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The Skating Willers: their history in pictures
Jean Pierre Poissonnet, one half of the breathtaking roller-skating act, shares some exclusive photos
The Skating Willers – aka Jean Pierre Poissonnet and Wanda Azzario – are an extraordinary high-speed, gravity-defying roller-skating act who have showcased their talent around the globe. The new season of La Soirée at the Roundhouse marks their thirtieth year performing together – and their last. In this exclusive gallery, Jean Pierre leads us through a life born into circus royalty, a professional partnership that has outlasted divorce and an elephant or two… Words: Ben Walters
The great-grandchild of a circus legend
Picked up from school on an elephant
Working in a children's circus...
... with Fresian horses
Meeting Princess Margaret
Romantic and performing partners
From Madison Square Gardens to China
Performing in 30-degree heat
A right royal ocassion
Farewell to the Skating Willers
The great-grandchild of a circus legend
Jean Pierre Poissonnet was born in July 1960 and, as the first great-grandchild of circus legend Billy Smart, his arrival made the front page of the Daily Record.
His mother – Smart’s grand-daughter Penny – was a trapeze artist and ‘elephant girl’ who married Jean Paul, a French daredevil roller-skater whose act, called The Skating Willers, took its name from the word ‘wheelers’ and was eventually inherited by Jean Pierre.
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