Cirque Monti.....

It was Elle's last weekend and the circus just happened to be in town. Unfortuately, we'd had a random night of wine and food at the museum the night before as a leaving party and I was definietely feeling the after effect! However I managed to drag myself out of bed and make it to Bern- and I'm very glad I did!

 Circus Monti was founded in 1984 and still tours each year around Switzerland. Although the show was in Swiss German we had no problem following what was happening and the clowns stories still came across.

 There was ALOT of aerial in this circus- wwhich of course made me happy. (And also made me miss- not long til I'm back though!)

I don't think I've ever seen a doubles act on rope before so this was great. I loved that both women were as strong as each other so there wasn't that clear line of base and flyer it felt like the worked really well togther.

I think it was also my first time in a traditional circus tent too, not as bizarre as I always though it would be. The atmosphere was really nice and it was great to have the live band there too!

Loved it!

This is a circus masterpost..........

Well, today is World Circus Day so I have decided to share with you some of my favourite pictures I have been collecting of various acts.....

One of my personal goals for the year is to be able to touch my head with my feet. At the moment, if I lie on my chest I can get about 6 inches away (ITS GOING TO HAPPEN!) but this lady's bend is crazy and amazing.

And of course I had to add in one of my own, we decided to take a group picture at my acro class, generally as I'm the smallest, I get to do all the high up top bits. There I am on top of my friends shoulders.

Circus antics...

Well, its been a crazy few weeks!
My acrobatic troupe have been devising a new show for a gig we have at my old university!
Each year the students of the Technical Theatre course at RCS have a Grad Show, where they invite industry professionals along to view their work and have a chance to meet.
This years graduates decided they wanted something a little different and asked if Spinal Chord could provide a short circus themed show.

I am actually a graduate from the same course, so it was a little strange for me to be back as part of the performing group rather than a student.

On the Friday went along to help with the set up, rigging the trapeze and silks, making sure everything was ready for our first onstage rehearsal on the Saturday.

I was a little sad I wasn't performing in this one, I was suppose to be but pulled my hamstrings in a rehearsal and had to pull out. I took on more of a stage management role instead, as there was alot of organising and liasing with the students of the course to ensure the show went up.

We opened on the Tuesday night and all seemed to go well, the audience enjoyed it, the pyrotechnics went off in the right place.....
Heres a wee sneak peak.... (apologies for the photo quality, they are stills from the video camera)

Train train train......

So we have a wee show coming up very soon at Cottiers theatre. Its a cabaret night, so there some aerial, live music and a dj for afterwards dancey times. Its also my debut aerial performance- eeeek!!!

I'm doing a routing in my hammock, its been tough devising it and having the strength to get the through the whole routine without collapsing but I feel like I'm getting there.

Here's a wee sneak peak from my rehearsal video....

Wanna come and see us?

Top of the pyramid!!!

Being small has its advantages.....

Acrobats Galore..

I've kinda abandoned my little blog recently but I have been busy.

A few weekends ago I went to the Acrobatic Convention in Edinburgh. A whole weekend of aerial and acrobalance as well as some other cool stuff to try out! We had people from all over, London, France, Iceland......it was AMAZING!

I did quite a bit of acrobalance and as I was one of the smallest I seemed to get passed around the various tall people to be lifted. Good fun but my poor little arms were bruised afterwards.

I also did some trapeze, silks, more chinese pole and some tightwire (and discovered I am definitely not a natural at walking on thin wire!)

However, one of my highlights of the weekend was Teeterboard! I'd never done it before but after having a taster I'd definitely do it again. Its basically a big see-saw. The flyer stands at one end and you have two people who run and jump on the other which sends you up in the air. Its quite tiring when your doing the runnng and jumping part but I really enjoyed it when it was my turn to fly- heres a little video of my somersault... YAY! ( i can't seem to turn it round so its on its side)

House Climbing and Ankle Hanging....

