SubZero Festival with the South Bay Circus Arts Collective

Last Friday night I had the opportunity to perform with the South Bay Circus Arts Collective at the SubZero street festival in downtown San Jose.

What a fantastic night!  We set up the aerial rig right in the middle of the festival and did aerial performances throughout the night as well as ground acts - stilt walkers, jugglers, whip crackers and belly dancers all made an appearance.

It was so much fun to perform for this crowd!  The SubZero festival is an art festival, and there were artists of all types and art-appreciators of all types too.  It was not a crowd that was steeped in Circus arts, so what we were doing was really new to a lot of people and the audiences were so enthusiastic and fun, and so appreciative.

We got a lot of interest in the Circus Collective.  Also, this was my first outdoor tissu performance - the rig is fairly new and while I've had the chance to practice on it, this was the first opportunity I've had to actually perform.  Performing outside sure is different!  The wind blows the tissu around a bit, and the view from the top is especially distracting.. I would climb up, drop into a pose and just smile as I gazed out at the sea of people extending down the street in both directions.  

We got some great video which is STILL rendering (yay for new high-res video cameras, but boo for lack of appropriate processing power).. for now, here are a few stills.. enjoy!

New Zealand Fire & Aerial Show Photos

Some photos and video from our shows here in New Zealand!

Fire Show Photos

This one is my favorite:

...and a (dark-ish) video of my aerial performance!  Enjoy!

Las Amigas del Fuego - New Tissu Routine

I love doing aerial tissu.  I love it when I've been doing regularly for a good long while and I'm feeling strong, and most especially I love it when I'm working on a new choreographed piece.  Regular practice is fun, but working towards a goal is just SO much more satisfying.

Right now I am choreographing a piece I'll be performing in New Zealand (!!!) for our upcoming trip in April.  It's about a 4 minute piece, choreographed to Las Amigas del Fuego, which is an original song by my hubby Darrell.  I sing harmonies on the song too, so this piece just feels creative all the way down to the roots.

It's got a bit of a flamenco "feel" to it, so I'm learning a few flamenco "florellos" and planning on working up a flamenco-inspired costume. Maybe I need a rose in my teeth.  Hmmm.

I'm at the stage where I've got all the moves I want to do, and I'm hammering out timing and synching with the music, and adding in flair and dance-y stuff.. and this morning, for the very first time, I completed the entire routine (including ending drop) in time with the music!  This is SO exciting, especially considering how a week or two ago I couldn't even get halfway through the choreography without gasping and losing grip and falling out of the tissu.  

Don't get me wrong.. I've got some good stamina, but learning a new routine is taxing on so many levels that one often forgets to do things like "breathe".   And I'm incorporating two rather scary moves, a dive and a drop - and that fear of letting go never seems to wane completely.

Still: I made it through!!  YAY!  Now it's time for tweaks and polishing and costume design.. and soon, performance!

New Year's Eve Aerial & Fire & Belly Dancing

For NYE 2011, Fire Pixie was booked at the India Community Center in Milpitas to put on a New Year's Eve circus show.  We rocked the house!

Opening act was a belly dance solo by Miriam.  I absolutely love her fluttery fabric fans..

Our second act was an aerial tissu duet featuring Miriam and me.  I was all kinds of excited about this. I've never done aerial for such a huge venue before and I was nervous as all get out.
We put together a new duet for this show.. the storyline was of a dragonrider and her dragon meeting and flying together.  It was choreographed to original music by Darrell, my hubby and partner in crime.  There's something so exciting about working together with a musician.. the music and the dance can grow organically together so that they fit together like legos.  If the dance calls for a pause or a crash, the music can change to support it, and if the music calls for a legato section we can add that into the dance.  It's a fluid kind of creation and frankly, kind of a rush.  (More about making the costumes over at Fire Pixie Fashion)

Since it was a new piece, we'd had a "preview party" at my house the week before the performance, so we could perform it in front of an audience before the big show on NYE.  This upped my confidence level enormously.  And it really worked!  I had the jitters until I heard the first drumbeats of the music start, and then found myself transported to that magical timeless flow state, flying through the routine effortlessly, spinning and dancing, climbing and dropping, connecting with the audience.

Moments like that are magical.  This is why I choose this kind of life. 

See the whole photo set here 

After the show, the adrenaline rush took us right through the last set of the night, the fire show.  I'll be honest.. we've done so many fire shows of this type that we don't even bother taking pictures anymore.. but we pulled it off with our usual aplomb and then made it back to Miriam's in time for a new year's champagne toast.

Happy New Year!  I want to hear about your NYE adventures too!