Chapter 168: #2016BestNine

My favourite images of 2016:
Tightwire artist Alana Jones at The Cockpit (click here), Ken Dodd & Yours Truly, Slava's Snowshow (click here)
La Soirée with Carolyn, 40th Birthday card from my friend Yolanda, Jair's birthday Freedom2Fly style at The Hive
Flying Fantastic Scratch Night Elves (click here), Mother's Day, Christmas Stag 

Amongst the fun and frolics, 2016 has been a mixture of successes and failures, struggles and graces, the year beginning on the back of a humongous slip-up, after smooching on ice with my husband Xav left him with a leg broken in three places... Here then, are my top 9 moments that picked me up again:

1. Ken Dodd and that custard pie at the Slapstick Festival up in Bristol (Chapter 128 - click here). My initiation into the world of clowning. 

2. Le Patin Libre and La Soirée (Chapter 127 - click here). Two for one? Possibly a bit cheeky to start bending the rules already, but it was the same night to remember. Funnily enough him indoors with a broken leg wasn't really up for going to see a bunch of phenomenal free-skaters at Somerset House, but my skating partner-in-crime Carolyn was. We met my first ever ice guide, also a talented actress and storyteller, Rosie, who was doing front of house that night and were thrilled and chilled by "Vertical" in equal measure. Walking over Waterloo Bridge afterwards we slipped into the second half of La Soirée just in time to catch Denis Lock's spellbinding new bubble act and bump into Bristol-based Cirque Bijou on a festive jolly for good measure. The show is now on in Leicester Square, and according to Lyn Gardner: "La Soirée continues to be a class act, largely because it keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek and never takes itself too seriously." Click here for her review in full: www.theguardian.com/theatreblog/dispelthegloom.

3. Gandini Juggling & Akhnaten: what better treat for a circus-loving Mum on Mother's Day (Chapter 133 - click here) than to travel up to the British Library with her 8 year old and see Gandini Juggling, choreographed by José Triguero and set to music from Philip Glass' opera Akhnaten. Bowled away also by the voice of Anthony Roth Costanza, I listened to the CD non-stop and a few weeks later found myself at the ENO on the very last night of the opera with Carolyn (Chapter 136 - click here), not just a skating partner-in-crime. Philip Glass was in the audience too that night, and I inadvertently snapped him in the photo taken surreptitiously of the cast taking a curtain bow. The evening was sublime. I do not say that lightly.

4. The Calder Exhibition at the Tate Modern (Chapter 135 - click here). What can I say? My universe shifted again. Einstein was a fan too. I felt connected. It's all relative. 

5. Zippos: It was Zippos 30th anniversary tour this year. I had caught them earlier at Winter Wonderland (Chapter 118 - click here) at Cirque Beserk (Chapter 131 - click here) and then over in Streatham where I saw the legendary ringmaster Norman Barrett MBE do his wonderful turn with his performing budgies. I used to have a pet budgie called Daffodil. She never did tricks like that! Watching the turns on the wheel of death was the most terrifying experience I've had watching circus - especially when the artist was standing on the outside of the ring, blindfolded, and on stilts. 

Zippos and Cirque Beserk are currently at Winter Wonderland  in Hyde Park: 
see www.thecircusdiaries.com/circus-at-hyde-park-winter-wonderland

6. Barely Methodical Troupe's "Kin": (See The Circus Diaries - click here). I went to the show with Xav, who loved the humour, the skills, Nikki Rummer holding her own with the boys (and then some), as much as I did. It was funny, it was exciting, and you can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBHgC4CBe0.

A little while later I saw one man show Paradise Lost at Battersea Arts Centre with Ben Duke in a bloody brilliant tower-house of a performance. In the bar afterwards with another circus writing Lucy (Lucy Ribchester, who writes for The List, when not being an award-winning novelist), circus inevitably cropped up in conversation. I excitedly started telling Ben all about this great show Kin that had been on at Circus Fest which he absolutely had to see. Turns out he had already. Being the director and all. I guess there are worse faux pas in life!

