(Photo: Malcolm Mc Gettigan)
It has been a long while since I have had time enough to sit down and put together a new blog. So busy has it been, I've uploaded one photo per each brief computer opportunity until this day came and I could actually write a few words to go with them. It will be short, but better than naught.
News in brief:
I am officially a student of circus and cleft resident of UK and ROI.
After the gigantic whirlwind tornado that was Paperdolls the ABSOLUT Fringe show (overview of which will be written eventually), life raged onwards at high octane speeds, on the motorway to Belfast and straight into a new old life of being a pupil once again. The routine suits me well. I'm working my muscles to new states of tension and length; my belly is a wash board. My brain is dried up and yearning for the descent into winterly hibernation, studiousness, reflection and replenishment. Failing to resist the temptation of working myself to the point of frenzy, myself and Karen Doll jumped at the chance to be part of Broken Talkers the Blue Boy which ran as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. My first durational performance opportunity, the role involved standing almost perfectly still on a 3 meter plinth clasping a torch behind a paper mask depicting a young boy. Karen took the majority of the performances, while I stood for two shows. The experience was something perfectly meditative. In position while the audience entered and again left, I enjoyed the secret surveillance and enclosed, static sensations of having to remain perfectly inanimate, sweating and monitoring discomforts and comforts for the hour and a half duration. We had some moments of movement to let people know we weren't dummies, and we moved our toes in the over-sized boots and slowly bent our knees in and out and our hips and dished and deep breathed so as to not go completely numb. It was cool. I emerged each night refreshed but thankful I only had two shows plus one rehearsal. The commute from Belfast to Dublin and back midweek was a durational challenge in itself. Running from training to catch bus to standing on the plinth to catch bus to arrive at 2am to get up at 8am for training at 9 to catch bus to stand on plinth and so forth. Or stopping for brief sleep in Dublin to rise at 4 or 5 to get taxi to catch bus for training in Belfast at 9. It's been intense! I love it though, of course. Heart attacks are on the rise - have you heard?
That's not the only thing that's been happening. I've had a very productive, creative time of it these past weeks. Myself and Elaine from PaperDolls hosted our first ever Dublin based aerial workshops as part of Don't Stop the Dance day of dance last weekend which were an absolute success. There were 30 students altogether. We got some great feedback and are plotting our next workshops with great excitement and glee. We ran it as a pilot class, and have been scheming all sorts of fun for future classes. Although, we expect it will be slow at first. Without a proper space (The Complex is beautiful and functional but it lacks the multiple rigging points required for classes) we will have to make do until we get our own aerial specific home. We are really bursting at the seams with ideas... the energy of success following our sell out show is flowing still. We are grasping it with both hands.
Some students relax after their aerial workout:
Participant Claire Marie sent some nice live action shots from the class. Here is me directing her in the hoop. Good job Claire!
I received some exciting packages in the post this week.
I've gone aerial mad, I really have!
My own white and black silks:
Beauteous maximus! 
And a box of hefty goodness - brand new rigging gear!
Sings*
"She is a lumber jack and she's OK, she works all night and she sleeps all day!"
Or... ? Huh?
One day I'll have diamond encrusted Karabineers that will double up as ghetto fabulous knuckle duster jewelery. Yes and yes.
In other news:
So I turn up on the wall of a Tattoo studio in Chicago.
Rachel Garrison, a tattoo artist in Devotion Ink Tattoo (somewhere in America... I think Chicago... I don't understand American addresses...) ordered this print from other personal favourite photographer Ross Waldron of my pose during the PaperDolls'/ Dr. Sketchy's party fundraiser which I posted about
here.
Brilliant, I get beautifully framed beside a gorgeous well polished gramophone and some bats in flight. Best ever! I'm thrilled! I often wonder where my images turn up... I'd love to see more photos of me in photos on walls.
So I've been busy busy with performing too. I've had a very popular run of it to be honest - it's been FANTASTIC! I shall be glad of a little break now to concentrate on the classes and training and new ideas and music and writing and winter. I appeared two weeks in a row in my favourite new cabaret hot spot Foam Café on Strand Street in Dublin. I was happy happy happy to reconnect with photographer Rick Taylor who created a vibrant burst of photos from of my recent performances, including Bella A Go Go's Dia De Los Meurtos show. He has this new mad colourful aesthetic that I'm adoring. Especially in the Foam café environment... I would continue here but in the conservative future of my nightmares I could be persecuted for these documents. And anyway, they deserve their own blog post.
The George, Dublin
