Stardust and Sledgehammers

The Canberra Times Today!

2012-03-03T14:18:00.000+10:00

Our cast were out and about promoting the show this morning, when a lady from a near-by shop bustled out, newspaper in hand and held it up to us - Would you look at that, a huge 2 page spread about our little circus!

Sold out tickets!

2012-03-03T13:59:00.000+10:00

The circus is back at home base for a few days collecting ourselves after the huge week in Braidwood NSW. We were hosting a show as a fundraiser for the Braidwood Central school P&C and at the same time doing a preview performance of the show that we are touring.

I can not explain my amazement when, after loaning an extra 100 seats from the school - we heard the news that the show had fully booked out with standing room only by 2pm on the show day.

By the time we opened the doors, we had a queue of people waiting on stand-by tickets and the tent packed to the rafters!

The show was intense, it was the first time we had run it with an audience, and to do so with such a huge turn out was a massive treat. I was told the following morning that the applause and the roar of the kids cheer was heard several blocks away.

Thanks to the school for having us - now it is time to set up in Canberra!

Local fame for the little circus..

2012-02-18T10:56:00.001+10:00

We have had an epic couple of weeks, with our international artists flying in, our first tent-up as a group and the final development session for the show. Over the week we had numerous interviews with press and now some of those have gone to print.. just thought I'd share

BMA Magazine This is a local arts mag, gig guide and local news magazine - free around Canberra

The Canberra Times - 17th Feb 2012
The Canberra times will be following us a bit over the next month, so check out what has been written so far, and stay tuned for updates.

The Canberra times have made us a little photo gallery :)

Konrad Lens, dropped by and took a few photos..

Imagin-eering at the house of circus

2012-01-28T10:40:00.004+10:00

It is Saturday morning and things are heating up in the house of the circus. Luke is visiting family across the ditch for a bit, so Sharon, Jerry and I are rushing around trying to complete the last few tasks before he gets back. We have less than two weeks now until the rest of our cast fly in from New Zealand and the final rehearsal stage begins.

There is still so much to do, Sharon is designing a new and better web site, I am working on the sound track, and Jerry Is busy 'Imagin-eering' the ultimate tent-tetris trailer of glory.. Here is his challenge.. Fit one big top circus tent, King poles, side poles, pegs and all as well as foam matting, a ladder or two, 30 hula hoops, 3 pairs of stilts, a unicycle, 18m of carpet ring mat, 14 small ring boxes and our fence on ONE 6x4..

And I think he has done it folks! Photos coming soon!

Waltzing with sledgehammers

2012-01-16T12:54:00.004+10:00

It is a delicate form of dance that one invents when a sledgehammer meets the gentle flesh of fingers.. It involves a complex series of steps, leaps, aggressive marching, and grabbing at ones hand.. It also has an expressive facial distortion and sometimes even a vocal element. This, my friends, is the Sledgehammer waltz.

Jerry helps with laying out and lacing up the big top

Luke battles the rock hard ground to beat in our peg-line

I must admit, that like most of the gender stereotypes might suggest - I am somewhat more familiar with the stardust of the show than the sledgehammers. In the last two circus jobs, I was assigned to marketing and performance for the majority of the time, and although enjoyed pulling the big top down after the show, had done a very limited number of put-ups.
Needless to say, although it was super exciting to be putting up our own circus tent - I think my talents are a little more suited to sewing on fringing and sequins!

Lacing the top of the tent together

Jerry tensioning the ropes

Heaving tent skins into position

The day was highly successful, despite the brief 'sledgehammer dance' interludes. The big top went up ok, and it was a great feeling to see it standing. We only had the field for a day, and a storm was threatening overhead - so we didn't put up the blue and white striped walls which will really finish off the look of the tent, but you can imagine what it will look like from some of the photos here.

Five weeks until we launch!

Six weeks out!

2012-01-07T10:08:00.000+10:00

The count down has really started now with only six weeks until we put up the tent for the development and preview show in Braidwood NSW.

Luke has been beavering away with the business plan, and I have been up to my elbows in thread and fabric, making our costumes.

This has been the busiest Christmas and New year period ever, but things are starting to come together.

Here is a sneak peak of the colours, stripes and laces that will be making our performers pretty this season :) I will be spending the next couple of weeks making a music box ballerina costume, a tin soldier costume and a Jack in the box - that's right folks, a circus toybox!

Adminis-Trivia!

2011-12-19T08:54:00.001+10:00

It is a funny thing trying to organise something from the ground up. Especially to those of us who are used to flying. I had heard tale of adminis-trivia nightmares but never had I truly experienced it first hand.

Even the simplest thing seems to have to involve 10 different people, all of which greet me with that glazed eyed look at the mention of something as obscure as a circus. Then I promptly find myself forwarded on to some other member of their department!

I was greeted with a particularly amusing attempt at booking some grounds recently.. it went something like this…

Phone Shire Council
Shire council informs me that I have to send an email
Write detailed email about what is needed, including when, where, what and with all booking info.
Email is returned 2 days later with only one line.. "Who did you speak to on the phone?"
Email is answered by me

Email is returned saying "Please phone for this kind of thing"
Council is phoned again, this time quoting email
Phone call is passed around 5 people in the office before returning to the original callee.
Callee states that perhaps I should put all the info in an email!

