You may have noticed that I've been a little quiet on here of late, and as always, there is good reason for that. It's been a challenging year, full of uncertainty. Just about a year ago, I sustained, what has proved to be, a serious shoulder injury in rehearsals for a show. The time imediately after was filled with turmoil, changing plans and getting someone else to cover the show. As time passed it became apparent that my injury was more serious than we first thought. As someone who has been an aerial performer for over 20 years, suddenly not being able to hang by my arms is heartbreaking. It has so many impacts and implications for my life, not least the sudden lack of income, the disapprearance of the endorphins I am accustomed to getting from training.
It has left me, to be quite honest, bereft. This last year has been about trying to understand how to work in the world of circus and theatre without being able to perform my main discipline. It has also been a time of trying to understand what else I might want to do with my time here on earth. A year later, I'm not sure I'm much closer to answering these questions, but I have been able to survive.
As you know, I wrote and directed a bilingual circus theatre show, HMS Stormus, comissioned by the Welsh Outdoor Arts Consortium, and we toured succesffully to festivals the length and breadth of Wales. Directing a show was a new experience, and I learnt a great deal. I have to thank the patience and generosity of my performers- Iago Morgan Jones, Daisy Williams and Ellis Grover, understudy Freya Sophia as well as the support I had from Articulture, Gwen Thompson, Kate Jones, Keith Jones and Adrian.
I spent my time on stilt walking and rigging jobs, including rigging and counterweighting for all the shows in the Windy Van Hooten tent at Shambala festival. It was an immense pleasure to support all the wonderful acts there. Autumn saw a return to my old stomping ground of Sheffield, where I made my debut as a cabaret compere for the Greentop Circus scratch night. It was loads of fun to try out new material there, my halloween themed pumpkin game went down a storm too. I then joined the rigging team for their full rigging inspections. It was great to see systems put in place back when I was head rigger, working really well and how settled in the new team are. I also enjoyed dropping in for a week and not having the ongoing responsibility in the busy centre.
Currently I'm touring as a stage manager for a show about Sophia Duleep Singh- a rebel indian princess, womens rights campaigner and suffragette. The show, created by Scary Little Girls theatre company and commissioned by the Royal palaces is touring schools in the midlands in November. I am also rigging for a particpatory project for the opening ceremony of Bradford City of Culture, which has been a heart warming and fulfilling role, giving members of the public, including those with additional needs, the opportunity to fly in harnesses for the first time.
Which brings me to "What next?" I have a few creative projects up my sleeve for 2025, including making my debut as a circus director for Cimera Syrcas' new show Gorjys. I am also intending to return to Berlin to continue my study in Devised Theatre and Performance at Arthaus Berlin. Beyond that, plans are uncertain, I am still waiting for more information about my shoulder injury and to see if surgery is a viable option. I am back doing a small amount of strength training, but it is unclear when or if I'll be back properly in the air. For now, I'll continue to explore options and see what comes my way.
Howl! Performances have been going well with the show bedding in nicely. We have some more dates coming up before summer comes to an end. If you haven't seen it yet then come along.
Mae perfformiadau wedi bod yn mynd yn dda, a dwi'n mwynhau gwneud y sioe. Mae gennym fwy o ddyddiadau yn ddod i fyny cyn i'r haf ddod i ben. Os nad ydach i weld eto, dewch draw.
Eisteddfod Genedlaithol Cymru 10 & 11 Aug/Awst https://eisteddfod.wales/programme
Awen Trust, Bryngarw Country Park 30 Aug/Awst https://www.bryngarwcountrypark.co.uk/whats-on/
Span Arts, Scolton Park 31 Aug/Awst https://span-arts.org.uk/whats-on/
Commissioned by Wales Outdoor Arts Consortium.
The what? I hear you ask, The Eisteddfod, something, being Welsh, I thought everyone knew about. Apprently not, many of my friends had never heard of the Eisteddfod, well, it is Wales' largest cultural festival and I learned this year that it is also the largest touring festival in Europe. It is 2 weeks of competitions, presentations and performances in singing, dancing, poetry, theatre, spoken word, music and much much more, alongside the compeitions there are bands, stalls, networking events, workshops and this year, for the first time, a large scale, outdoor contemporary circus show.
