European Aerial Dance Forum Part 2

European Aerial Dance Forum

Corn Exchange, Brighton, England

August 2010

One plane ride.  One bus ride. Once in Brighton, thought about walking to this mysteriously located Corn Exchange….thought again….taxi.  So nice to see the amazing Fred Deb’ and her aerial ‘bouncer’ hubbie, Jacques!  I am shacking up with a fab Scottish circus rigger (Jonothan), my best pal (Anita), Fred and Jacques, and Lee the flamboyant harness boy.  Cool 4 bedroom flat.  Gotta love it….at least until you find out it is on the fourth floor.  Thought I was in shape.  Hhhh hhhh hhhh hhhh hhhh….who needs air….I think this damn luggage weighs at least 2000 pounds!

Day 1:  Warm up….not much of a warming effect but then again, it is chilly, chilly for this Southern gal.

Advanced Fabric:  oy….this fabric is strrrrrrrreettttccchhhhhhyyyyy.  Am I at the top YET!?!  Sure to end up with a hand like a claw.  Pretty.

Harness:  hey….that gri gri is getting fresh with me!

Hoop:  Hey…this is hard…no really….this circle of steel is PAINFUL!

Fabric Rep:  woo hoo!  This is a blast!  I love learning aerial choreography!

Day 2:  Warm up….still not much of a warm up.  An hour of occasional movement is not enough for me especially when I prefer to stay in bed in the morning hours.

Advanced Fabric:  I love walking down fabric upside down….had a little issue with the hands free version….fabric in the wrong place….became a real crotch shiner.  Um, a little uncomfortable.

Harness:  So much fun….face up handstands and fanny wraps!

Hoop:  We had the chance to work on a small combination.  So much more fun than static hoop/lyra!  We walked right over the top and flipped back around.  Gee, wish I had longer legs.  Sucks being short!

Fabric Rep:  Started breaking down the first half of the combination.  Worked on a hands-free, free fall backwards.  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Day 3:  Warm up…..Pilates Neanderthal teaching.  Bad class.  Bad exercises.  He was pleasant but an utter idiot when it came to movement.

Advanced Fabric:  Added the ‘meathook’ warm up from hell.  I live for this shit!!!!

Harness:  cartwheels, cartwheels, cartwheels….thank God I didn’t eat much of a snack today!

Hoop:   a pullover so the joint went straight up my arse.  Gotta rework this one! Cough, cough.  Ouch!

Fabric Rep:  a creative display of the combination.  Not my fav.

Day 4:  Warm up….jumped ship from one class to another.  I joined Fred Deb’ in her class.  Whew!  A real warm up!  Finally!

Advanced Fabric:  My hands are toast.  It is freezing outside and inside (and it is still August, crazy!) and my hands aren’t responding.  I kept slipping off the fabric.  Tried warming my hands in front of a lamp.  A little better but not great.

Harness:  Flips and cartwheels.  Crazy fun!

Hoop:  Another addition to the joint up da ass combo.  Love this!  Also improv-ed with Jess from Ireland.  We were a fab, flipping mess!

Fabric Rep:  Cut out early because of  creative interpretation of someone else’s choreography.  Needed more practice before performance and since my hands resembled claws and no longer hands….thought it was a good time for an exit.

Overall impression of this Aerial Dance Forum:  Thumbs up!  I met some very talented and amazing peeps!  Hope to cross their path in the future!

Next stop:  London and home!

Travel to the European Aerial Dance Forum

Photo by Jonothan Campbell

European Aerial Dance Forum

August 2010

Brighton, England

Off with the subtly of a tsunami….this is the way I seem to travel.  I am doing more of it, travel, than ever before in my life but still lack any kind of finesse.   Some sort of clothing/toiletries shoved in a bag.  Check.  Passport.  Check. Child/dog/cat taken care of.  Check.  Studio under control and able to function without it’s owner. Check.  Off I go!  Tumble into the hired car and zaroom!