..Honestly.. The hoops they make you jump through- All of this is enough to make a girl run away to the circus!

Web site updates

2011-12-07T20:31:00.001+10:00

The web site for the circus is gradually taking form. More photos are going up each day, and behind the site, the show is starting to progress too. We are two weeks into our residency and acts are really starting to come together.. No time to chat now though! Visit the site and see for yourself.. http://www.bitesizedcircus.com We'd love to link exchange with you too, so feel free to email me if you are interested. :)

Music at the Creek 2011

2011-11-17T19:25:00.001+10:00

This week, I had the amazing pleasure of performing over two perfect days at Majors creek, Music at the creek folk festival, NSW. My fire troupe performed a duo and a trio show for the festival, pulling a huge circle of spectators, and winning an applause to remember.

The show marked the premiere performance of the sparkling new show "Flame Eccentric" - a piece that was developed mainly by Luke and I when we lived with Circus Avalon in Newcastle earlier in the year.

The show is based on new beginnings and uses the legend of the phoenix as inspiration. Our performers walk the audience through a journey told in fire with contact juggling, fire fans, flaming hoops, ladder balance, fire staff, and fire club manipulation.. Basically as far as fire shows go - this one has the works!

Jerry Everard took some wonderful photos from the show and I have posted most of them up on our troupe website for Will-o'-the-Wisp Flame Arts

2011-11-09T08:40:00.001+10:00

Artist Residency

2011-11-07T23:05:00.001+10:00

So..... The project is well and truly underway. The tent has been shipped, the vehicles have been bought, the cast have been chosen and the pre production admin is well and truly a major part of every day. The new web site was launched last night - so feel free to check it out here: The Great Australian Bite-sized Circus The other exciting news to do with the show, is that this morning, Luke and I were offered a residency at the major circus space here in Brisbane to develop the first core acts of the show.

One of the struggles of being a performing artist is finding the aerial rigging space, crash mats, stage space and indoor juggling space that can be used to develop new work - for us, today this was solved! Flipside circus offer the residency and it just so happens that there could be no better place to develop the show - we paced out the performance space.. and what do ya know- it is EXACTLY the same size as our ring, and the rigging point is at EXACTLY the same height as the top of our tent!
Another nice touch to the residency is that it was named after one of Australia's most inspiring circus people - Reg Bolton.. He also happened to be my very first circus trainer.

I can't wait to start working on the show, but first, we have to take a wee detour via a festival fire show with Will-o'-the-Wisp! Later this week we fly away for a few days to revisit a lovely little festival near Braidwood, NSW. I will be sure to put up photos after the gig :)

Onwards and upwards

2011-11-04T22:23:00.000+10:00

I have something super special to announce today. This week marks the new beginning of a project that has been cooking for some years now.. Luke and I have ordered our very own big top tent from the USA and will be launching a new Australian circus early next year. We received confirmation this morning that the tent has been made and shipped, so the project is finally all systems go! Web site and cast announced later this week.. stay tuned!

The show must go on!

2011-10-25T18:51:00.002+10:00

After a short tour with Eden bros circus, we have finished up our big top journey for 2011. There are lots of exciting plans for next year, but before I give away too many secrets, I thought I'd tie up the journal from North QLD.

Our last few shows with the circus were totally sold out. We had to pull in extra chairs from nearby venues, and lay down tarps at the side of stage for kids to sit on the cast were pumped, nervous, and excited -the energy from the audience was amazing. We stormed the ring and performed our acts beautifully. People clapped and cheered their way through the show and we were run off our feet setting props, making pop-corn and darting back and forth with odd jobs. Life at the circus is a whole lot more pleasant when we have good crowds to play to, makes all the hard work of putting up the tent and preparing the show worthwhile.

The last show came around, and once again, we were set with a full house. I stepped into the ring with Luke's juggling knives as he lightly made his way to the top of his 2.8m free standing ladder. I always get a little scared of this act - invariably the ground is uneven, or the board is on a weird wobbly angle or something else is happening to make the ladder more unstable than it should be, but Luke calmly reached out his hands to catch the knives. I threw them up, 1, 2 and 3, and stood back while he juggled and caught each one perfectly.
..Then as if out of nowhere, the ladder was down, he'd crashed backwards off the top rung and was lying in the ring with blood pouring down his face. Somehow we helped him to his feet and took him backstage where he collapsed on the grass in shock. It just so happened that there was a nurse in the audience. A moment later, she was back stage with us and looking at Luke's wounds. She shook her head and announced that the hospital was needed, so away they went, while we continued the show.

A little after half time, Luke was back on site, this time with 8 stitches, a large amount of injected painkiller and a dose of adrenaline. Everyone had been asking about him at interval but none of us had any idea how he was going. He sat down in the caravan for a few minutes while I went out to do fire hoop. To our amazement, he came out two acts before the end and announced that he would do his piece. We set his juggling equipment in the ring and watched as he waltzed back on stage as though nothing had happened. The show must, and did go on!
The crowd roared with applause all the way through, they were amazed to see him perform. The show finished and we packed the audience off home, it was decided that tent down could wait till morning.