7. The Hive: That night at Kin I bumped into Jair Ramirez and, chatting about circus training spaces and my frustration at not being able to find daytime classes, he suggested I come along to Freedom2Fly classes in Hackney Wick. Not the easiest of locations, it takes me a whole day, but the space has saved my sanity. The Hive, where it is based, also runs the odd sell-out cabaret, and a highlight in summer was going there to see a preview of Mimbre Acrobats "If I Would I Could", pictured left (Chapter 143 - click here), that tells the day in the life of an everyday hero and the superhuman effort it takes to overcome everyday obstacles struck a chord. 

8. Giffords Circus: It was a joy to see "The Painted Wagon" head to the Wild West not just once but twice this year. Read about the show here in Kate Kavanagh's review for The Circus Diaries. The first time my daughter and I went straight from stomping and twirling in the sawdust ring with audience & cast in the morning, to the hospital for afternoon visiting hours where Mum had just emerged from her coma the day before. Mum had nearly died barely a week before and her recovery was little short of miraculous.  I arrived to find her with a copy of the The Lady by her bedside, directing me to an article all about Giffords. Always full of surprises and ahead of the game Mum, and I am still in wonder that we will be spending Christmas together. Returning to Giffords, this time without kids but with Hamish and Onni in tow, two of the performers from Ssshhh!, the day before the cabaret at Jacksons Lane (see below), was definitely my guilty pleasure!

9. NoFit State: The arrival of NoFit State in London reminded me of my original dream to become a circus strongwoman, and kickstarted my own training again, and for that I am so very grateful. It was so much fun going behind the scenes interviewing the wonderful Delia Ceruti (Chapter 162 - click here) and then climbing up the scenes in a workshop later (see Chapter 165 - click here). Bumping into aerialist Frances Widow there was another highlight. We have been on Twitter together for a couple of years, meeting through an illustration of hers that I admired and used for one of my most popular posts of 2015 (Chapter 65 - The Circus Strongwoman - click here). NoFit State also gave me a night to remember with one of my oldest friends Jane, where we celebrated the sheer talent on display and partied the night away.

The show Bianco is my top review of the year, see Chapter 164 - click here. If you haven't seen the show yet, you have until 22nd January. Catch it while you can. After that Bianco is no more, and NoFit State will be moving on to their next flagship project for 2018, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of modern circus. 

Of course, my ultimate best nine are the nine utterly terrific performers who agreed to be in Ssshhh!, the cabaret we put on at Jacksons Lane this summer as part of the Postcards Festival. These pictures by Shauna Summers speak volumes where my words fail. It was simply one of those nights to remember, and I am so grateful to Artistic Director Adrian Berry for the trust and confidence he placed in us to let rip.

From left to right:

Michaela O'Connor, Red Sarah, Molly Orange;

Cheryl Teagan, Brett Rosengreen, Hamish Tjeong;

Sean Kempton, Danny Ash, Onni Toivonen.

A huge thanks to those of you who were with us that night, who supported with shout-outs and spread the word. And thank you to all you readers for your interest in the circus scene here. The blog has had over 12,000 hits this month. As a writer that fact brings a warm glow, a sense of being relevant and engaging, and feedback is always welcome. Highlights are listed above, but there are so many more performances and challenges which have made the journey over the past 12 months such an eventful one. 

For all you aerial enthusiasts out there, circus spaces may be shut over Christmas, but you can still keep the exercise ticking over thanks to Paper Doll Militia's competition for exercising aerialists with videos uploaded daily on Facebook. I will be following with interest and am inspired by the accounts already using the hashtag #Fit4TheHolidays over on Instagram. 

If you are looking for that last minute Christmas gift, I cannot recommend highly enough a circus experience afternoon at the National Centre for Circus Arts, which is where it all began for me in Chapter 1 - click here. And please consider supporting Jackson Lane's Christmas Day lunch appeal that reaches out to the elderly in the local community in the spirit of social circus:  www.jacksonslane.org.uk/donate-support/christmas-gifts.

Events for your diary over the holidays: Along with Bianco, La Soirée, Cirque Beserk and Zippos, The Mad Hatter's Tea Party at The Roundhouse (See Chapter 55 - click here), check out the two wise men in Two Tongue Theatre's Boys Club (See Chapter 160 - click here), mentored by a third, dark clown Peta Lily (See Chapter 156 on Peta Lily's Chastity Belt ), at Etcetera pub theatre in Camden, 6th (and 7th) January. It's an epiphany! 

