Kat's Cambridge Catch Up #11 | Circus, Circus & More Circus
September marked our one year anniversary living in Cambridge! How fast has that gone? I don't think our cats even realise they are on the other side of the world! Although they are feeling the cold coming in and so can I! We were also nervously waiting for our Visa extension to be approved. We haven't had a lot of luck with our Visa process in the past, such as choosing the wrong form to fill in, forgetting a section and submitting it. Same thing happened to this one where we missed one box. Freaking out, we called the office for advice. They told us to add a letter to our application and hopefully it would be enough to fix it. So stressful!
Our Visa finally came through mid-October. We were very relieved that we got it. Now we get the stay in the UK for another two years!
- Cherry Hinton Festival -
Some of my circus friends and I ran an activity section at this village fair. Spent a lot of the day running under cover from heavy rain but when the rain stopped, we had lots of fun showing the kids how to juggle, hula hoop and play with other cool toys.
- Camvention -
I helped out at Cambridge's juggling convention that was in October which was my very first convention! I greeted people at the door in the morning and it was really nice meeting people from across the UK and even from Europe and the US. During the day, I helped out in an acro-juggling workshop and participated in an acrobalance workshop. At the end of the convention, they had a variety show which I performed with Will in his juggling trapeze routine. The rest of the show had some incredible talent and I was very inspired!
Then came October. Looking at my calendar, I told Daniel that he probably won't see me most weeknights and some of the weekends. The reason were mainly circus stuff and some school stuff. Here we go!
- School Events -
My crazy organisation skills had me planning my school's open evening for prospective Yr 7 students about 2 weeks out. I had spreadsheets, resources, photos and ideas everywhere! The afternoon of the evening was crazy hectic! Thank goodness I had a wonderful science team of teachers and technicians to help me set up my vision. I was so happy on how it turned out! And I think the night went well too!
- Circus -
So many circus things to add here!
I helped Will teach an acrobalance workshop one Saturday night for the Cambridge University Dance Society. Meet some lovely people and had lots of fun! I shall be participating in some of the other workshops on offer as well!
The goal of October was to prepare for CCC's Autumn Showcase. Of course, I put my name down to perform but I said that I would be a backup and let those who haven't performed before take first preference. I offered to perform on the cloud which I learnt a little on back in August as I thought it was a good way to showcase the equipment and be a challenge for me to create something other than on the trapeze. I also wanted to choreograph an 80s jazzercise dance piece as it was also something new for CCC. This was inspired by many warm up sessions to 80s music. I also joined the trapeze performance course which we were to create a group act for the show.
So many challenges were encountered!
Cloud: the cloud apparatus is rigged in the same place as the trapezes so at times I wasn't able to use it or I had to work around with others using the trapeze. I think I ended up practising on the cloud for a couple of hours for two weeks and then a bit more in the week leading up to the show. There was a lot of playing around with new moves that I saw on Youtube with little success. I went through about 4 song choices and ended up settling on a song and an idea BUT with a week to go, I still didn't have anything! I cannot tell you how worried I was!
Dance: I had a wonderful group of friends who joined me in this funtastic piece! Choreography isn't my strong point but I did enjoy the process and I am proud of what I came up with. I ran two rehearsal sessions a week where I only saw 2-3 of the group at each one. Some missed out on a couple of weeks of rehearsals! I had to trust them to practise in their own time. Did I mention some of them don't have a dance background? I communicated with everyone through FB with videos and drawings. One of my dancers even wrote out the steps in a document! I had one of the dancers help me with some hula hooping choreography as well. There were so many elements! I think the hardest part was not having everyone there and pretend that they were when we ran through positioning and sections. We actually performed all together on show night!
Trapeze: I had no idea how we were going to pull this off at the beginning! There were 6 of us and 3 trapezes to work on. We decided on a theme on the first class which was good. Then the hard part came of trying to work out choreography of our own sections which complimented the others and when to do things. Then trying to put in some doubles work and transitions being us. We had some extra acting help with a workshop on physical theatre which was really good for us.
Worst part was I got really sick two weeks before the show. I had to have time off work and with my week off for half term, I spent most of the days resting. I attempted to go in for training on the Monday but got taken home after a couple of hours. I came back on the Tuesday to try and smash out some sort of cloud routine. I changed my theme and song choice and was hopeful that something would appear from my creativity. I was still struggling and being sick but I HAD to make it happen. Wednesday, I performed my new routine for the first time and I didn't completely die. So I was pleased and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Thursday, finished off the doubles trapeze course I was taking. Friday, had rehearsal and tech run with the stage crew. I don't know how I survived that week. Saturday, helped some people get ready with hair and makeup and got myself ready...
- Show night! -
There was so much excitement and nervous energy in the air. We had many first time performers that night. I was so happy to be a part of their experience. We opened the show with our trapeze routine. It was epic! It had such a good reception! The dance group closed the first half of the show. I was so proud of everyone! They did such an incredible job learning 4.30mins of choreography in just a few weeks and performing it with so much energy! I closed the show with my cloud routine. I don't even know how I managed to get to that point, considering I had nothing the week before! I loved every minute of my performance and I am so happy with what I was able to present to the audience.
Here is my cloud performance!
Now that the show is over, I'm back to working on new moves and thinking about next year's show!
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