June scratch night

Last month I took part in my second scratch night with Aerial Edge.  This time I went for a much more emotive and dance-like routine to Sia's Elastic Heart.

As with any routine, there's some things that need to be worked on, but overall I'm really happy with it.  I was hugely nervous about doing something this emotionally charged in public but it went down really well and people seemed to really enjoy it.  The difference between this one and my first performance routine last November is amazing, and I'm proud of the progress I've made.

Best of all, my teacher told me afterwards that he was proud of me.  He's by no means a negative teacher, but he won't bullshit you so when he says that you know he means it, which makes it a great feeling to hear praise like that :)

The full routine can be seen here.  Unfortunately there were some sound issues so the track isn't playing exactly as it should, but you can get the idea.

Strength progression

Going to class week in, week out, it can sometimes feel like you're stagnating rather than progressing.  Even though I was learning new moves, I wasn't really feeling like I was actually getting better, or stronger.  Every week I dutifully went through all the conditioning set by the teacher without it feeling like it was getting any easier.  Sure, some conditioning is a breeze (front balance raises are great when you have a naturally bendy back!), and some was showing some slow improvement (my beats have gone from jerking backwards and forwards a few inches to strong enough that I can actually adjust my hand position on the back beat), but most of the key exercises weren't getting any better.  In particular, my two nemesis exercises...

Pull ups and leg lifts.

Yup, two of the most important strength exercises for trapeze and I a) hate them, and b) am crap at them.  I could just about drag through five assisted pull ups, and can get my legs halfway up from hanging, but full leg lifts were out of the question.  This has knock on effects - it makes getting up to pike under the bar harder, and going from hang to front balance almost impossible.

But now...something has changed.  I'm still nowhere near good at either of them, but I'm starting to feel the improvement.  With pull ups this is because I've actually started working on them.  Instead of just doing the minimum required for conditioning, I'm doing them at home.  My poor pull up bar has been sitting in the door frame for months almost unused, and now there's daily use.  Admittedly, I can only get through two with (almost) proper technique before I can't get myself back up without leaping off the floor, but that's two more decent pull ups than I could do even three weeks ago!

I don't look like this doing pull ups.  Yet.
Photo found here

Leg lifts are still a lot harder, but we seem to have isolated the issue with them.  I have a naturally bendy lower back - it doesn't go straight unless I really focus and put it there.  Turns out this is a bugger for leg lifts and makes them even bloody harder.  However, now that I'm aware of this I can now get two lifts past the horizontal before my technique goes to pot and I collapse in a heap.

The best part of all this, of course, is the noticeable improvement in my actual trapeze!  We were given a couple of moves at class on Thursday that my instinctive reaction to was "lolnope".  First up was going from hang to pike under the bar without beating.

OK, so I cheated a tiny bit and pulled my legs into a teensy back beat, but I was very close to getting through without needing to kick off the bar :D  Considering I usually go for a full beat (forward, back, up) to get into pike, getting there with just the mini-cheat-beat was an amazing moment.

We were then given two transitions out of crucifix - through to angel, and over to front balance.  Going to angel is the easier of the two as you don't have to move from the crucifix position.  It's a similar transition to going to star, and once I'd figured out the hand/leg placements it was a lot easier than I'd anticipated.  Crucifix to front balance is something I'd tried before, and failed miserably at.  I couldn't get my feet near the bar, let along over it!  Then on Thursday...voila!  I pushed my feet off the ropes on the way through, but even as I was doing it I was very aware that I didn't need to be - it was a comfort rather than a necessity.  Definitely a safety blanket I need to give up...



It's definitely an amazing feeling when you realise that you are actually progressing, and only makes me want to work harder.

Show time!

And a mere month later...I'm finally back!

It's been a completely frantic few weeks getting the show together, but we finally pulled it all together at the tech rehearsal.  Admittedly the day before the show, but still better than the day after!

Cast shot by Christopher Reynolds (@chrisreyn59 on Instragram)

The whole process was completely mental.  Devised theatre is like nothing I've ever done before, and goes completely against how I work.  I'm a geneticist, I like logical processes and knowing exactly what's happening and where I'm going.  A devised ensemble circus show involves not having a bloody clue what's going on at any point until the absolute last minute, working things out as you go, and essentially a lot of chaos.  Rehearsals were less what I think of as a traditional rehearsal and more playing with new techniques to see what works and who works together.