My circus group had a wee BBQ at our friend Marta's house over the weekend.
Her and her husband are acutally in the process of designing/building their own house at the moment and even the Grand Designs team have been out following it. They've got as far as the foundations and have built the beam structure of the house.
So of course we trapeze ladies couldn't resist having a wee climb!

And a wee bit of that internet phenomenon planking (even though its not a real plank!).... Two of the girls Lauren and Claire did a little bit of fire poi for us. I've tried normal poi and found it hard enough to keep them under control, never mind adding fie into the equation!

As if that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, we did a special doubles trapeze class on the Saturday! Doing various postions and hanging by my ankles- alot of fun!! In most partner work there are two roles- the base (usually the one holding the weight), and the flyer ( the one that hangs). As I'm small, its easier for me to do the flying, but I like to try and base when I can. Some base action..... (Squeeze those abs!!)

Tall ships and circus sailors...

It was the Tall Sips races in Greenock this weekend. I remeber going to see them years ago and I went on a couple of them and had a walk about. They're really cool looking ships!

However one of my main reasons for going was that my circus buddies were perfoming! I was actually suppose to be in this show but as I was going up north I couldn't make the rehearsals, I still went along for support though!

And of course, I couldn't resist having a go too....

Mela...

This weekend was Glasgow's annual Mela festival in Kelvingrove park and my aerial group were on show again.

On the Saturday we took all our equipment to the park and set up for class there. It was kinda weird doing class in front of passers by but its good promotion for the company and give people a chance to see what we do.

On Sunday we did two perfomances, despite the torrential rain. Our theme this year was zombie pirates! The girls put some amazing make up and costumes together, and to be hinest I was a little jealous I didnt get to be a zombie!
I wasn't acutally perfoming on the aerial equipment this time, so I done a little bit of acrobalance with some of the kids that do our youth classes. As this was their first time performing Rodolfo wanted to have someone who could kinda help them and keep them in place, so I was drafted in as an honourary kid! This did invole me being taken captive by our pirates though!

Our queen of the splits-Lauren. (One day mine will be this good, one day......)
Doubles cloudswing... Zombie pirates trying to navigate the treasure... Mags on the spanish web, I was at the bottom beating the rope so it would spin... I'm not entirely sure what Rodolfo was suppose to be but it involed a scary looking mask...
Aaaah the end, completely drenched, feet covered in mud, but alot of fun.....

aerial boot camp!

Aerial boot camp! My aerial class do it every year but I'd always been working and had never able to go so I was very excited this time round! Basically.we take our tents and trapezes to a new location and do some intense training over a lond weekend.
This year, camp was at Strathaven Airfield as one of the woman in the class works/lives there, a brilliant location had the Scottish weather not been involved!!
The aerial is suppose to be done outside on the truss which is covered, howver it was SOOOOO windy that it became almost impossible to get the truss up in the first place. So aerial boot camp became aerial-less boot camp.

Luckily there was backup, our two heroes and a trampoline. Our first hero, Lauren is a gymnastics coach so she took a trampolining class for a couple of hours inside the hanger where they stored all the aeroplanes.

I hadn't done any trampoling before so it was brilliant to have a go and learn lots of different tricks and somersaults.

Our other hero was Felipe, handbalancing extrordanaire who did a couple of classes to help us out with our handstands. My shoulders ached afterwards but I feel like I know the right poition my body should be in, its just a case of being able to control and hold it now.

As the wind really wasn't giving up , the people at the airfield agreed to let us hang the equipment in the hanger with the planes. Finally some aerial work!!!
Part of boot camp is you get the chance to do some new things that haven't come up yet in the normal classes, so I got to do some hoop- which I've always wanted to have a go at and a little bit of single point trapeze. The video is on its side, but you get the idea......






Even though all didn't go to plan I still had a brilliant time at camp. I really enjoyed the handbalancing classes as its something we hadn't really covered properly before. Although my wee body is a bit sore at the moment, it was definitely worth it.