Performing at Strawberry Fair 2017

On Saturday 3rd June, I performed for Cambridge Community Circus at Strawberry Fair. Strawberry Fair is a one day event filled with music and arts, solely run by volunteers. It was a gorgeous sunny (yet windy) day which attracted thousands of visitors! This year's theme was Fairy Tales.

Since I am a performance junkie, when the opportunity came to be part of the show, I immediately jumped to it! It was just three weeks from my first performance and I wanted the routine to be slightly different.

After watching my fellow circus friends rehearse their routines, I realised that I should have gone with something I was comfortable with doing (at least on a tight schedule). I wanted to go with a Red Riding Hood theme as I had a costume already but I kept getting stuck on how to move forward with my routine. After a week or so of nothing coming together, I changed my theme and music to something more my style and it just flowed from there. I reused a lot of the sequences from my first routine to make it easier for myself and then thrown in some new moves. I was very happy with the end result even though I managed to injure a intercostal muscle the week of the show!

Setting up for Strawberry Fair was also a learning curve for me! I became proficient in spannering and ratchetting (not real words), bunting, climbing, staking and standing around looking pretty. The outdoor rig was put up on the Friday with some bits and pieces attached. And the morning of the fair, we finished off the rest of the setting up.

I spent a lot of time getting ready for my 3 and a bit minute performance, to the surprise of my fellow male circus friends. It helps getting me into the zone. The pre-show entertainment consisted of ground based workshops with the visitors such as juggling and hoola hoops. I was lucky enough to open the show!!!! We had a grand plan of draping me in fabric and unveiling me to start however, the material and epic winds did not quite make that happen.

Photo credits: Niki Rogers and Anna Y

Photo credit: Duncan Grisby

Here's my routine!

It was wonderful performing in front of an outdoor and ever changing audience. The sun and wind made some things interesting! There were a couple of times where I was lost in the performance and then forgotten what I was doing next! All the other performers were great! I loved watching them in action on the day particularly if I've seen them rehearsing during the week, to see their hard word pay off.

I don't know if I've exhausted my performance allowance for the year but I hope I can do something in the future! Time to give someone else a go!

Once again, a huge thank you to my CCC family for helping me along this journey. Thank you to everyone who came and watched us perform. And thank you my readers for your continue support and interest!

Photo credit: Niki Rogers