AN ACROBATIC dance group from Castle Bromwich made it to the semi-finals of ITV show Britain’s Got Talent – and survived a live TV comical mishap when a crew member mistakenly appeared on stage during a magic trick.
Acrocadabra’s unique performers fuse dance, acrobatics and magic and delivered a series of pulsating performances.
The group consists of 33 schoolchildren from Spotlight Stage School in Birmingham – aged between nine and 17.
They were knocked out in Wednesday’s semi-finals but had made it to the final 40 shortlist beating thousands of other acts.
It recovered from the bizarre mishap when one of the set staff appeared in an illusions big reveal.
The millions of viewers will have seen his shocked expression behind a glass box, from which one of the performers disappeared.
The staff member, Paul Darby, tweeted: “Bad day at work… I was clipping on the little girl who flew. The dancers were supposed to hide me by standing between me and the box but the choreography got changed last minute.
“Guess I didn’t get that memo, The wonders of live TV.”
The group joked on Twitter saying: “We still love Paul the stagehand – the newest member of our AcroCadabra troupe.
“Can he wear a sparkly catsuit next time though?”
Spotlight principal Vicky Richards created the group after seeing the opportunity to take stage acrobatic work and turn it into a choreographed performance with an illusory twist.
The group’s Twitter account said: “Gutted to have gone out, but the performers did their best and we couldn’t be prouder.
“On to the next exciting challenge. Thank you to everyone who’s supported us, we’ll be back.”
The group wowed the competition’s judges with their first audition – prompting gasps with their magical surprises.
Their performances involved vibrant outfits, bright make-up, disappearing acts and a performer being sawn in half.
The group say the children have trained and performed together from a young age, but AcroCadabra was only officially formed last year.
The group first performed at last year’s Dance World Cup in Germany where it won the World Title (17 Years and Under Acrobatic Groups) and were announced as the Best Overall Group in the entire competition.
It has since won other competitions, most notably (TV show Strictly Come Dancing’s) Arlene Phillips’ Best Dance Group when it performed with the dance legend as part of her UK tour.