Perplexities of travel.  What terminal?  Of yeah, my first time flying British Airways.  Terminal D.  Checked in and bags on their way to the appropriate airplane.  Security next.  My turn.  I can’t seem to understand the security officer.  I think he must be hosting a bag of marbles in his mouth.  I get:  grummm inumm wenum Hollywood stuntman mennums roidum check out my myspace page.  Oy.  Then he proceeds to make a fist and aim it in my direction.  Uh oh, what to do.  So I offer him my knuckles (I have seen this on TV once or twice….hoping it’s not misread and I end up in jail).  Knuckle bump it was.  Odd but fun.

Computer out.  Shoes off. Liquids in a bag, out.  Ready to go through the metal detectors.  The gal before me (my friend and travel companion, Anita) walks through and the security officer yells Gryfindor.  My turn.  The officer yells Ravenclaw.  Ravenclaw?  Who would have thunk? Then he proceeds to knuckle bump me.  Another knuckle bump?  What’s next?

Hmmm, this is gonna be a good trip!

Ok….it’s a weekly thing

Well, this idea of writing when something big happens doesn’t seem to work.  You see…something ‘big’ happens and I don’t have time to write.  Ok, I am too tired to write.  That is what you get when you live in the physical realm.  So….new goal:  writing a little every week that I can.  Ah, very vague.  Yes.  That is me.   Vague.

So, what has this year held so far?  Classes, classes, classes….We have increased our classes.  More fabric classes.  That seems to be what most want.  I love fabric work so no problem!  Meanwhile, I am choreographing on dance trapeze for my company, Vault.  In March I choreographed on pole for my burlesque company, Gems of Vaultease.  I have also become a Gyrotonic® Level 2 Pre Trainer, trained heavily in double point trapeze, and fabric.

Here’s a little teaser pic from my piece, Blau.  This will be performed at DiverseWorks Artspace May 13-15 and 20-22, 2010.  Mark your calendar!

Here’s a little video teaser for my upcoming work!  Enjoy!

2009 at a glance

Ok, I had big hopes of writing regularly.  Oy….failed.  Well, now that we made it into a new decade I will begin the year stating, “I will blog more often this year”.  Let’s see how long it takes before I break this resolution.

2009 in retrospect:

January 2009:  The ‘real’ beginning of my aerial fabric/silks program.  We added it to an already thriving Pilates and GYROTONIC(R) studio.

March 2009:  1 teacher and 2 students….off to Vermont to train in Chinese Pole

May 2009:  Announcement of Vault 6° performance at DiverseWorks May 2010.  A split evening of dance by 2 different new dance companies (Vault=Amy Ell and 6°=Toni Valle)

June 2009:  My second assist to become a GYROTONIC(R)  Master Trainer in London, England

Training at London’s Circus Space

ouch!

Then off to La Baulle, France to study fabric and dance trapeze with the famous Fred Deb’, Jacques Bertrand, and Sarah Poole

Spiraling into a new session

This week the GYROTONIC(R) Houston brood is gearing up for a new round of classes:  Gyrotonic Tower Classes taught by the fab Mary Williams;  Pilates Equipment Classes taught by perky Maria Ayyat; our first Advanced Aerial Dance on silks filled with drops and dangles plus all lower level silk classes for the air born dancer in you no matter your skill set (we work from the bottom up….gotta be safe and uber strong) taught by Emily Jesse, Mechelle Flemming, and little ole me; more trapeze classes as we evolve our newest program offered….and as if that is not enough, we are smack dab in the middle of a Gyrotonic Teacher Training lead by Cori Doetzer (Albany, NY) and assisted by Michelle Spinner (NYC) and yours truly.  My head is spinning….or is that spiraling?  Oy, I get so confused.

blah, blah, blah, blog….

Yup, add one more to the mighty world of blogdom.  I will be a-spoutin’ words.  Hmmm, Gyrotonic, Pilates, Thai Massage/Yoga, dance on the floor, and dance in the air, I figure I have a few topics to blab about.  Sometimes interesting.   Sometimes not.  Just thought it would be fun to chat about my trajectories through space.

To infinity and beyond!     Buzz LightYear