Book now for the 40th London International Mime Festival (LIMF) kicking off in January. Top of my list is Thomas Monckton's Only Bones (click here for teaser trailer) and French puppet company Les Antliaclastes' Here Lies Shakespeare (click here for teaser trailer). Also don't miss the phenomenal Alex Walton's in Adrian Berry's poignant From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads (Chapter 161 - click here) back at Jacksons Lane on 27 February for one night only.

Meanwhile I'll be back in the New Year to get "Smashed" with Gandini Juggling, as a special edition opens the London International Mime Festival on 9th/10th January at the Peacock Theatre, Sadlers Wells. Time now to chill... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! 

Chapter 167: Aircraft Circus - Greenwich Circus Festival

Photo: www.aircraftcircus.com/greenwich-circus-festival (click here)

Once upon a time I had pictures taken by boudoir photographer Stormy Sloane. Following her Instagram account from then on, I noticed one day a circus image that would fit a post I was writing at the time on The Snake Charmers (click here). That was in the days before I started writing about shows. When my blog was simply styled as "life through a circus lens" - a space to share random thoughts through a metaphor where anything is possible. The model in question was a circus performer called Kat, who coincidentally was appearing that week in show called Midnight's Circus (click here) at a theatre up in Highgate called Jacksons Lane, so Stormy and I went along with my husband Xav, and a couple of friends. Ah, it was a great evening, and that was how I encountered Aircraft Circus.

Aircraft Circus is based at The Hangar, on an industrial estate in Woolwich, and, as well as creating shows, it is a training school offering 15 and 16 week intensive full-time courses for artists, as well as recreational classes. It is one of those places that I've heard so much about but never visited, being a nightmare to get to from where I live. This weekend however their Greenwich Circus Festival coincided with Christmas lunch at old friends' down the road, and Sunday driving  outside of rush hour made it all the more accessible. 

It was funny to walk into a circus space where I knew literally no-one, but none the less welcoming for that, buzzing with that familiar festival vibe. My 8 year old and I arrived just in time for the All-Sorts family cabaret show, compered by a Christmas star of an elf. We both sat cross legged on the floor and watched fantastic displays from a mix of students and teachers, compered by the bright Christmas Star of an Elf, Emily. I was delighted to see Aircraft Director Moira in the air again after her sexy wildcat trapeze duet at Jacksons Lane (click here). It was announced that she had been out of action due to injury for a couple of years, so this really was a special occasion, and the performance gave me goosebumps. I also witnessed the most fluid of mermaids on hoop, the youngest aerial ninja on trapeze, a bowler-hatted Malcolm McDowell in a surprise descent from the ceiling on silks, and Moira's students, a duo of sisters executing feats of superb strength and flexibility with insouciant attitude on trapeze. Of course, my daughter's favourite was "the youngest act, Mum" who was so nimble and quick with her turns and her drops. 

Despite her appreciation of all things aerial, the workshop that interested my daughter most was acrobalance. She had a terrific time, despite Nik warning that it was used as a form of torture in medieval times. It certainly stretched her! Watching her with the younger ones, reminded me of how good she is with our littlest monkey, so I was not totally surprised when she said that while learning how to fly was cool, what she enjoyed most was being a base. The kids had lots of fun balancing on each other, and the activities culminated in a three-high human pyramid, that held for at least a second or two before they all collapsed in a tumble of giggles. Meanwhile I went along to the juggling workshop, learning a few neat tips to take home and practice, before we moved onto the inflatable slide downstairs. 

While we would have loved to stay on for the next "Movie Nights" performance, which I heard was excellent, we had to get back to one of our own, arriving just in time to curl up with the rest of the family on the sofa and catch Luke Skywalker's hand-balancing act on Dagobah, with the ever-vigilant Yoda. There you go, I thought, circus everywhere. 

For more information about the festival programme, split between day and evening passes, click here.