The following day, poor Luke's painkillers had worn off and he couldn't even walk for the muscle tears in his legs. It took several days for him to be able to walk again ok, and a week or so later the smile finally returned to his face. By then we were on a bus back to Brisbane for the rest of summer. Tour done for 2011!

Now, I am happy to report he is fully recovered and back on his ladder. I am in rehearsal with a new aerial piece and both of us are madly applying for the next season of arts grants and residencies - I can't wait to tell you about what we have planned for next year, but that is a whole other blogpost..

Woop woop

2011-10-01T15:37:00.001+10:00

"Woop woop - it sounds like a celebration.. It's not.. It is a cruel lament" Luke Forrester

Woop woop in Australian slang refers to that place that is in the middle of nowhere - so far away from civilisation that the sight of a corner shop or another person is something to celebrate.. That is where we ended up for this stand..

We pulled up in Thangool with the assistance of a relative of a friend of a friend of Johns.. It seems that everything here at this circus relies on that sort of kindness, and owed favours. This town consists of one store - it is a fuel stop, a general store and a post office all in one. There is also a motel which doubles as a pub, and a second pub a little further down. The life of this town appears to rotate around these three venues. Lets hope the circus can pull a crowd from it..

We only moved about 11km down the road from Biloela, but out here seems just far enough to be totally out of phone and mobile internet range.. Oh no… Four. Whole. Days. Without. Internet.. *Ghasp*
In our horror of this discovery, a few things occurred - Luke went all analogue and started writing a journal in an actual notebook, The two boys ran screaming in terror to the nearest pub to drown their woes - and I resorted to eating honey sandwiches. Oh what is the world coming to..
--

..actually I just walked a k down the road in the blazing heat hoisting my mobile phone high above my head in desperation of finding one bar of reception.. and have been rewarded for my efforts with this brief moment of interweb contact *breathes a sigh of relief* Hello world :)

Photos from the first two weeks at Eden Bros

2011-10-01T15:22:00.002+10:00

Today we are opening in Thangool, QLD - I have a little time before the show so I thought I'd upload some photos from the last week or two..

What not to do..

2011-09-26T14:43:00.002+10:00

We have just started with a touring circus called "Eden Bros Good Time Circus"
They tour all over Queensland in a traditional old tent, and still supports old fashioned circus acts with animals. I have never worked on a tent with animals before, so this has been a whole new experience.. Luke and the monkey have made friends.. and by friends I mean, the monkey cheekily tries to undo all the ratchets holding the tent together as fast as Luke hooks them up - it has also been known to take a swipe at him out of fun!
Me? I get to play with llamas - actually, I fib, they are alpacas but they get introduced as llamas for some unknown reason.. I have also had a few interesting moments with the goats..

For today, I have two tips of what not to do on your first week with a circus in hot northern QLD..

#1 : In the pre-show haste of hunger, spill the honey jar all over the self and the costume.. then stand backstage in a massive ant nest..

#2: Turn your back on a goat while in a conversation with someone - especially not when wearing a long tasty skirt!

The Last Stand - Ashburton

2011-09-23T10:38:00.001+10:00

The tour had felt long, and yet all of a sudden it was almost over. The spirit of the circus had been lifted as all of the Ring Master's family had come down to join the circus over the school holidays. Our cast instantly doubled in size with our youngest performer being only 8 years old. The rain had cleared up and the sun was shining, and we had time to relax a little as Ashburton was a two week stand.

Luke and I were leaving a couple of weeks early as we had commitments over in Australia. The rest of the crew would be carrying on to Christchurch for their last stand.
It is a tradition in circus to make the last show as entertaining, and as difficult as possible for your cast mates - and most were already planning the cast pranks for the final show.. Apparently, it was decided that Luke and I truly deserved to get some last show prank action, even though we were not going to be there for the final show..

Just before the show, everyone was acting suspicious - I twigged that we were likely to be 'last showed' but had no idea what the cheeky scoundrels were up to. I was waylaid on my stilts out the front of the tent - just long enough it seems for the rigger to change the height of my trapeze by raising it 30cm - just high enough to make the routine hard!

I walked into the ring, and glanced over at the sound desk - the entire cast were standing there, giggling as I reached out to my uncomfortably high trapeze.
After my act, I watched as everyone raced back out to watch Luke.. the guys had taken his music and sped it up by about 20% so his juggling routine was in fast forward! It was hilarious to watch, and amazingly he carried the routine out to the end, scoring a round of applause from the cast and audience alike when he returned backstage.

All through the show they had set little glitches for us to 'enjoy', and as if that wasn't enough, when we returned to the car to drive away it seemed that they had hidden hundreds of grape drinks through ALL of our luggage, doubling it's weight and leaving us with the lovely experience of discovering grape drinks for days to come!

..little did they know, that they were not the only ones hiding grape drinks that day.. :-p

And a Grape day was had by all

2011-09-17T09:54:00.001+10:00

I snuggled down into my comfortable circus bed.. It seemed unusually difficult to get my head to rest on my pillow.. in fact, my pillow seemed a little solid. I poked it, slightly confused..it was hard, very hard, positively lumpy in fact. I traced the lump with my hand and in a moment worked out what it was.. some cheeky cast member had filled my pillow with grape drinks!

