00:00In the bustling tapestry of Britain, where centuries-old traditions blend seamlessly with modern life,
00:05there exists individuals who march to the beat of their own drum.
00:10Meet the inventors, the dreamers and the eccentrics, whose daily lives are anything but conventional,
00:15as we showcase the vibrant eccentricity that colours the landscape of British culture.
00:21Unconventional Brits invites you to step into the worlds of local legends,
00:25celebrating the delightful diversity that makes Britain truly extraordinary.
00:30Coming up this week, belly dancers, seven-year-old stunt riders and the voice behind some of your favourite animations.
00:43I've been belly dancing for over 20 years and I've been teaching for 21 years nearly now.
00:50A very good friend of mine is Iranian and she taught classes, which obviously I used to attend and enjoy,
01:00and then she moved to Spain so I took her class over and went and got my qualification.
01:05There's hundreds of different types of genres of belly dance, there's not just one.
01:08We teach Egyptian, but there's Turkish, there's Greek, there's Gypsy, there's Gwazi, there's Folkloric and Ballad-y, there's all different styles.
01:18When you're actually dancing, you're not thinking about anything else, not thinking about family and bills and doing the shopping or work or stress,
01:30you can just switch off from everything, which is something that people don't really think about.
01:34But you notice at the end of the class, everybody's mood's shifted. It's really good for de-stressing.
01:38I think it's quite freeing. I didn't think that I would have the kind of physical release from doing belly dancing,
01:50but it's really powerful to just be able to be in the moment and just be focusing on that.
01:58And I've just switched off because I think you don't realise how much you're kind of thinking about what you've done in the day,
02:04what you haven't done, what you need to do next. It's always, my brain's always on the go.
02:09So having actual time that my brain's just calm and just focusing in the session is really powerful for me in terms of calming.
02:21A lot of the ladies like to embrace the outfits. So they will, as you've seen, dress up.
02:26They wear the bedlar, which is the sparkly bra and the sparkly belt and the flowing skirts and the matching veils.
02:35So this, what usually you'll find in Egypt is what they're performing in.
02:38What coins originate from, from when the Gwazi, the gypsies used to dance in the Middle East.
02:44So they would wear their coins to show how popular they were.
02:47So they'd sew their coins like they're tips. And obviously that's over time has created this whole outfit of wearing sparkles and jangles.
02:59It went over to America and then it was a little bit more commercialised and we started to wear more sparkles and glitter and became a little bit more cabaret.
03:08But originally it was the more coins you had, the better dancer you were.
03:12The music is really grounding, really powerful music.
03:22And although it doesn't necessarily have people singing in it always, the music is, the drums are really quite powerful.
03:35And I think that's part of really kind of getting into the moment when you're dancing as well.
03:41That it's quite different to kind of in the day-to-day and what you would hear on the, it isn't music that you would hear on the radio.
03:51Although belly dancing is low impact because you have to focus on keeping part of your body still and then moving another part of your body,
04:01you actually end up really focusing on that and not being able to think about anything else.
04:05And that's been really important for me to be able to switch off.
04:10It's really open to everybody.
04:11So you don't need to be at peak fitness to be able to belly dance.
04:15Some of my ladies are in their 80s.
04:18My eldest lady was in their 90s and she still used to come to class.
04:22So you can really take it at your own level.
04:24As I say, it's not cardio, so we're not jumping about and injuring ourselves and bouncing around.
04:31It's all very low impact, but it's really good core training, which is ideal for females.
04:37So it's engaging your core, all your pelvic muscles and using all those bits that women are gifted with.
04:44Still to come this week, the seven-year-old circus stunt bike rider.
04:53You know, obviously because he loves it that much, I can't stop him and I wouldn't want to stop him.
04:58It was amazing.
05:08We met so many characters from Star Wars, Doctor Who, loads of our friends, didn't we, Dizzy?
05:15Yes, it was brilliant.
05:19My name is Kate Harbour and I have been doing voice work for quite a long time.
05:26Well, actually, technically since I was four.
05:28Oh, yeah, and you got a bit scared because of Darth Vader, didn't you, Pilchard?
05:35Always mucking around with my voice and in the end, having done musical theatre and dancing, singing and all of that,
05:43I then started to specialise, started to get work because I started to do some auditions
05:48and I started to land the roles because I was perhaps a bit versatile.
05:53I was able to change my voice in pitch and tone and inflection, but I always had this sort of energy to tell voice, do stories, you know, tell stories in a very expressive way, shall we say.
06:09I did, I did, I used to do lots of impressions, I suppose I used to do things like Frank Spencer and I can't do that now, I honestly can't remember.
06:17Do you remember, Frank Spencer and then Janet Brown and all of those wonderful, very vibrant characters.
06:24It's a musical, it's a musical thing for me, it's musical notes, so an accent is a musical notes pattern, which I kind of understand, hear it and I can replicate it.
06:36So I found that I had an ability to do that, so I did something about it, started auditioning and started to land the roles and I was just very lucky.
06:45My genuine need to do that, but with truth, you know, be a truthful, a truthful account of that character's story is very important to me because otherwise it's just a silly voice, isn't it?
