Leilani "Lucky" Franco, (born. 9 April 1986) is a British

contortionist Contortion (sometimes contortionism) is a performance art in which performers called contortionists showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility. Contortion acts often accompany acrobatics, circus acts, street performers and other liv ...

based in London and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. She is most well known for appearances of a 2012

Britain's Got Talent ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global '' Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquial ...

semi-finalist, 2012

Das Supertalent ''Das Supertalent'' (''Germany's Got Talent'', ''Got Talent Germany)'' is a German talent show, part of the internationally successful ''Got Talent franchise'', presented by Victoria Swarovski and Knossi. Just like in all other versions of th ...

semi-finalist and 2011

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...

solo dancer in Turkey. She has

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

for travelling a distance of in a back-bent position in a time of 10.05 seconds and the fastest contortion roll over a distance of in a time of 17.47 seconds. She performs as a freelancer with several companies in London and Berlin, such as

NoFit State Circus NoFit State Circus is a contemporary circus company based in Cardiff, Wales. Formed in 1986, NoFit State Circus has toured tented and theatrical shows at home and abroad. They also maintain an active education programme and run community proje ...

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Jun ...

, Cirque Eloize,

The Box Soho The Box Soho is a cabaret nightclub located at 11-12 Walker's Court in Soho, London, on the premises formerly occupied by the Raymond Revuebar. Opening and ownership Opened on 9 February 2011, it bills itself as a "theatre of varieties" and is a ...

, and

Little Big World ''LittleBigPlanet'' (''LBP''; stylised as ''LittleBIGPlanet'') is a puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in the series put a stro ...

Early life

Franco began her career at the age of six. In her youth, she studied piano, dance, martial arts and gymnastics until the age of sixteen in

Manila, Philippines Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on the island of Luzon, it is ...

. There she joined the

Philippine Ballet Theatre The Philippine Ballet Theatre is a classical ballet company in the Philippines. The Philippine Ballet Theatre was founded in 1987 out of an alliance of leading dance groups. It quickly won recognition, as a resident ballet company of the Cultural C ...

. Then she attended

École nationale de cirque The National Circus School () is a professional circus school located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is for higher education in the art of circus. The NCS also offers academic subjects at the secondary and college levels. It is one of the only ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada from 2005, where she received the Diploma of Contortion and Circus Arts in 2008 and a minor in

Chinese pole Chinese poles are vertical poles on which circus performers climb, slide down and hold poses. The poles are generally between in height and approximately in diameter. Some poles have a slightly larger pole that rotates around the static central ...

dancing.

Works

From 2008 to 2010, Franco worked exclusively with Cirque Éloize as a contortionist. In 2011, she moved to London to work as a freelance artist in

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises * ...

s and

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

s such as The Box Soho, Cafe de Paris, Supperclub,

The Old Vic Tunnels The Old Vic Tunnels was an underground arts venue and performance space beneath London Waterloo railway station. The space consisted of almost 30,000 square feet of unused railway tunnels. It officially opened its doors for the first time in 20 ...

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

and at various shows with the old Boom Boom club (now Boom and Bang Circus) in

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

, London. Since 2013, she has participated in the show Little Big World by Sebastiano Toma in Germany. Additionally, she worked in the show Dummy at Chameleon Theatre as a replacement.

Awards and career highlights

*2013

– 3 World records *2013 UK Circus Meximus – finalist *2012

– semi-finalist *2012

– semi-finalist *2012 Stoli UK Original's – winner, subject of the documentary produced by Stoli, directed by Martin Smith *2011 SolyCirco Festival GOP – Star of Tomorrow Award *2011

– solo dancer for

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

with the rock group

Yüksek Sadakat Yüksek Sadakat is a Turkish rock band that was formed in 1997 by Kutlu Özmakinacı, but became popular in early 2006 with their first album with the same name. The founder and bass player Kutlu Özmakinacı, used to be the editor of a music mag ...

*2010 Cirque du Demain Paris – Coup de Coeur Award for Leilani and Sancho duo,

bboy Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (women), is a style of street dance originated by African Americans and Puerto Ricans in The Bronx borough of New York City. Breakdancing consists mainly of ...

and contortionist

Personality

Franco is currently attending BA Contemporary Media Practice at the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

and is expected to graduate in the summer 2014. There she experiments her advanced potentials in performance by blending and integrating different media arts such as film-making, new media, installations with contortion. While she studies different media voluntarily in the academic field, she also shows her interests in expanding her artistic field. She has founded a production company, Twisted Arthouse, and is producing and starring in her upcoming film project.

References

External links

"Leilani Franco" on IMDb"Leilani Franco" on Guinness world records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Franco, Leilani Contortionists British circus performers 1986 births Living people