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!