06:57It's an extension of you, isn't it, really? And, you know, you dig a little bit deeper into yourself and you can find these little things, these little quirks.
07:06But I find that if it starts to tickle your own funny bone, you're kind of onto a winner.
07:13So, yeah, they do tend to tickle my funny bone, especially Dizzy. I think Dizzy in Bob the Builder was very much kind of me at sort of five, I reckon.
07:26Yeah, she's one of my favourites, actually. But, yes, it's quite, it's lovely and it's just funny. I've just carried on doing it.
07:35Where does it end or where does it end?
07:38Never, hopefully. Hopefully I can continue.
07:42Next year, you're coming too. We're dressing you up as Obi Bob Kenobi.
07:50Yeah, with a light spanner.
07:53Sometimes we're in public places most of the time and just when they walk past seeing what he does training outside, they just stop and watch him and, you know, they're walking their dogs and then they're intrigued and they're like, wow, how old is he?
08:06And they don't quite believe what they're watching.
08:10Yeah, they're just standing there.
08:11He had someone yesterday, they were coming in and he was like, are you Pedro? And he was like, yep, yep, I am.
08:14He said that Pedro Pavlov.
08:18And what did you say?
08:19Yes.
08:20Yes.
08:21We're here in South Shields at Planet Circus and this is Pedro Pavlov.
08:25My brother got him his first balance bike at the age of two for his birthday and ever since then he's kind of just flew with it.
08:30And then a couple of years later he got his first revvy, which he'd ride around all day long.
08:34He did a couple of small jumps and as soon as we realised how good he was on a motorbike, that's when we got him the offset, which is the bike he's on now.
08:40I jumped my airbag, ride my bike and I play video games.
08:49I play video games.
08:51Where did you get the idea to ride bikes?
08:54When I first saw Poopa jump.
08:57When you first saw Uncle Peter jumping?
08:59Yeah.
08:59Yeah.
09:00So I've been performing since the age of eight, been riding bikes since I was three and yeah, basically been on bikes and in circus since I was born.
09:10Through generations of my family.
09:12Uncle Poopa has always been my motorbike trainer.
09:16The best.
09:17The best one.
09:18It was one day that my dad brought me a bike back for my birthday and then he had a chat with the lads and then got me training with them.
09:25And just it's been an ongoing thing since then.
09:28And obviously now my nephew's watching me and obviously.
09:31Doing the same.
09:32I was seven when I started training, performing at eight.
09:36And then, like I said, we've got Pedro and Tiago, who's also basically training now.
09:42They go in the Globe when they fancy it, when they ask to go in.
09:45Pedro recently did a couple of shows in the Globe of Speed, which is the, everyone should know it, as the metal cage.
09:52And when multiple bikes go inside and spin around at the same time.
09:55But mainly they've taken to jumping and ramps.
09:58So we're just, yeah, proud to watch them.
10:01And, you know, when they're up for it, they come and, come and, you know, knock on my door.
10:06Knock on the door.
10:06Come on, let's go.
10:07Yeah, we want to jump, we want our bikes.
10:09So it's whenever they feel like it and want to obviously train, they get out and they get on their bikes.
10:14Yeah, Pedro's performed.
10:15He's got his first event in Scarborough this year.
10:17So he'll be joining in OMG Stunt Show.
10:20Obviously, he'll be introduced with our FMX display.
10:24So it'll be between me and him and the other lads.
10:26So it'll be great to have him doing what he does as well and joining in, yeah.
10:30It's definitely nerve-wracking.
10:31I mean, he's come off his bike a couple of times and he's like, mum, I'm fine.
10:34And I'm like, I'm not.
10:35You know, but obviously because he loves it that much, I can't stop him.
10:38And I wouldn't want to stop him.
10:40Yeah, sometimes I'm like, just please take over because I just can't watch anymore.
10:43But no, he is.
10:44He's very good at what he does.
10:45And I see he listens to his uncle a lot into what he has to do, what he should do, what he shouldn't do.
10:50It's incredible to see someone find something that they enjoy that much at such a young age.
10:56I mean, I think you find people at my age that still don't know what they're doing with their life.
11:00And for someone to know at such a young age of what they want to do, you know, it's always been,
11:04man, this is what I want to do.
11:05I want to bike and I want to jump and I want to go on the globe and I want to be like my uncle.
11:08He says he wants to double backflip.
11:10So that's his thing.
11:12Please, no.
11:13I want to do a double backflip.
11:15A double backflip?
11:16I thought it was a single one.
11:18Oh, no, it's getting worse.
11:21I need to backflip first of all for a start.
11:25And then, yeah, he goes on about double backflip.
11:27So hopefully he might be the first English rider to do a double backflip.
11:31Double flip.
11:32It's a long time away, but we'll see how he gets on.
11:35Next week, we'll be keeping cool with an artist who spray painted a mural on her fridge.
11:42My food was coming from a grey cold box.
11:44It wasn't right, you know.
11:46And it just dawned on me, I need to paint that fridge right now.