I spent a lot of my time doing things like this:

Lots of back-bending and chest stands.  When I'm asked what I'm good at, this is what I end up doing...

Initially my character was a bookish student, in the first scene I was meant to be having coffee with a friend but kept going back to my book, with lots of acro.  For various reasons though, I ended up spending most of my time onstage as a Buff Grrl - a take on the stereotypical circus strongman.  This involved a lot of posing, a lot of posturing, and some amazing costumes.  Red and white striped, skintight body suits.

Three of us acting as Buff Grrls, holding up the teeny tiny director

As exhausting as the whole thing was, it was still a brilliant experience.  I've got a whole list of new skills - chest stands (which I discovered I could do a week before the show and then wouldn't stop doing), various assisted walkovers, better handstands than I've done in well over a decade - and I've pushed my flexibility even further with splits, backbends and chest stands.  Most impressively, I based a two-high for the first time in my life (literally basing the flier for the first time at the tech rehearsal...), but haven't found any pictures of that yet.

Hopefully more pictures with me in will appear over the next few weeks, but I've pretty much exhausted my stock now.

The show may have gone well this time, but that doesn't mean the fun stops here!  Next up is a scratch night on June 6th when I'll be performing solo on the trapeze.  I've got a routine ready, but it needs a lot of work and I have no ideas for a costume yet.  Then Circ:Us is getting a second showing at the Merchant Festival in Glasgow at the end of July.  We might have the bare bones of the show from the first time round, but the plan is to make it bigger and better.  My original character is being scrapped in favour of my Buff Grrl.  Which means I am going to end up doing a whole load of work through the whole show, and really need to work on looking a bit more, well, buff...

By @chrisreyn59

Panic Stations!

One of the things I pride myself on with trapeze is my ballsiness.  I love being up high, I love drops, I love learning things that look utterly terrifying, and I tend to be one of the first in a class to fling their hand up going "memememememememe" when the teacher offers to teach us something exciting.  Hocks dismount?  Yes!  X-man drop to cloth?  Let me up there.  Star on the bar to hocks?  Any time.

So it came as a bit of a shock when I froze in my class on Thursday.  We had been set a challenge of from sitting facing one way to facing the other in as few moves as possible, without simply swinging legs over or lifting up and turning around.  As soon as this was set I knew exactly what I was going to do - a Bucking Bronco.  This involves sitting on the bar in a straddle, putting one hand to the opposite thigh on the bar palm forwards and the other hand palm backwards (so your wrists are crossed with palms in different directions).  You then tip forward, go down and beat back up to a straddle facing the other way, and up to sit you go.  Simple.  I've done it before.  And yet...

For a good twenty minutes I sat on the bar unable to go for it.  I tipped forwards a couple of times, then brought myself back to a sit.  It got to the stage where I almost got the teacher to shove me off the bar with a stick.  I think he was also almost to the point where he wanted to (in between pissing himself).

Finally I did manage to get myself to go for it.  I didn't manage the beat back up because I got down and forgot there was another bit involved.  Of course, the second I dropped to the ground he sent me back up to do it again (which I was going to do anyway, since once is a fluke).  The second attempt didn't take anywhere near as long, and I did it again at the end of class much more quickly.  Getting back up didn't happen smoothly in any of the attempts, but I was mostly impressed that I went from screaming, to loud swearing, to quiet swearing.

I'm still not 100% sure why I had such a problem going for it.  Admittedly, the first time I learnt it I fell of the trapeze - it was on a doubles bar and I didn't straddle wide enough so my heels hit the pegs and I let go of the bar in shock.  However, I got back on and did it again successfully so it wasn't like I feel off then hadn't done it again.

I do think there was a slight aspect of not trusting my arms to catch and hold me.  I have this a little with rolling forward from stand to sit where I'm not totally sure I can hold myself.  Of course this is ridiculous.  I'm happy inverting in the ropes (kinda arm heavy that...), can hold an eagle no problem, and my objection to flag is the pain more than the holding.  I'm also fine going forwards from a front balance to either hang/beat, catchers or to (attempt) belly spins.  So going off the bar forwards isn't a particular issue.

