Nothing beats a great review..

My hoop video has been reviewed on Hooping.org :D

http://www.hooping.org/2014/03/eve-everard/

An unexpected adventure

Sitting in our studio apartment, we watched our social media as people posted that they were all converging on Ireland for our favourite event of the year. The European Juggling Convention 2014.

It had been a bit of a rough winter - Luke was out doing street shows and I was struggling to find the motivation to keep up with my training. For the first time in my circus life I was working a 'normal' job to pay the rent, and it was not making me a happy human.
We were still teaching the circus classes over the holiday program, but the gigs were few and too far between.

A week out from the convention something happened that most people have happen on a regular basis.. It was payday, normal job payday - A month of my wages in one single day.
So I did what any circus-obsessed individual would do, and decided to find my circus feet again.
I booked two flights, for Luke and I, to Ireland to join the other 3000 circus artists in what can only be described as the craziest, wackiest, convergence of humans on this planet.

The event did not disappoint! Each day was spent in different masterclass workshops, training sessions, a 24 hour juggling hall, an acrobatic space, an aerial rig, a bunch of big tops, open stage acts, watching a show of the juggling legends (AMAZING btw) and somehow finding time for sharing tricks, and ideas with new friends and old circus classmates.. The inspiration was never ending.

I really could rant about how incredible the adventure was, but to sum up:

51 hours of travel to get there, 6 hula hoops, 8 juggling balls, 2 travelers, 3000 artists, and 9 amazing days of circus in Millstreet, Ireland. Win.

Spiegel hoopings

Hoop video link

So... I have been away from the blogging for nearly 3 months. We came back to Canberra for a break after the Glastonbury tour, and took up with a Spiegel tent show that was passing through. We were not working as performers for the show, but we traveled with them to Newcastle and then on to Sydney working as ushers and helping to crew the isles.

While in Sydney I arranged with the Stage management team to shoot a new video of my hoop routine. I brought in an amazing Stunt film/TV man - SYNiMAK - who did a beautiful job putting this edit together of my routine. The full video  is up, so feel free to check it out - I'd love to hear feedback. :)
By the way.. Tomorrow we drive to Perth! (4000+ km!!)

Guess the handstand venue..

While traveling with the circus, I get to see all sorts of amazing places. I have a tendency to take my tourist photos up-side-down. Maybe while on the other side of the world, this makes me feel the right way up?!
:p

So, where was this one taken?

Tent time!

The circus has begun a new tour in our tiny-top circus tent. It is back to caravan life for us and the mercy of weather, wind, ground conditions and wildlife. This week we have two towns of shows, one in Darlington Point and then, the weekend in Griffith.

 Darlington Point is a little one street town of  pub, a fish and chip shop and a little caravan park. We stayed in the caravan park for a week or so while we did the poster runs. The family that ran it are really lovely. The town is hot, dry and there were never many people on the streets.

The tent is going up here, while at the same time, we go ahead to Griffith to visit the schools and shops with posters. Everyone has a million jobs in this circus at the best of times - more so, in a two stand week. It is so exciting to be out of the halls and theatres and back in our little tent. The whole team is buzzing and the lifting of the tent has attracted more than a little attention from the people in town.

Here is a pic of the tent *almost* set up - Luke managed to get basically the entire thing up on his own while we were away for marketing - The whole time being attacked by dangerous swooping wildlife! (Aussies will know exactly what I mean, everyone else can imagine whatever flying beasts you think would be the most terrifying)


:D

A Pizza from Mario

It had been a long day. We were set up in the outskirts of Melton in a small place called Bacchus Marsh. There, we were being hosted by a scout group that was madly fundraising for a USA tour. Lovely bunch - but still, I get off topic..



It was raining. (Surprise, surprise) So far our trip to Victoria had shown us nothing but wind, rain and a loot of crazy city driving. It must have been quite late as we pulled back into town.  The deserted streets and darkened windows of the restaurants taunted us with their "closed" signs. - Even the supermarket was shut. We were, it seemed to be denied all hope of dinner.



We came around a corner, about to head home to the lot when we spied a little sign, flickering in the rain. "Mario's Pizza" We were saved! 

The three of us piled out of the car and danced through the persistent and heavy raindrops and into the dry comfort of the little pizzeria.

A burley man sat in the corner, curly moustache and a crinkled face. He heaved himself to standing from his window seat and waddled cautiously over to the counter. "What are you doing here?" He asked us.

The three of us looked at each other, not quite sure what to make of this - It soon became apparent that the town didn't see too many outsiders. We explained that we were with the circus and that we wanted some pizzas, at which point he looked at us, almost as confused as we were. He reluctantly took our orders and began to enthusiastically rant about pizza.



He eyed us up and down, Kerry first. 'You look like a funny character' he said, "Is he a funny one?" He asked us, nodding at Kerry.  "Funny circus man, HAHA! Yes, he's a funny one, yes? You need a funny name!" He paused "I think your name should be Gretch! Do ya like that? mm? Gretch, yes"
Kerry thought on this for a moment, politely wondering what to make of this chortling pizza man.

He went back to his pizza for a moment before turning to Luke and I. It was our turn for new names: Ruben and Cynthia.

The boys had a bit of a giggle over these ones, but before Mario could get too excited about our new names, he remembered something important; The pizzas.

-He was so busy re naming us all that he forgot that we had pizzas in the oven and burned them.


He pulled them all out with an emphatic raising of the arms "ooh Mario! He said " The pizza!, *mumble mumble. Oh no, Mario!"
Thankfully dinner was salvageable and soon we left our new, excitable friend to his pizzaria.

We dashed our food back out to the car and waved good bye to Mario - He walked us out and waddled back inside. The flickering light above the door continued to blink, the outline of the pizza man rejoined the dim window, and we returned to the familiarities of our caravans.

Winter Warmth

So the frosts have started, the wind is cold and the winter well and truly has it's hold. Here at the circus we have packed up the tent and moved indoors awaiting the spring. We don't stop performing though - instead of tent shows our troupe has been hard at work doing firey spectacle shows at the National Celtic Festival, The National Museum of Australia, Geelong and even Gunning in NSW. We have been filming our work and have a little video teaser to share..

Youtube video of the fire show

Vimeo Video page link:

Please note that if you are in the USA, Youtube puts a ban on the video automatically as we only have permission to use the show music in some parts of the world - so check it out here instead!

 

A happy hoopy Eve - Photos from my hula hoop routine

Local fame for the little circus..

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..

Waltzing with sledgehammers

 

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!

Music at the Creek 2011

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