Instantly, I suspected Nick - he had been lurking around suspiciously - yup, it must be him.
I removed the grape drinks and snuck over to his bed, carefully placing them in his blankets and one in his gumboot for good measure. I smiled and returned to sleeping.

I was woken in the morning by an exclamation of confusion from Nick's side of the bus "What the?!" He had rolled over on to the plastic bottle.. "Briar! I am going to get her" he muttered, and quickly rolled out of bed, slipping on his gumboots "GAH! - Oh, that was a good one" he smiled and rolled on out the door.

When I came outside, he was over by the chuck wagon. Briar was at her caravan, throwing grape drinks at Nick out the window - He was dodging them, cracking up in fits of laughter.

I chose this as a good time to point out that it hadn't been Briar placing drinks in his bed. "YOU!?" he asked, astounded - "I blamed Briar!"
At this moment, Briar and Luke emerged from their various sleeping quarters and we stood around giggling. Briar had placed the drinks in what she thought was Luke's pillow after he had covered a grape drink in candy floss and given it to her as a joke.. She had filled my pillow by accident - I blamed Nick, Nick blamed Briar.. Sigh, what a grape day.

Hoop play

2011-09-17T09:47:00.000+10:00

Timaru

2011-09-17T09:39:00.000+10:00

The Timaru stand was parked up inside the Caroline Bay loop road. It was a great location, and very visible from the road. It was extra nice being able to drive around the whole loop road and circle the tent from above - at night with all the festoon lights up it looked like a little bit of magic.

We were nice and close to town, and having befriended some of the girls in the local cafe, we were being well supplied with nice coffees.

Luke and I were on duties - and we were on duties when we had a whole lot of extra people staying with the circus… I will never forget the look on Luke's face when he walked behind the chuck wagon to discover the mountain of roast dishes that lay before him - it was really something. Neither of us had ever experienced a stack of pots, pans, plates and cutlery quite like this one. Horrifying just wouldn't cover it - and to make matters worse, the rain had just started. We stood there cleaning for nearly 2 and a half hours.

We were exhausted. We'd sold tickets, ushered, worked at the concessions stand, performed two shows and then spent our night time cleaning. Two cold, wet, grumpy circus performers trundled back to the bus. It was leaking, and the lights weren't working. All of the woe was ours.

The three photos here are of Luke on his ladder, David mid rola-bola act, and the tent as seen from our rainy bus window just before the show.

Smiles in Waimate

2011-09-16T13:53:00.000+10:00

It was a warm afternoon - the tent was up and everyone was sitting around for a lunch break before getting the last of the seating in and the walls on the big top. Muesli bars were passed around and cold cordial to quench the thirst of tired crew. A school bell sounded across the road and a moment later, a small parade of kindergarden aged children, being herded like lost sheep wandered onto the lot.

The kids were all instantly shy as they approached handing us gifts of class-cooked muffins. The all sat down outside the chuck wagon and gawked wide-eyed at our mismatched cast of gypsies. The teachers announced that the whole class would be coming to the show, and that not only had they baked us muffins.. but they had prepared a musical performance for us..

We politely agreed to see their piece and sat as they arranged themselves for a song..

A cheer of delight erupted from our cast a moment later, when instead of being greeted with twinkle twinkle.. were given an amazing rendition of 'Ring of Fire', by Johnny Cash! These kids get the circus stamp of approval - gold stars all round.

Here is a bit of you tube fun - the song that was stuck in our heads for the rest of the stand!

Blogging the Bogging - Soggy everything in Dunedin continues

2011-09-16T13:38:00.000+10:00

The last show in Dunedin was the hardest show I have ever done. The backstage area, after two weeks of rain, was one huge knee high puddle of mud. We had long before put down sheets of wood in an effort to keep props dry, but by then, they had sunk so deep into the puddles that they might as well not be there at all. Everyone was in high gum boots back stage, changing into dance slippers only a moment before going into the ring. At every step on the stilts, the poles would plunge deep into the ground, and emerge with mud almost up to the foot plate. It was near on impossible to stay up on them.

The ring mat was wet, my trapeze was wet, and my costume was totally saturated to dripping point. Damian announced my act and a danced out onto the slippery mat of doom.
Somehow I managed to stay up on the stilts and I slithered in a semi-controlled fashion through my routine.

Off stage, five minutes later, however, I was in tears as the sheer exhaustion and the discomfort of our performance conditions hit an all time low. I took my stilts off, put my boots on and plunged into the mud. Backstage was a dreary sight indeed.. and after this show we would be pulling the big top down, I had all of the woe.

Tent down was pretty awful, so much mud, so much rain, and my patience and appreciation of tour life had dwindled and become nothing more than a loathed experience. That night held nothing for me but more tears, discomfort and a complete inability to even remember what it was like to be dry and clean. To make things worse, we didn't manage to get all of the tent down at once, so instead of having a day off the following day, we were ordered up before 7 to finish the job.. No time off this week, I thought.