The show was dreamed up by the directors of The Eisteddfod, along with circus producer Zoe Munn and made in collaboration with Gorilla Circus. With a cast of 3 Welsh and 3 non Welsh artists the show was set to a specially commissioned poem by Wales' Childrens Poet Laureate, Casi Wyn. Casi performed the first part of the poem live from on top of an upturned car at 10m high, whilst myself and felow artist Kelsy Bell descended on ropes from inside the car to gasps from the crowd.
The show continued with an excellent hair hanging solo by Poppy Plowman, Counterweighted Trapeze and Hoop by Ophelia Atkinson and Daisy Williams, and me on rope. Then came the undisputed highpoint of the show, a high wire walk by Ellis Grover, the crowd holding their breath as he made his way across. The grand finale saw all the performers spinning on a carousel and big jets of flame!
The show was a great success, and as a Welsh performer, a real honour to be a part of something new at our largest cultural festival. Diolch yn Fawr!
It was so lovely to do my first performance in my new locality earlier this year, at the Highland Bagpipe Championships. I also felt like I'd definitley been accepted by Scotland! For you non-Scots there is a longstanding tradition of Bagpipe bands in Scotland and there are gatherings where bands compete. The bands consist of a number of bagpipers and drummers and they create and amazing sound and spectacle.
I was there with Moray Flying Circus to provide some light relief from the competitions by doing walkabout, aerial shows and circus workshops.
The day dawned fair and we had a great time on the walkabout sets with those who had already competed and their supporters in a relaxed and generally buoyant mood. The shows went well, with Ruaraidh starting with a dance trapeze solo, followed by my rope act and then Emma and Rachael doing doubles hoop. Our second show coincided with a break in the competitions so we persuaded a couple of young pipers to play along with our show.
All in all a lovely day!
This year I was drawn to a small festival organised by the Landworkers Alliance- The Land Skills Fair. It is a festival that focuses on land, food and climate justice. It is a medly of workshops, talks, music, performances and networking. Going there to perform combines my work life and my hobbies and passions.
So, along with Daisy Black of Gossamer Thread Circus we created bespoke aerial and spoken word performances on the themes of nature connection, climate, seasons, ecology and folklore. Writing and creating the piece was a very enjoyable creative endeaver, and I was keen to see how it was received by the audience. Daisy used some material from a film project she made during lockdown, adapting a part of it for live performance, as part of a larger project to be realised in 2023.
Both rope performances, they sat together beautifully and our short shows were well received by the very lovely audiences. It was, as ever a challenge to perform outside- we were rained off on Friday, but the weather held for Saturday and Sunday.
One of the things I do sometimes, is deliver text live while doing aerial, which can be a challenge for numerous reasons. On this occaision, because of being outside at a festival with background noise, I used a headset radio microphone, which of course brings its own problems, not least, where put and how to secure the battery pack and how to keep the headset on your head whilst going upside down and moving dynamically! In this case the wind also presented a challenge, as, the higher up you are, the windier it is, and the microphone was picking up the wind noise, which was a little distracting.
Despite this, the shows went well, we had fun and received good feedback on the performances. We are hoping to develop this into a full show to tour next year, and bring in Daisy's existing dream for the larger project- watch this space.
https://www.landskillsfair.com/
https://gossamerthreadcircus.weebly.com/
It's been a while since I updated my news, because it has, as ever, been a busy summer, and I'm not complaining! July saw me heading south into England, firstly to be a rigger for Farrell Cox's new show- Ambivalence. She played two venues- Northern Stage in Newcastle and Derby Theatre. I have worked with Farrell as a performer and rigger quite a bit these last years, mostly through The Gramophones Theatre's shows- Tarzanna and Aidy the Awesome. It felt really good to be supporting Farrell on her journey with this brave aurobiographical show- about living with psychosis and as a black queer woman navigating the world. It combines these narratives with aerial, dance and text, and Farrell delivers a powerful and moving performance.
The rigging was fairly straightforward for me, just a lifting system for a hoop and aerial plastic. I actually Iove getting in the roofs of theatre's and seeing what their grids look like, I often remember the grid more than the rest of the theatre if I rig in there.
Anyway I look forward to seeing how it develops and to her touring the show further afield. You can find out more about Ambivalence on the link below.
https://www.farrellcox.com/menu
This spring I am on tour with a brilliant aerial theatre show called Aidy The Awesome. Aimed at 3-12 year olds it has been dreamt up by the brilliant team at The Gramophones theatre and is an empowering tale of super hero grannies and their grandkids, in families where the super powers are passed down the female line. It is full of fun, stunning visual effects, stunts and comedy.
