THE bright lights of national television are the latest height reached by a Brockham gymnast.
Kat Would appeared as one of the professionals on BBC reality show Tumble, coaching Eastenders star John Partridge.
The chance to appear in the show in front of a national television audience came out of the blue for the 25-year-old after she had completed a childhood dream by performing with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas last summer.
And though she and John were eliminated in the third week of the show, on August 30, Kat says it was a dream opportunity for her.
"I had just finished with Cirque du Soleil and I was thinking, 'That was my dream, so what now?'" she told the Advertiser.
"Then Tumble came along and it was something completely new and something bigger and better for me."
The show's producers were looking for gymnasts with a performance background and Kat's training – three years of circus school on top of doing gymnastics since the age of five – made her the perfect fit.
For the show, each celebrity contestant was assigned a coach and a professional to perform alongside.
Though she was assigned as John's performance partner, Kat found herself taking on many roles in the course of the show.
"I was a mentor, a coach, a professional, a friend," she said.
"It was difficult, because I think John found it difficult emotionally some of the time, he got upset and frustrated because he was used to picking things up quickly and gymnastics is very difficult.
"You have to fail and fall to learn. But we would find there were times when the coach would explain something and John was getting upset or frustrated and I would have to put myself in his shoes and say, 'This is how it feels when I do it'. That became the best way for us."
Since being eliminated two weeks ago, Kat has continued to perform an opening routine for each week's show alongside the other professionals.
But she admits the weeks of training have taken their toll.
"When we got eliminated and I wasn't training with my celebrity every day my body just collapsed," she said.
"That is when illness came and things like that and I see the guys who are still in the show battling on through illness and tiredness and injuries. They are doing so well."
Kat, a member of the Dorking and Leatherhead Gymnastics Club, discovered she had secured a role in Tumble back in May and she and John underwent eight weeks of training to teach him basic gymnastics before the show began.
Then, as the professional, she often found herself working on the next week's routine before the current week was over.
Despite the hectic schedule, she hopes the show will be renewed but says producers underwent a learning curve with the cast.
She told the Advertiser: "I think they thought it would be like Strictly Come Dancing and the celebrities would be doing backflips by the third week, but gymnastics doesn't work like that.
"You can't move on to the difficult stuff that quickly."
