I am the granddaughter of Britain’s most famous clown; Nicolai Polakovs known to all as Coco the Clown OBE. Coco came to England from Latvia by invitation of the late Cyril and Bernard Mills, owners of the famous Bertram Mills Circus where he performed for 36 years.

In 1960 Coco was injured in a serious road accident; it was while he was recovering in hospital, seeing all the sick children that he decided to dedicate his time to visiting children in hospital to make them smile. 

Coco the Clown joined ROSPA the Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents to raise awareness of road safety, for which he was appointed an officer of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

  was bought up in a traditional circus environment. I have learned an array of skills such as juggling, rolling globes, tight wire, tumbling and pyramid building. My biggest passion was and still is aerial acrobatics, so I went onto learn a variety of aerial artistry including aerial hoop, solo trapeze, cord lisse, tissue and aerial straps.

I have been very fortunate to be able to travel to many parts of the world performing these skills in circus, theatre productions and cruise ships.
In 1980 my parents opened the first circus in the UK without performing animals, as they believed very strongly in human skills. 

 My Mum Tamara Coco Houssain always made it clear that to be a good clown you had to master all the other circus arts which were being lost; Coco the Clown was the champion contortionist  (backward bending) of all the Russia’s and was an accomplished balancer of ‘perch pole’ long before he was a clown. Tamara Coco’s Circus and later Circus Hassani were very successful and paved the way for the ‘human’ circus in all its shapes and form which we know to day from The Cirque Du Soleil in Canada to Plume from France and Circus Oz from Australia.

 In the mid 1980’s at Chessington World of Adventures we launched the first Children’s Circus Academy, where I was one of the teachers, but sadly in the great storm of 1987 the Big Top and all the equipment was destroyed and we were unable to continue at that time.  I later moved on from my partents' Circus and went on to perform as a solo aerialist; I met my husband Csaba and we went on to perform in many shows as a duo around the world, I carried on teaching along with Csaba during that time, our  pupils were colleagues which wanted to improve and learn more skills to take them further in their career and also the children of my colleagues who wanted to have fun and learn at the same time. I am now dedicated to passing on the many skills and traditions that I learned over my career.

I come from Hungary where I was a gymnast from an early age and became a National Champion gold medallist at age 13; I was also overall winner of the Junior Olympics several times from the age of 9 to 13. At the age of thirteen I joined the prestigious Hungarian State Artist School and National Ballet Institute, where I learned a variety of disciplines, ranging from ground and aerial acrobatics, trampoline, juggling, mime, ballet, modern dance, drama and presentation. 

 After graduating I formed a troupe of Ariel Acrobats and we traveled the world performing Flying Trapeze and Springboard. I was the leader as well as coach; we attained such a high standard that were invited to appear in the prestigious Paris Circus Festival; the ‘Cirque Du Demain’ where we received a Special Prize for our performance. 

 I met my wife Zayna in the circus after coming to perform in England. We combined our skills and devised an Ariel presentation on the Aerial straps and tissue. We performed as a duo in Europe and the United States in circuses, theatres, and on cruise ships in West end-style productions as well as television. 

 I am a fully qualified Lev.3 Personal Trainer and Fitness Coach, holding certificates in Nutrition & Weight Management among many others. All through my career I have been involved in coaching children and adults alike all with from different backgrounds; from dancers and fellow performers to young adults who just wanted to experience the wide ranging skills of circus and theatrical arts, along with grownups who have a desire to become part of a performing group, but their lack of specialised skills needed more work or learn the basics of gymnastics as well as needing to get fit.

Between us Zayna and I have over 35 years of experience in teaching Circus Arts