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Classify Seventh Generation Circus Performers - Billy & Emily England
(Winners on BGT (Britain's Got Talent) show)
They are seventh generation circus performers
who lost an aunt and uncle doing daredevil acts.
Emily and Billy, whose real names are Emilia and Victor Arata,
were brought up in Birmingham, England,
by Italian-born father Billy and Irish mother Carmen.
They have a brother, Vittorio, 27,
who performs nightly in Las Vegas
with his wife Jenny as The Skating Aratas.
But they are no longer close.
Emily says: “When Vittorio got married,
our relationship changed.
We don’t really speak any more because
we don’t find him very supportive.
That’s why we changed our stage names.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/b...family-5757241
Fearless four: Billy and Emily in 2002
with Vittoria, left, and mum Carmen
In 2003, Emily and Billy’s aunt,
world-renowned aerial silk star Eva Garcia, 38,
plunged 30ft to her death during a performance
at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, Norfolk.
Emily was particularly close to her aunt,
who was also her godmother.
“Auntie Eva was doing a Lara Croft
Tomb Raider-style stunt
and was being lowered from the ceiling by a cable.
"As she was dropped at 20 miles an hour,
the cable jammed and she was flung off.
She died instantly in front of an audience of 700.
“It was horrific. That night our grandma Mary
had gone to watch Eva perform,
which was very rare, so she saw her daughter die.
Poor Grandma started to believe she was a curse.
“I miss Eva every day.
Her death deeply shocked our family.
It was so hard to return to skating after that.
But we did because it’s all we know.”
Tragedy: Aunt Eva Garcia died in Tomb Raider stunt
But Billy and Emily England still put their lives on the line.
Billy, 28, says: “We come from a long line of performers
who know audiences love the thrill of danger."
“We know that means practising every day
from 9am to midnight –
because sadly we know the terrible
consequences of stunts going wrong.”
Emily adds: “We don’t like talking about what could happen
if we mis-judge a move by a millimetre.
"But, as generations have done before us,
we understand we have to practise until we drop.
Our lives depend on it.”
Less than three years later, Emily and Billy endured further tragedy
when their uncle Gilles Gonnerton, 47,
died when his trapeze strap broke during a Big Top show in Paris.
Billy says: “Uncle Gilles used a leather neck-strap
that had been passed down through his family for 50 years.
He wouldn’t use any other strap
because he was superstitious about it.
But the strap broke and Uncle Gilles fell 20ft to his death.
“Our auntie, who is Mum’s sister,
was still up there on a trapeze and saw her husband fall.
She tried to get down to reach him, but it was too late.”
The rollerskating siblings are talent show professionals,
having brought various acts to the German version of BGT,
BBC show When Will I Be Famous – and even Big Brother.
Emilia was runner-up in the show,
after winning fans with her flexible contortion displays
in the house and garden.
The circus star auditioned for the German version
of BGT, Das Supertalent, in 2010 with an elegant aerial ball act.
Mum Carmen, a former trapeze artist who appeared as a trainer
on Sky One reality show Cirque de Celebrite,
trained her children for up to 10 hours a day from the age of four.
Billy says: “Mum banned us from saying ‘can’t’
and pushed us really hard by teaching us never to give up.
She taught us never to stop until we achieved perfection.”
But it was losing their dad Billy,
who died of skin cancer at the age of 52 in April 2004,
that inspired young Billy and Emily to perform together
and instilled the grit to practise to within an inch of their lives.
Emily says: “Dad was a wire-walker
and performed with his brother but he hated it.
He got so nervous before every show that he suffered
terrible stomach cramps –
and he often fell out with his brother."
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/b...family-5757241
Daring dad: Billy Senior had a famous high wire act with his brother
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz-t...ed-talent-show
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