The evening included astounding alumnae acts, and the superb Midsummer Night's Circus with aerial, fire-eating, stilts and all-sorts. Check out @nzboyzabroad's (aka Rafiki character in previous chapter!) posts on Instagram and the hashtag #greenwichcircusfestival.

For more information about courses, parties and events run by Aircraft Circus visit www.aircraftcircus.com

Chapter 164: NoFit State's BIANCO

Augusts Dakteris
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

"I met my old lover on the street last night..."  Paul Simon, Still Crazy

Here's a funny thing: I was on my way into the National Centre for Circus Arts on Monday morning and I ran into my first proper (or improper!) boyfriend. Turns out he lives round the corner. Ah, it was so lovely to see him, a real surprise, but there were none of the butterflies from once upon a long ago. We simply chatted and moved on. So the next day, off to the Southbank, I wondered if that might not be the case for Bianco too. My first love in circus, would I feel differently having played the field now for a couple of years? Would Bianco still excite me in the same way...?

Enni Lymi
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

I had already checked in on NoFit State a couple of weeks ago when meeting up with Delia Ceruti (see post The Circus is Coming - click here), but, now the Winter Festival was all set up, and lit up by night, it was a different sight. Walking down from the National Theatre, I loved the view of the roller-disco "Bump" grinding away in the foreground, then, behind the giant spaceship of a circus tent, the swinging fairground ride, seats akimbo, in flagrante. I took it all in, waiting for my old university friend Jane, who had seen NoFit State up at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010, and had had that same visceral urge to join in. The air was thick mulled wine, spiced with fun and laced with anticipation. 

Meeting up with an old friend on the eve of their birthday, as it was Jane's, carried its own energy and excitement. These feelings intensified as we stepped over the threshold into the Big Top and entered into a twilight zone where anything was possible. No matter how relentless or humdrum a day, here was a circus space where you could recharge, regenerate and reconnect. The live band was superb, delivering a cracking concert that would stand alone in its own right, and was responsive to the performers' acts, resonating with the sheer joy at being alive. This was the show's third incarnation and the music has been completely rewritten by David Murray since I last saw it. I can't tell you how precisely, only that this time round amidst the electric ska, latin beats and soulful blues I registered the presence of more Eastern esoteric notes that underscored darker moments stirring. "Here be dragons" the tagline warned. 

Bianco is a promenade show, and the audience was shifted from one space to another by roadies with a white flower in their hat and leather kilts, while performers often weaved through us in studied anarchy, drawing us into the space. This time round, more familiar now with the trajectory of contemporary circus in the UK, I heard Mad Max echoes of 80s circus company Archaos (particularly because I had been chatting recently to their events manager Dave, now director of the Cockpit - see previous post): a bell rang from somewhere behind moments before a tricycle randomly pushed its way through the crowds and a Babelonian chaos of voices ahead and above shouted out to each other, each performer speaking in their native language. The significance of the words themselves were unimportant, sacrilege to a wordsmith like me who enjoys a good narrative, yet I appreciated it was the texture of emotion conveyed in the utterance, rather than the text itself, that mattered. Whether I understood what they were saying or not, it felt as though I was eavesdropping into their world, peeking in on the familiarity and fun they were having with each other, and they knew it. There was an intensely voyeuristic pleasure to that.  A top or a skirt was discarded and we were invited to feast our eyes on ripped torsos, impossible strength and divine grace. Who wouldn't want to admire or possess that in some way?

Felipe Nardiello and Jess O'Connor
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