Bogged down in Dunedin

2011-09-16T13:35:00.004+10:00

Dunedin was cold. In fact, more than that, it was icey. Rain poured down on the bus, turning everything to mud around us. The trucks sank deep into the grass, our boots squelched and filled with water within three steps of being outside and the wind whipped past our ears with a deafening chill.

I wrapped my jacket around me and bolted to the edge of the orange fence, handing over the quickly saturating posters to Hana. I collected the next set and hurriedly clambered over the fence, running for the open door of the little red car. We were heading out marketing as the rest of our sodden teammates set up the big top.

As we drove away, I glanced back, just in time to see Luke crawling through the mud to get under the canvas. I felt so sorry for him.

The tent goes up in Invercargill!

2011-09-12T12:21:00.001+10:00

The bus shook and rattled as an over zelous crew member rapped on the windows and doors of our sleeping quarters. it was ten to nine and our alarm had failed to wake us, the circus lot was already a flurry of activity, a buzz with little balls of warm wooly coats filled with humans readying themselves for the day. Luke managed to drag himself out of bed with relative ease, while I lay there for a moment with the morning sun on my face still in a sleepy daze of dream state. The next thing I recall was waking again with Luke standing over me smiling quietly and holding a coffee, time to start the day.

I exited the bus and wandered over to the collection of performers by the chuck wagon, people were finishing breakfast and coffees and they all seemed to have one thing in common.. They were all far more awake than I. A moment later Damo walked away from the group, stopped by the side of the tent and belted out the fist instruction for the team, being a man of few words this instruction was simple "WINCHES!" Luke bounded up followed by the other winch handlers and within a tenth of a second, Les and I were the only two left by the food caravan. Lucky for me, today was a marketing day, so I have a few more minutes to wake my brain up.

There is something magic about watching the tent get lifted, even in my half asleep state I got a sparkle of excitement from seeing it go up, one minute there is a large stripey canvas lying in the grass, and the next it looks like the circus is in town. Every stand is so different, let's see what Invercargill audiences are like.

Quaking in our circus boots

2011-09-12T12:15:00.002+10:00

Two photos of Cathedral square - the first during the spring festival, (where I was stilt walking in delightfully high winds!) The second is the cathedral after the quake hit on Feb 22nd.

It was March 2nd. We had landed in the far southern town of Invercargill, NZ. High winds were slowing the tent up process but Damo was determined to at least get the king poles up, he was up at 7 in the morning pacing the lot and scowling at the sky.

It had been a wee while since my last entry. The previous stand was a solemn one. On the Tuesday an epic earthquake hit Christchurch city at a depth of 5 km, it was over a six on the Richter scale and had flattened the city. 155 people were confirmed to have died and even the old circo houses were under water from liquefaction. The circus had taken on a couple of Circo refugees as there was now no school and people were homeless. From what I understood things there were going to get busy as we were due to take on more and more visitors.

The shows were quiet. It was eerie. The audience just sat and stared at us through the show. We all wore black arm bands for the performances to honour the victims, and mourn the loss of the city. Everyone had connections to Christchurch, we all went to uni there, we had all lived there, and some have family there. I still had two friends that I could not make contact with, and I had no idea if they were even still alive.

A car full of our performers headed off as soon as the tent was up to go and find family. I remained behind, but all of our hearts were in the shaky city that day.

Briar and I went ahead to our next stop to go marketing, we were heading back through gore, our last stop, to Dunedin. I hadn't been to Dunedin for nearly 2 years, it was to be a big day.

Links to all our TV and Newspaper interviews..

2011-09-09T12:54:00.000+10:00

We had lots of media calls while on tour.. I thought I'd post them all here so you can see them too.

Luke and Eve in the paper

Mary, Luke and Briar in the paper - Queenstown

Otago news - Queenstown again

Eve and Arti - interviewed in Ashburton

Timaru Herald

Channel 9 TV -Dunedin

Can the pot call the kettle black?

2011-09-09T12:46:00.001+10:00

Town: Gore, NZ
As twilight falls, a thick mist engulfs the big top. The lights from our food caravan twinkle in the foggy moonlight. For a moment I am taken by the true and intense beauty of circus life. Then I look down at my hands.. elbow deep in the dish water, soaked in chicken lard and constantly finding floating lumps of indistinguishable unknown food leftovers. I cringe as my vegan hands rub past something that was slightly slimy. Sigh. Reality, it happens.

Everyone at the circus is on the roster - except for the bosses. We have a rotation -first meal you clean out the food kitchen, second you are on dishes, and the third, on the drying and putting away. It is often a fairly merry task - the three performers on duties each joking around and attempting to avoid the horror.. the nightmare.. the dreaded task of washing the.. *insert a loud scary drum roll*.. the 'black pot of death.'

The black death was a large iron cauldron like pot, heavy, charred and black with age. It had this amazing ability to turn everything it touches black. It is so feared by the cast, that everyone would cover the tables in newspaper, and wear gloves, just to move it into the dining area. Once touched by the black.. it was there forever, a lesson learned by many of my favourite items of clothing.