The show is played on and aroud a bespoke rig, and, on this tour I am in charge of it. It is probably the most comlex aerial rig I have ever been in charge of and its been a good challenge to rise to. We are now part way through the tour, the shows have been really well received and the team are realy getting to grips with the rig. I wasn't sure how happy I would be, being on tour but not being in the show as I often tour as a performer and rigger in the same production. While I wouln't want to always do it like this, I'm quite enjoying not being quite so busy on tour and not having the pressure of having to do a show or three in every place, its fun, and I have the extra time to explore the places we are going.
You can find our remaining tour dates and promo video here:
It was a busy year for Music of the Spheres performances, and I enjoyed spending more time on this performance. If you've not read about this before, It is an incredible and unusual performance that I feel very fortunate to be a part of. It is an ethereal duet between an aerial dancer- myself and flute player Simon De Sorger. I am inside a giant inflable sphere that floats on the water, Simon performs inside a smaller sphere on the land, with Lawrence Casserly providing live musical effects, the piece is called The Water Cycle and is imporvised between us.
Our grand finale this year was at the prestigeous Greenwich and Docklands International Festival. The site was pretty incredible, a semi deserted dockland with Canary wharf and the city seen in the distance, with a distopian feel. Spheres shows are always interesting with the variables of the site and the weather conditions, and this one was no exception! The site was already windy which can be problematic, so the decision was taken to use the smaller Sphere- 24ft instead of 36ft. It means I just have an aerial hoop in there rather than silks, but it meant we had a much higher chance of the shows going ahead. The weather gods shone on us in the end though and the wind wasn't too strong, we got three shows in. I am totally reliant on the team from Colourscape, headed up by Izzy Linley to keep me safe, and because of the size of the body of water this time, the rescue boat crew, it is an exercise in trust.
Music of the Spheres is one of my favourite performances, once inside the Sphere on the water it is magical, I enjoy the sensations, the water wooshing below, the sphere moving and bobbing on the water, floating. It is a fully elemental experience and for the audience and us performers really is an show like no other.
https://www.eyemusic.org.uk/spectacularevents/spectacularevents/spheres.php
https://www.eyemusic.org.uk/audiovideo/audiovideo.php
I was lucky enough to be cast in a new show with Rowanbank Environmental Arts Education. The show "Positive Imaginings" was the most ambitious of the company to date, is a site-specific circus theatre show about the climate crisis for children. It was challenging and rewarding, and I loved working with the team of 3 other performers- 2 musicians and 2 circus performers and director Rachael McIntyre. We devised the show, using ground work already done by the company with a school local to the site- Craigmillar Castle Park in Edinburgh. We wove a tale with magical charecters in the woods- I was "Gwynt" which is Welsh for wind, a kind of magical woodland sprite, I lived in the woods as part of nature and observed the world of humans with curiosity. The performance used aerial circus, narrative, text and live music and culminated in a children's climate assembly where the audience had the opportunity to express their ideas for a positive climate future. All transport to and from rehearsals and performances was, in line with the subject matter of the show, by bicycle or public transport.
The company is now seeking funding to tour this show in 2022.
To find out more about this show and to see the promotional film and a mini-documentary about the making of the show take a look at the Rowanbank Environmental Arts Education Website:
https://www.rowanbank.org.uk/positive-imaginings
A lot of work goes in behind the scenes on gathering support for new projects, and as every fund is hugely competitive these days, it can be a bit of a demoralising process. However, when you do gain support, it is hugely satisfying. So this year I have been trying to develop "Who Do They Think They Are?" the scratch performance created for Sisterhood of the Ring, an event about women and BAME performers in circus. Our show was commissioned by Professor Vanessa Toulmin who curated the event, and is an exploration of identity, being a female performer and how circus has shaped our lives.
I applied for the Victoria Works New Work and Artist Support fund as I have been wanting to explore further the subject matter for this show, develop it and hope to tour it in the near future. We spent a week in the space, working on stories, text, movement, counterweighting, dancing and thinking about what we want out of this performance.
The week was also really valuable for us to deepen our relationship as an ensemble and was hugely enjoyble. I hope to be able to announce further develpoment soon!
https://beinghumanfestival.org/university-of-sheffields-the-sisterhood-of-the/