The first pic says it all! I can’t do this but I’m doing it anyway!!!
That’s just how I feel about my upcoming show. We went to rig the equipment tonight. We haven’t set up the pulley yet but the stuff is up and after rigging it 20 times and testing the height over and over it’s finally correct. Here’s a couple shots of the venue. It’s bigger than it looks, there was a whole load of space behind me too. I’m getting nervous - tried out a make up look today. Hated it!! Will probably stick with smokey eyes - what could go wrong with a nice smokey eye!
I’m not sure that what I’m feeling would be considered a *normal* level of nervousness given that it’s still two days away. God - what am I going to be like on the night! :s
But hey - the first show only happens once right! Once I pop my show cherry it can only get better. So this is the bottom. The only way is up! (Literally! haha) ;)
If it ain’t right now…
Just come home from last rehearsal. I guess there’s no point stressing about it now, if it’s not right now it never will be! Still nervous as HELL though. Eeek!! Hope I don’t fluff up on the night!!
Need to work a little sass into my act. Let’s see if I can figure that out over the next two days!
Excuse the awful selfies, I just had to show someone my FINALLY completed costume. I put a shoe cream on my gaiters and I’m so much happier with the colour now. It stands out far less against my tights than previously. I even managed to find some fairly closely matched laces. I’m really pleased with them for a last minute rushed effort.
Sorry about that back view! haha. I just wanted to show the back of that sailor collar as I found a cute anchor patch to put on it today by accident.
Final dress rehearsal tomorrow, rigging thursday night, and then a day of rest on Friday before the big show! Eeek!!! I’m starting to get a bit scared now that I don’t have my costume to distract myself with. Maybe I should add some sparkles…
Gaiters
In the quest for costume completion, I present to you, my new gaiters. They’re shorter than the old ones. I made them as I felt the old ones looked REALLY weird with the shoes I’m wearing for this show. I can’t say that these will look any better but I can hope!
Really they need to be darker in colour to match the tan shade of my leggings but this is all I’ve got so for now it’ll have to do. Worse comes to worse I’ll wear them underneath, which will no doubt give me strange lumpy looking ankles! haha.
For my second time working in real leather they’re not too bad. I changed the pattern and got a gorgeous fit on the foot. Need to work on the area around the ankle though.
And my sewing machine. She’s a little bitch. Need one that likes playing with leather!! lol. This one just had tantrums and made a mess the whole time.
Nevermind. From a distance no one will know. 
The Body Circus
Oh, and I suppose I should share the poster for our upcoming show, as I said I would speak more of it later, and it’s now just 5 days away (argh!).
So here it is! There are many circus related events taking place over the bank holiday weekend for The Body Circus, and we are performing at just one, the Brazillica night at The Printworks.
Not that my song is Brazilian at all! It’s by Mazzy Star! haha. Hopefully they won’t boo me offstage ;) 
I’m not sure if I’ve blogged about Hastings Geurrilla Circus yet?
A little background info: It’s an idea I had to bring together people in the Hastings area that are circusy (to put it simply!). I guess you could call it my baby.
The idea was: If you do something circusy (whatever it may be) come along to the meet, bring your equipment, and we can all teach each other how to use various pieces of equipment that we wouldn’t normally have access to. Thus developing and building on our existing circus skills. A skills exchange if you will.
The other main point of this group (and the main reason I wanted to do it!) is to meet other like minded circus enthusiasts. It’s all well and good at aerial class, and everyone there IS lovely, but my aim here is to build a Hastings based circus community. (On the basis that most circus people are just lovely, and we could all have a lot of fun sharing with each other.)
So, Hastings Geurrilla Circus had it’s first official meet this Sunday! I’m happy to report it went swimmingly. No injuries, and although it *tried* to rain it held strong and we got a few hours of fun in.
Our first meet was fairly small (as I’d imagined it would be), but despite that we still had a great range of things for everyone to use, and a nice atmosphere too. :)
Inevitably, the general passing public were a bit curious about what was going on, so we were stopped and questioned by a few people, but doing this outdoors that is bound to happen. I’m only sad that those inquiring weren’t of the circusy persuasion.
Anyway, I feel it was a great start to an idea with real potential.
There were five of us, and we managed to gather a fair bit of equipment including:
Aerial Hoop
Slack Line
Juggling balls, rings, swords, and more
A Contact Ball
A Diablo
Various Hula Hoops
A few sets of Poi
and a pair of Stilts!
Almost sounds like a cirucs, doesn’t it? ;)
Bigger and better in the future. I really hope more people jump on this so we can build a strong circus community here in Hastings! Spread the word ;)
Here’s a few pics, truth told we really were too busy having fun to take photos!
Oh, and of course, a link to the Hastings Geurrilla Circus Facebook Group where all the events will be posted. It’s an open group and everyone is welcome!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/358802060891113/?fref=ts
When I was 12, I had a dream that I was “drowning in every else’s bad habits” and today, 8 years later, I realize that it’s happening.
I’ve only the strength to keep my own head above water and can’t take on the responsibility of having friends that don’t care for themselves. Not anymore, I’m…
Glad to hear someone else identifying with this difficult problem. :(
Some poorly shot snaps of my penultimate practice. Still feel like I need about 20 more!! :( Hope I don’t blow it. Costume isn’t yet complete either but you get the idea, sailor! ;)
We went to the hangar today for some more air time. Tried to go through my routine as many times as I could but found myself alarmingly out of breath. Really need to devise some cute filler for my work around the hoop between mounts.
Here’s some quick stills from a half arsed dress rehearsal I did at the end of the day. See, there’s no hat, and no collar. It’s also half arsed in the sense that I’d been at it all day and was quite tired (And I banged my head pretty hard on the hoop but that’s a whole other problem).
I’m really concerned about how poorly I transition between moves. Also desperately hoping I can improve my presentation skills by about 500% in the next two weeks!!! Eek. Not much pressure then.
Another thing to contend with is that to the complete and utter lack of stretch in the fabric my shorts are made from, curling up to hox is quite the intense and difficult operation. I just gave them a wash hoping to soften the fabric. If not I may have to source some cotton drill with a stretch!? Good luck with that one, huh!
One of the joys about having potential aerial shows up and coming is that I’m going to need costumes!!
Yikes.
This is where all those years of sewing training come in handy. The thing is, I always prefer to buy things and then customize them to make the aesthetic I want.
In this instance, however, that was not to be. I could NOT find appropriate shorts anywhere on earth, and believed me, I searched!!
So now I’m drafting my first pattern in a couple years and I’m already a bit hacked off with it. I’ve made 3 paper patterns, one toile, SO FAR.
Second toile tomorrow which I’m HOPING will fit like a second skin and I can go ahead with my real fabric.
This used to be my first love but I sure don’t love it anymore.
I’d ABSOLUTELY rather be swinging around in the air, but needs must.
I’ll share some images of the final shorts, if I ever nail it! Big if.
