TALK about nerves of steel.

A gymnast will prove she’s got the teeth and jaws to match by dangling by her mouth on a strap of leather from the Pavilion theatre ceiling on Sunday.

Stephanie Bates, from Corfe Mullen, will swing over The Circus of Horrors audiences’ heads in the daring ‘Iron Jaw’ stunt rarely seen in Europe.

The 27-year-old had intensive coaching from Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider trainer, Willie Ramsey, for the trick.

Stephanie said: “When I told Willie what I wanted to do he thought I was crazy.

“No one does the Iron Jaw in the UK because it is such a dangerous thing to be doing.

“It can be quite painful and takes quite a long time to perfect.”

Two or three people perform the act in the US, she says. Stephanie rises through the air holding onto a metal bar, then lets go and swings from a specially made oral extractor gripped in her mouth.

Stephanie, who has dreamed of learning since watching the show in Bournemouth at the age of 17, added: “Everyone thinks it’s your teeth that will hurt, but it’s more your neck.

“You have to tip your head right back and so the pressure goes on your neck and muscles there. You have to be very careful and take it all quite seriously.”

Practising for 10 seconds at a time, she built up to the 90-second performance – but had to have a week off at one point to let her neck heal from the strain.

“It’s not something you often see in theatres now, it’s completely different,” she said.

“One woman was particularly famous for it in America in the 1920s, but it wasn’t that unusual at that time. People just trained and trained until they got it.

“But now, because of the pain, and the time it can take, it’s much rarer.”

Stephanie started her stage career aged 14 as Alice at Adventure Wonderland, Hurn, before becoming a children’s entertainer and a pole dancing exercise teacher.

She then returned to gymnastics and specialises in aerial acts.

Last year Stephanie broke a world record by hanging from a steel hoop attached to her partner’s hair, metres off the ground.