History | 25 Years of Trix Circus

February: Rodleigh sets up his flying trapeze rig, his trampoline rig and his swinging trapeze rig in garden in Nerang and starts Trix Circus School.

March: Rodleigh visits Mullumbimby Circus Festival and starts networking and learning about the circus scene in Australia.

October: Rodleigh manufactures his first swinging trapeze and leather leggings package for his first student who secured a professional contract.

April/May/June: 6 weeks of act creation at Flying Fruit Fly Circus School for touring show “Gift”.

November: Rodleigh creates acts using students from Trix Circus, Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Southern Edge Arts and Skadada, to represent Australia at the 3rd International Arts Festival hosted in Shanghai, China.

July/August: Rodleigh’s 9 person performance team goes to Hong Kong for 6 weeks of performances and workshops at a shopping mall.

September: Trix Circus moves into new indoor space at Southport State High School Gymnasium.

January: Rodleigh’s growing number of students creates a greater need for circus equipment. Rodleigh conducts workshops for shows by Spaghetti Circus School in Mullumbimby.

March: Rodleigh does a number of corporate rigging installations for ex-students performing professionally for Aerial Angels. Rodleigh becomes Head Rigger for all the Aerial Angels projects.

December: Rodleigh directs Trix Circus adult students to perform a 70-minute show at Woodford Folk Festival.

September: Rodleigh’s Trix Circus youth circus team perform for Circus Xsavia (now Ashton Entertainment) over the school holidays. Rodleigh does rigging jobs for students performing in various local venues.

October: Rodleigh produces a full circus show for the Brisbane Lions Club for fundraising. Four performances over two days performed in a big top tent in Brisbane’s southside.

March: Rodleigh and Trix Circus students perform for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

July: Rodleigh’s Trix Circus flying trapeze team perform for two weeks at Robina Town Centre. The performances also include workshops for the public.

September: Rodleigh secures a three month contract in Sweden at the Levade Noble Horse Gala (Circus Scott) for his flying trapeze team.

January: Trix students perform at Gold Coast Arts Centre celebrations for Australia Day. Rodleigh goes to Taiwan to rig for aerial acts performing at Janfusun Fancy World theme park in Taiwan.

June: Rodleigh is contracted to Aerial Angels to rig and production manage six aerial silks performers for opening of Asian Women’s Games in Malaysia.

August: Rodleigh begins regular load testing of manufactured equipment through a third party (John L. Robertson).

September: Rodleigh sets up his flying trapeze at Gold Coast Show for performances and workshops. Rodleigh produces and directs full length circus show “Uplifted” with his students at the Gold Coast Arts Centre.

January: Rodleigh flies to Perth for an intensive training week with the Skadada dance-arts company. He supplies them with specialised circus equipment as well as high-level coaching. 

June – November: Rodleigh trains a new flying trapeze team to go Pop Circus (Japan). They start in November 2008 and stay for two years.

May/June/July: Rodleigh performs with Pink! for three months in her sellout “Funhouse” tour of Australia.

July: Rodleigh visits Montreal and networks with Victor Fomine, highly decorated swinging trapeze coach.

April: We started training students from John Paul College in preparation for “Cirque de Musique” – a live music circus show.

June: Big rigging installation at Marina Bay Sands (Singapore) opening (3x long swinging trapeze; 2x silks with singer Kelly Rowland).

July: Rodleigh installed the circus rigging for Cirque de Musique in a big top tent. As well as training the JPC students, we also supplied professional performers and supplied performers for Cirque de Musique shows at John Paul College.

August: Rodleigh set up aerial rigging at John Paul College to begin ongoing school workshops.

October: Trix Circus headquarters moves to Ormeau and the flying trapeze moved to the grounds of the Stunt Academy in Nerang.

Sonia Rakovska joined Trix Circus as a full time employee.

Trix Circus begins a circus program with Dynamite Studios Australia.

June: Creation of unusual aerial stage apparatus “Circulo”, blending pole dance and aerials. “Circulo” goes onto performances across Australia for the next five years.