Luke was on chuck, he gave me an apologetic look as he delivered this doom pot to my side. "I think that is everything" he reassured
Nick was drying "Ah.. the black death.. Ha! Glad I'm not on dishes!" He teased. I flicked him with dishwater and looked down at the black filthy pot.
I nodded to myself. Gotta love the circus life.

The tiny town of Te Anau

2011-09-09T12:24:00.002+10:00

On Wednesday we started tent up in Te Aneu. The king poles were up, large parcels of tent were lumped on the lot ready to be laid out, and a scattering of tired performers lay by the chuck wagon with cups of tea, eagerly awaiting dinner. Luke was up on his ladder practicing a new trick and Briar was no where to be seen, some times we all just needed to take space from the group.

The three day tent up progressed, marketing continued and in between jobs, we found time for extra moments of training. Luke continued to work on some new free standing ladder balances and I practiced new hoop material. We returned to living on the bus and were parked up on the far side of the tent.. so far, bookings were high and everything was about to launch into action as our opening show was about to start..

Saturday morning was the first show.. we stumbled out of bed and crawled into costume via coffee and a handful of jobs. 11am seemed to rush at us like a bull at a flag and in no time I was dancing on stage and spinning in a pretty tangle of trapeze and glitter. It was a full house. So full that we had to put out extra seating at the start of the show and had extra audience members sitting on spare ring boxes.

They were lively, cheerful and so energetic! 80% of our audience were screaming children who were fueled on candy floss and sugar - at half time we had to pluck them from the ring and the support poles of the tent and prevent them from literally bouncing off the walls. They were so much fun - but a little hard to grasp when you have had little sleep and are running on coffee!

Too many clowns in the chuck wagon!

2011-09-06T19:06:00.001+10:00

The chuck wagon.. in some ways a focal point of the whole circus - we all try to cram in there to scrounge for breakfast, we all queue up in there for the chance to boil hot water at night time, and for some reason, no matter who is on clean up after dinner - on a saturday evening, the entire cast end up in there to make the clean-up process an all out nightmare!

I frantically tried to get benches cleaned as one by one the cast descended on the caravan kitchen. There was a loud chatter behind me as Briar and Nick who were in a playfully argumentative conversation, set up the stereo. After much station flicking and plug-swapping, it was turned on- firmly establishing the chuck wagon as the party venue for the evening.

David charged in and wedged himself in the corner with bottle of beer shortly followed by Mary who waltzed through the door with a merry grin "TOO MANY CLOWNS IN THE CHUCK WAGON!" She hollered, raising her glass high.. This ignited a chorus of silly voices and echos from the rest of the cast.

I was not sure how many more people we could fit in this tiny carriage..But while at circus school, we got 12 stilt walkers in a phone box once.. so anything is possible..

Eventually Mary and David vacated the chuck and Nick wandered off behind the caravan. He too, was on duties. Briar looked at me and smiled - I hadn't talked to her much and she was the only member of the cast that I hadn't met previously. She stood there for a moment playing with the stereo and then looked up with a fit of horror.. "Is nick on Drying!! Then I must be on Dishes!" She stared up at the roster and then vanished in a flurry of ginger hair and tiger stripes.

Stilt play

2011-09-05T06:22:00.002+10:00

A quick photo shoot with Luke :) Enjoy.

Marketing mission!

2011-09-02T11:31:00.001+10:00

The clock struck 8AM and the circus burst into a hive of activity! Fences were rolled out, Pegs were being thrown down in a huge circle, Mary was standing on the top of the pole wagon handing down the wind poles and side poles and Damo was yelling something that may or may not have been understood by whomever it was directed towards.

Paddy, Les and I were racing from one end of the lot to the other in a flurry of posters, fliers, clip boards and free-give away circus tickets. Les was training me up as one of the promotion girls so I was handed a new red and black Circus Aotearoa T-shirt, a pile of posters and we were thrown into a small volvo and handed a cup of coffee.. Off to Te Anau!

It was a long drive through some of the most amazing views I have seen of New Zealand so far. We were deep in "Lord of the Rings" territory and we had to stop to take it in. A huge gorge loomed by the side of the road, with a small drive in loop. We all just stood and stared in silence at the amazing site before us.

We got in to Te Anau just after lunch and stopped in a small cafe for some food and to sort out our posters. Les and I took armfuls each and headed out in opposite directions to ask every single shop in the town if they could display a poster. Paddy headed off to the library, police station and city council to deliver fliers and finalise the booking on the lot.

We trawled the town, people were excited about the show and most took posters. There were two older ladies that ran a small wool shop at the end of the main road, and they got so excited that they put up three posters and started announcing to any customers that walked through that they had just met a real trapeze artist and that now everyone had to come to the show! (I might have.. um ..snuck them free tickets.. they were just so excited, it seemed necessary!)

I was met at the edge end of the street by yet another amazing view - mountains and water and so much.. green! I heard a car horn, and there were Paddy and Les pulling up behind me, it was time to head home - perfect timing!

Cromwell

2011-09-01T19:18:00.000+10:00

The tent was down on Sunday afternoon, and Monday was spent wandering through the tourist centre of Queenstown. Luke and I had a special meal out by the water. It was a treat to be out and about. We stopped into a little chocolate cafe on the waterfront where we were gifted with free coffees! The girl behind the counter recognised us from the show, and had loved the performance.

