice made up Ross Taylor‘s piece. When not leaping over a hobby horse or hovering in the air, he was discussing good versus evil and man versus fiend.

Doing so much talking in his lilting Newcastle accent during a very physical piece was ambitious, but Taylor just about pulled it off, employing some very stylish manoeuvres especially during the parkour elements.

Catherine Boot never really got started, but then that was also the point as she began a modern dance number on an empty stage only to then recount a memory from childhood or to say that her boyfriend thinks she looks like a Lego man.

A few leaps and tumbles eventually followed, but it wasn’t worth the wait. Boot made for a good stand-up, and made salient points about being valued or not as an artist, but I would have liked to see more of her circus skills rather than her evident acting ability and comic timing.

The second showcase is on Friday, with two more on June 4 and 6. For more information, visit www.circomedia.com/events-at-st-pauls-church/.