ast week, Jhanys Corrales and Sandy Triana, two of the circus’s high-profile dancers from Cuba, disappeared. It had been a trying few weeks; without a revenue stream, the performers became reliant on handouts from locals to get by. “We have been trying to do things to say thank you, everyone has been so good to us,” said the owner of Big Kid Circus, Biliana Kirilova, 49. “But Jhanys and Sandy didn’t want to take part – they had been finding it very hard in these days and just wanted this to be over.” A day before they went went missing, she said, things became heated. The troupe, had put on free salsa classes as a way of thanking the local community for helping out, but after one session in the early hours, Kirilova heard raised voices. The next morning Corrales and Triana were gone. Those left behind describe the events leading to the disappearances and their own concerns about being marooned hundreds of miles away from home without end. Since then, there has been a plea on social media for their safe return and an urgent appeal from Lancashire constabulary, but no sighting of the pair. “We know they are safe now and they are still here in Morecambe,” said Kirilova, who runs the circus with her husband, Kiril. “I think … they just had enough of living like this.” The group, which is made up of several different nationalities including Romanian, Bulgarian, Cuban, Chilean and Moroccan as well as British, range from Alexandru, aged two, to his 91-year-old great-grandmother and former contortionist Doreen Enos. Most arrived in the UK a month before the start of the tour and would normally travel across the country performing in front of thousands of people. However, they became rooted to the Lancashire seaside town. Most of them were unable to claim government support without UK or EU citizenship. They became reliant on the charity of locals who began to donate food parcels and clothes. In return some members of the circus started volunteering at the local food bank. Michael Mota, a former hydraulic engineer from the central Cuban city of Camagüey and now a gymnast and skater, became emotional recalling the hardship of becoming stranded and the embarrassment of having to rely on handouts. “Mentally, it has been so hard. We are proud people and it has been hard for us to accept charity – we want to work for our money, we are not beggars.” The 31-year-old supports his mother and two children back at home in Cuba. “At first we thought it would only last for three weeks but then it went on and on and we started to struggle. We could not have survived without the people of Morecambe,” he said. Food parcels came first. Then came the clothes for the performers, who had only packed one suitcase each, and toys for the children. Meanwhile, officials also did their part, with Lancaster city ouncil providing the group with electricity, running water and rubbish collection. Olympia Posirca, the circus ringmistress, who is currently living in a caravan with her husband and two young children, Alexandru, two, and four-year-old Amalia, said her children had learned to ride on the scooters and bikes donated by Morecambe locals. “We were worried about how people would react – what if they didn’t want us here … sometimes we go to places and they switch our water off – but it didn’t happen. Every day people would walk past and bring us something: food, clothes. I’ve always liked Morecambe, had a fondness for it, but even more now. We’ve been so lucky,” the 31-year-old said. Posirca, who is originally from Rotherham, is the 14th generation of her family to be born into the circus. Her mother, Pam Enos, and 91-year-old grandmother, Doreen, have spent lockdown with the troupe, while her father, who is in his 70s, is stranded in Hungary, where he was working as a clown. Posirca said financial worries have cast the darkest cloud over the group. Without any government support the circus owners, financial dire straits, have been trying to pay them weekly but it has been nominal. “Kiril and Biliana have done as much as they can. They are like parents to many of us – they have tried, but there is only so much they can do. The funny thing is we pay tax but because we don’t pay rent, so we fall through the cracks for government support. It’s tough,” she said. “If it hadn’t been for the council letting us stay and the locals giving us food and clothes I’m not sure what we would have done. We are not lazy people, we all want to work but many are on restricted visas. Even so, they have been trying to give something back by volunteering at the food bank.” There is no indication of when they may be able to leave the UK, no clue as to the whereabouts of their missing friends but Kirilova is not giving up hope. From Wednesday this week the group is planning a series of free shows to repay the kindness shown to them by locals before moving on to Workington.