Luke and I sat at our outdoor table and watched the goings on of the normal world. A busker played a lively guitar on the corner and joggers periodically flew by, involved only in their own steps and the headphones in their ears. We placed our empty coffee mugs down on the rickety wooden table turned to make our way back to the circus.

Moving day came around again so quickly. This week, I was to be in the first round of people at the next lot. They always sent one person ahead to wait for everyone else, so that they could have the trucks watched while they do the second and third trips. David had kindly offered an accommodation swap for a few weeks so that Luke and I could have a caravan.. so we moved all our gear and away I went.

An hour later, surrounded by forested mountainous ranges and sparkling blue water we circled up to pitch our stand. Cromwell was the next stop, an odd little town by the river with a stubbornly quiet population. It is a little bit magic watching the circus roll into town. A convoy of red and yellow trucks and vans lumbering through the town centre. Children wave and cars toot their horns.. that's right folks! The Circus is in town!

Pretty new hoop routine

2011-09-01T00:12:00.007+10:00

Does anyone know how to make the photos sit side by side??

Into the ring!

2011-08-29T00:05:00.002+10:00

My first show in the ring was on Saturday morning. I sat in the bus adjusting my hair and decorating my eyelids with little sparkly beads. Luke and most of the cast were already standing out at the concessions stand, fully costumed and set for the show. Mary, like me, was no where to be seen. We both emerged from our trailers at about the same time and grinned at each other, exchanging comments of first show nerves. We lifted up the tent walls and carefully coaxed our neatly costumed and hatted heads under the tent, trying as we did so, to not to catch our hair in the wires or any the other random assortment of hair attacking obstacles to get past between there and the ring.

Briar was in the tent stretching. She had headphones in as the pre show music blared out of the sound system. Damo and Nick were over by the sound desk checking the mics for the Ring Master's introduction. Mary set abut standing her slack-line up, and I went through what was to become my standard full body warm up for stilt acrobatics and trapeze.

The ring mat was bright yellow and cool to the touch as I lay out, stretching. I tried to calm my mind, it was a mess of pre-show nerves, excitement and slight fear about working on a different aerial rig to normal. I looked around at the bright red sets and tried to picture what it would be like in 35 minutes. I took a deep breath - it was almost time to put stilts on and head out for pre-show entertainment. Quietly beaming with excitement- I thought to myself, that I really had no idea what to expect from this show - or the tour to come. Now, looking back, that thought seems ridiculous.. No idea was about the understatement of the year!

Two new stars, and dinner for 10

2011-08-27T14:31:00.001+10:00

The lights flickered on in the pre-tent as a fine mist engulfed the site. Paddy, the circus cook was pottering around in the chuck wagon, carefully preparing the diverse range of dishes for our mis-matched crew of gluten free, vegan. vegetarian, and meat eaters. Amazing smells wofted across the lot as a few cast members congregated around the caravan.

Damo walked up and Paddy cheerfully informed him that dinner was ready. Luke and I started ferrying dishes out to the pre-tent and placing them down on a side table. Damo stood by us, and without warning erupted in a call that would have frightened an angry T-rex into submission.
"DIIIIINNNRRUUOOWWRRGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Ouch do ya have to? Mike wandered, jestfuly nudging past the boss. "Oh hey Eve, do you like Damian's dinner call?" He grinned, This was another thing to look forward to every meal.

It seemed everyone understood Damian's unintelligible vocal hail, because moments later the pre-tent was alive with activity.. Dinner, meeting time and the official welcoming of Mary, our new silks and slack-line performer, who had arrived earlier that day. She and I would be stepping into the ring for the first time tomorrow.. We were both super excited.

Arrival in Queenstown

2011-08-26T13:17:00.000+10:00

With a bright teal green caravan lumbering along behind us we started our journey over the pass to Queenstown. The convoy of trucks and trailers was taken in three trips as we only had two drivers licenced for the larger vehicles. I was in the third convoy with Luke, Mike and Briar.
It had been a long day of rolling tent skins onto trailers and locking down caravans for travel. It had been hot, and with the Chuck wagon (our food caravan) packed down, there was nothing available to eat. We traveled in silence. We were all too tired and hungry to engage in conversation. The scenery was stunning for the entirety of the journey, this was enough to occupy our thoughts for the duration.

Just after 5pm we rolled into the new lot. We disembarked the vehicles and forced ourselves into action. Everyone was carefully arranging the caravans out ready to encircle the big top. We started the task of pitching the pre-tent (our dining room) and setting up the chuck wagon. The main big top wouldn't go up until the morning, but a few essentials had to be set… Tomorrow promised to be a huge day.