September: Trix performing team create and perform a show called “Hormone Explosion” in conjunction with Le Opera Cirque at Kings Beach Caloundra.

July: Install circus equipment at Brisbane Southbank Piazza and collaborate with John Paul College who present their “Back to the Future” show using many of the Trix performing team as well as their own students.

February/March: Arrival of Lester and Wiggle-Bottom, our dogs and Trix ambassadors.

September: Trix performers did an outdoor show at the Southport Broadwater Parklands to raise money for Breast Cancer.

January-November: Rodleigh and Amanda start touring with Stardust Circus in Australia. Sonia continues to run and manage Trix Circus.

Rodleigh and Amanda continue touring with Stardust Circus while Sonia runs and manages Trix Circus from Ormeau.

Trix Circus begins stocking our beautiful Tricot Aerial Silks; establishing a relationship with our supplier that is now (in 2026) almost a dozen years of quality, consistency and safety.

December: Trix Circus visits Sailor Circus in Sarasota, Florida and Montreal, Canada.

Rodleigh and Amanda continue touring with Stardust Circus while Sonia runs and manages Trix Circus from Ormeau.

Trix Circus invents/introduces the Corde Lisse Trapeze to Australia.

January-August: Rodleigh and Amanda move to America as head coaches of Sailor Circus for the Circus Arts Conservatory in Florida. They create a show with 35 youth performers and take it to be performed in a big top at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC.

Sonia continues to run and manage Trix Circus from Ormeau.

August: Rodleigh and Amanda move to Montreal and Rodleigh begins Formation Formateur at École Nationale de Cirque under the tutelage of Victor Fomine.

Rodleigh begins coaching at ENC and starts his employment coaching aerial acts for Cirque du Soleil’s remounting of “Alegria”.

Sonia continues to run and manage Trix Circus from Ormeau.

“Alegria” show opens and Rodleigh moves onto various other coaching jobs at Cirque du Soleil and relief coaching at ENC.

Rodleigh goes to China for Cirque du Soleil to train straps duo for opening of new resident show “X Land of Fantasy”.

Amanda begins Formation Formateur at École Nationale de Cirque under the tutelage of Sarah Poole and Véronique Thibeault.

Sonia continues to run and manage Trix Circus from Ormeau.

Rodleigh is contracted as head coach for new Cirque du Soleil show, called “Nysa”, in Berlin, Germany.

Covid epidemic means that “Nysa” is abandoned by Cirque du Soleil. Rodleigh and Amanda return to Trix Circus in Ormeau with Sonia.

Trix Circus creates the amazing Alta Rig with professional engineers and fabricators.

Trix Circus becomes the exclusive Australian circus supplier of Rock Exotica and Petzl.

Trix Circus spends Covid lockdowns creating a new website for our online platform.

We create a dual purpose space in the Trix shed to suit coaching professional circus students and to optimise manufacturing process.

We become sponsors of Bend the Air competition, who purchase one of our Alta Rigs for their events.

We upgrade our manufacturing processes and procedures to meet the increasing needs for engineering, safety, tracking, workshop standards.

Stephanie Coates joins Trix Circus.

We successfully apply for Australian Made status for the vast majority of our equipment.

Rodleigh returns to Dynamite Studios Australia teaching straps and other disciplines in their professional circus program.

We continue to upgrade our manufacturing processes and procedures to meet the increasing needs for engineering, safety, tracking, workshop standards.

We introduce the new line of Engineer Certified Aerial Hoops. Opening up avenues to increase safety and decrease liability for our clients.

We create the Engineer Certified Tippy Hoop; it is an intersection between art and engineering that is perfectly balanced and exceptional for rotations.

We create dichromatic silks to offer our clients more ways to express their personalities and artistry.

October: Amanda is invited to NICA Circus Summit to join a group panel on “Insurance and Circus”.

Moved the dyeing process in-house so we can help our clients express their artistry and personality through colourisation. Through this we have been able to offer ombre dyeing and other special effects.

Engineer and certify a new flying pole apparatus with a base plate for orbital movements. First of its kind in Australia.