While I can't say I enjoy that level of fear on a trapeze, it was probably good for me.  It's helpful to have that feeling every so often to remember what it's like, and now I know that even if I'm scared I can push through to get the move.

Plus it was hilarious ;)

Circ:us

Promo time for Aerial Edge's (and my!) first ensemble show :D

From the Facebook page:

"Circ:us is a glimpse of a community made up of different characters with normal, everyday lives and social roles. 

Their typical actions are subverted, made more exciting, and amplified by the addition of circus movements and disciplines to show how extraordinary the ordinary can be."

I'm hugely excited to be part of this - not only is it an amazing opportunity for me personally, it's a new phase for Aerial Edge and looking to be a wonderful show.  We're working incredibly hard on it, and it's shaping up to be a great couple of evenings.

Part of the preparations for the official announcement was a photo shoot last weekend to get a good shot for the publicity.  Based on the theme of the show the director went for a group shot with a combination of everyday activities and circus.  The shoot was also in the gorgeous hall in the Briggait in Glasgow where we'll be performing, and since, for once, it wasn't pouring with rain, the lighting was beautiful for it.  I ended up reading a book - whilst in a bridge.  I'm quite happy in bridges, but since I don't normally do them on cold concrete my wrists were pretty uncomfortable by the end of it.  Despite that, it was great fun to do (since I've never had a proper photo shoot before), and the shot finally chosen to represent and promote our show is lovely:

Photo by Jamie McFadden

Circ:us will be on May 8th and 9th at the Briggait in Glasgow, tickets available soon.  For further information, and updates on ticket sales etc, please join the Facebook event here!  

Introduction post

I first started aerial arts around two years ago, when I was 23.  I don't have a background in gymnastics, or dance (beyond classes I stopped before I was 10), or circus, or anything else that might be associated with taking to the air.  Although generally active, my sports were horse riding, running and hockey - all a very different idea to flailing around in the air.

In my final year of my undergraduate degree I decided I wanted to try aerial silks.  A friend of a friend took classes with Aerial Edge in Glasgow (where I was at the time) so I went along to an aerial silks class with them.  It was HARD.  So hard.  There was no way I was making it to the top of the silks, and I left the class feeling like death.  But I was hooked!

I kept going with the weekly classes, and in September of that year decided to go along to the Edinburgh Aerial and Acro Convention (EAAC).  Although concentrating on silks, I took the opportunity to try out different apparatus, and after an hour on a static trapeze I had fallen completely in love.  Something about the it and the way I had to work on it clicked in my head and I ended up rearranging my weekend schedule to fit in a second class.

By this stage I had moved to Edinburgh for my PhD but I continued travelling over to Glasgow to train with AE.  Adding trapeze into my schedule I took two classes a week for a month or two, before developing a horrible cold that completely skewed my balance.  Heading back after Christmas I only went to my trapeze class, and I've never looked back!

2014 was a mixed bag for me aerial wise.  I developed a problem with the tendon connecting my tricep to my elbow which had me grounded for six weeks in the summer.  Upping my training for EAAC 2014 aggravated it, and although my excellent physio taped me up to get me through that weekend it resulted in me taking another month off afterwards.  Rest healed it up, and I was back to classes!

It was around then that Aerial Edge started asking for people to volunteer for performing in a scratch night.  A scratch night is a chance to show people work in progress, so seemed like the ideal way to dip my toe into the world of performance.  In four weeks I managed to create a routine to We Both Reached For The Gun from Chicago, pull together a costume and figure out how to do my own makeup.  That song is LONG people.  It goes on forever.  Despite being completely terrified and almost pulling out 30 seconds before I went on, it went really well and I loved every moment of it!

So where am I now?  I've signed up for the new Aerial Edge Performance Group which had it's first rehearsal last Friday.  We've got a show on May 8th and 9th, so five weeks to develop and perfect it.  This is a totally new world for me - I have no performance background aside from school plays, and definitely have never done devised theatre.  In addition to this I won't be doing any aerial work so am quickly learning basic groundwork and acro.  The whole thing is both hugely exciting and completely terrifying, dragging me so far out of my comfort zone I don't even know where I am.  Luckily I have reasonably decent flexibility (aka I can pretty much do the splits and have a pretty nice bridge) so at least that's something...

I can't wait to see where all this leads!