I enjoyed again the thrill of the twists and turns at breakneck speed from Lyndall Merry and Jess O'Connor on the swinging trapeze that opened the show. The urgent, frenetic energy of five rope aerialists lifted up by their feet to "devil music" (as Jane called it) made me think of characters from an Edgar Allen Poe tale contagious with St Vitus' dance. Now, learning silks, I found I could decode a little more of their language as they performed inverted straddles, hiplocks and drops, which was a pleasure in itself. Enni Lymi's static trapeze act was new, and the light play in the flamboyant folds of her dress caught me by surprise, while I found her sinuous moves utterly captivating. I was hypnotised by the beauty of knots in the cat's cradle created by Jani Földi on a triple cloudswing, which I'd never seen before, and his rousing discourse in Hungarian. I later found out that the very moving text was written for Jani by a friend. I wished I could have understood the beauty of what he was saying at the time, but what I like about Firenza Guidi's direction is that she took the fragment of a friendship in this way, the energy of a memory, and then got the artist to channel it. That was part of the raw, creative process Delia Ceruti had talked to me about (again see post The Circus is Coming), and I found her iconic act, rising up in immaculate white, touched by a desire of blood-red rose petals, a study in strength and vulnerability. The contrast in her "bianco" with the black-suited Joachim Aussibal as they dueted over three ropes was beautifully poignant. Jane, meanwhile had a soft spot for Danilo de Campos Pacheco on silks, or, in her own words, "the image of the most fuckable Jesus in history writhing around on a silk sheet 8 meters in the air, whilst overhead a dozen pilgrims knelt with or breathed flaming raised torches, is a truly memorable image I hope I will see again on my death bed." 

Watching the aerial acts, what I love about NoFit State was the way they exposed the mechanics of a circus show. The riggers on the scaffolding took centre stage along with the performers. Besides a clatter of distracting voices, no attempt was made to hide the pulleys and human counter-balances, that raised and dropped the aerial performers as required. Rather they featured like a shadow puppet ballet. It was like finding out the secret to conjurer's trick, only instead of divesting it of any aura of magic, it simply enhanced the show.

Ella Rose
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

The juggling act was new to me. While the romantic in me pined after the poetic flow of Portuguese and juggling balls from when Hugo Oliveira waxed lyrical last time round, my inner clown warmed instantly to Cecilia Zucchetti's joie de vivre and chic-to-cheek retro style. Effecting a tipsy Lucille Ball with insouciant throwaway drops of her clubs, she nailed the comedy. Speaking of booze, having contortionist Ella Rose handing out drinks is a sure-fire way to get any party started (created by the cast as a tableau vivant behind her) and she rewrote the book on how to get into a pair of heels.

Having caught a little of François Bouvier rehearsing a fortnight ago, executing an astonishing back flip on the tight-wire, I already knew that his act would be worth the ticket alone. But beyond the tricks it was the effortless way he moved, a challenge to any mere mortal even on the ground, that really held me spellbound. For most of the show I found myself at the back, on the margins, where I'm happiest as a writer. As so much of the action is airborne that was fine, except when it prevented me admiring the footwork of François on the lower of the two wires on which he was working, or catch little more than tantalising glimpses of Felipe Nardiello on the Cyr wheel. But still, as well as the jewels of action taking centre stage, there were nuggets of gold to be had there observing from the fringes: the care and concentration as ropes were wrapped and winches pulled; the rapt expressions of other audience members, the ushers and bartenders caught in the dreamscape too. I soaked it all in. Quite by chance, for the last act, Jane and I found ourselves catapulted to the front. In the line of fire of the thundering Tarzen on straps, Augusts Dakteris, I held my breath as he took a running leap towards us and then, at the last second, spirited up into the air. It was powerful and exciting to watch, while the romantic narrative that drew the female rigger into the frame made for a picture perfect finale. Down came the snow. A blanket of joy. Jane and I stuck out our tongues to catch the snowflakes. Not the smartest move when it's actually foam, but there you go. We lost track of time afterwards, missed the last train home and couldn't stop laughing. One of those nights.  Even now, a few days on, we are still soaring, just happy to be alive. Ah Bianco, you worked your magic again: ephemeral, vibrant, darkly beautiful and as romantic as ever.... 

Still crazy after all these years.

Thank you.

NoFit State's Bianco is running at Southbank Centre, part of the Winter Festival supported by NatWest. For more information and link to the trailer visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk (click here)

CAST:
Augusts Dakteris; Blaze Tarsha; Cecilia Zuccheti; Danilo de Campos Pacheco; Delia Ceruti; Edd Casey; Ella Rose; Enni Lymi; Felipe Nardiello; François Bouvier; Jani Földi, Jess O'Connor, Joachim Aussibal; Junior Barbosa; Lee Tinnion; Lyndall Merry; Topher Dagg.