Coffee and a day off

2011-08-25T12:32:00.005+10:00

It was 10am and the sun was streaming through the windows of the bus - I opened my eyes. 'Coffee' I thought. The word echoed through my mind as the only thought that held any sort of coherence. This was followed shortly by the delight of finding Luke snuggled in beside me. He opened one eye and gave me a half smile, "Coffee?" he whispered. We smiled

Three neat parcels of packed down tent nested in the grass. The mountains around Wanaka framed the skyline of our circus, as we stood outside, dazzled by the sunlight on the steps of the bus. It was decided that coffee in town was needed as David had smashed the coffee-plunger only the week before. We let the boss know, and headed off-site.
..David, for your reference is very good at smashing things, and is responsible for the distraction of almost every wine glass the circus owns and an array of other assorted glass objects - oddly enough, he is also the only one of us that quite happily will eat the glass of wine - including the glass itself - hold on to your light bulbs everyone, and don't let him near the china ware! I pondered on this for a moment before noticing that all the crockery plates had been replaced with plastic camp plates.. I giggled a little.

Show time!

2011-08-25T12:18:00.001+10:00

It was a 2pm show, so as mid day approached, the energy levels of everyone on site increased. The ticket van was a buzz. The extra generators were switched on and the sound system roared to life with pre show music. I had clambered atop of one of the trucks to put my stilts on before the photo shoot, but now the time had come. Moments later, I was walking high above the hoards of local Wanaka townsfolk awaiting the show.

At the end of the second half, as soon as the audience started trundling out of the tent it was time to pull it down. Dance shoes and sequins were thrown aside and replaced with hard wearing gloves and boots as one by one, the other performers joined in with pack down, it was all hands on deck.

High winds prevented us from fully packing down, so we got the seating and walls away into the trucks and paused for dinner, tomorrow was ordinarily a day off for everyone, but instead of this - it would be an early start, hit head on at a running pace with sledge hammers blazing. Good morning from Circus Aotearoa.

Wake up call - Day 2

2011-08-24T23:34:00.007+10:00

There was a loud CRASH on the windows of the bus- I awoke with a start and glanced over at Luke - "yeah.. you'll get used to that" he said.. Apparently that was the standard wake up call for the circus - the bosses would send who ever was awake charging aground the lot yelling and crashing on everything they could find.. it seemed to ignite a sense of delight in whoever was given the privilege - maybe because it meant that on that one occasion, they didn't have to be woken by the un-nerving racket themselves.
We were up and about in minutes, shoveling spoonfuls of cereal into our mouths, and getting ready to set up for the matinee show. Being a Sunday, there was only a single show.. a single show and my first tent-down, that is.

Damian, the ringmaster slowly ambled toward me, he mumbled something about pre-show and stilts, which roughly translated as an invitation to perform walkabout entertainment for this show. It would be too hard to integrate me into the full production mid stand, so I was lucky enough to be eased in gently! I obeyed, and costumed up, then looked around for somewhere high to sit while I put my stilts on.

..I was way to early. I had been excited about coming to the circus for weeks and was so eager to perform that I ended up sitting on the trucks with my stilts on for nearly an hour. Damian walked over to me again - this time with company. The press had come to cover the circus and it seemed that I was conveniently dressed for the occasion. Luke and I were asked questions about our careers in circus and invited to pose in front of the tent.. The newspaper featured us on the front page with a huge heading "Magic of the circus brings Jugglers, Clowns and Aerialists south"

To see the web site of this article.. click here

Day one at the circus

2011-08-24T17:17:00.000+10:00

The caravans were seated in a neat circle, inside of which, a huge striped red and blue big top loomed high above the surrounding trees and trucks. Two flags blew high in the winds from the supporting king poles and the echo of pre-show music blared out from the doorways of the tent.

I arrived in between two shows on Saturday afternoon, people were bustling around, setting up the drinks and popcorn stand for another round of audience members. I was tired, over tired in fact – I had been traveling for 27 hours by the time I reached the circus and mild delirium had me in a constant state silliness. I bounced around, greeting old friends and squirrelling around in, out and through the tent. It was so good to see everyone. Luke was there and for the first time in over eight months, we knew we were actually going to be in the same place for long enough to really enjoy the time together.

I dragged my bags and stilt poles up into one of the sleep-in buses and flopped back on the bed at the end of the bus. I was woken 30 mins later by Luke standing over me in full costume informing me that the show was about to start.

It was an epic effort to force myself into some level of consciousness, I wanted to see the show. I would be a cast member in the same ring for the remainder of the tour, so this was the only chance to view it as an audience member. I stumbled out of the bus and made my way to the seating inside the big top.

The performance was lively, energetic and well loved by the audience. A small all-human cast, only 7 performers, each with two routines. This circus was animal free as are many of the modern traveling tents these days. Having traveled by caravan for a long time, in all honesty, I was delighted by this – not only for the animal rights issues, but there is also enough to do without having to look after a trailer zoo as well!

The finale was a spinning rope act, performed by Michael the rope warier.. and just like that, the show was closed and the cast were skipping back into the ring for a final bow. I remember smiling back at the beaming faces of my old classmates as they waved to the audience and retreated in a cloud of glitter back through the backstage gates.

I stood up with the crowd and made my way along the bleachers to the exit of the tent, to my surprise, the whole cast had magically appeared at the front oarning of the tent to shake the audiences hands and hi five the kids. I grinned at them all, congratulated them on the show, and snuck back to the bus where the excitement must have worn off instantly because in moments, I was fast asleep.

**Stardust and Sledgehammers**