Balance Yourself!
March 31, 2017
I spent the last 3 months training and collaborating with some incredibly talented people in Ko Pha Ngan – Thailand. This was a particularly inspiring and fruitful journey and below are a few images to witness how Thailand truly is a place for artists and nature to meet.
All photos above by Jan Peter.
Photos above by Mark Rutherford.
And below is a short clip from my performance at the inaugural ‘Colours of Love’ festival on Why Nam beach. Thank you to Wild Sirenda for calling us into a higher vibration of love and cosmic connection.
Teardrop
December 28, 2016
One of my highlights of 2016 was having the opportunity to collaborate with another hula hoop warrior – actually, one of the very first hula hoopers I ever met, years ago – the amazing Grace Billings.
Within one month of long distance rehearsals, we created a powerful LED hoop duo for a run of Christmas shows at Bloomsbury Big Top, London, as part of ‘Cirque Extraordinaire’.
Teardrop is a highly-skilled, sophisticated and sassy performance that combines dance and hula hooping with the latest, cutting-edge LED technology. Custom illuminating colours, patterns and graphics are delivered on stage in conjunction with seamless movements and choreography, to create an unforgettable, multi-dimensional visual experience.
Shot and cut by Thomas Johansson
Soundtrack by Massive Attack.
Next Level Snake Hoop Ninja
October 7, 2016
Hoop Cartel – Strictly for those who Spin
When I grow up, I want to be a wild child with layers on
Embrace of the Serpent
“She taught him that one cannot take pleasure without giving pleasure, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every glance, every last bit of the body has its secret, which brings happiness to the person who knows how to wake it.”
Choose your weapon
Photoshoot by the amazing Ayesha Hussain (http://ayeshashootspeople.tumblr.com/).
All these images are available in different sizes on my Flickr page.
The new Hoops In Motion
July 23, 2016
Like an ever spinning wheel, life sets us a challenge when we least expect it, to test our courage and willingness to change…
‘Hoops In Motion’ is a wonderfully exciting journey, a piece of circus and visual arts, originally commissioned by John Bishop and further developed by Cirque Bijou and with support from the National Centre for Circus Arts.
Film by Thomas Johansson (thomas-johansson.com/)
Infinite gratitude to Julian Bracey, Howie Bailey and everyone at Cirque Bijou for trusting me with such a wonderful opportunity.
What are your taboos?
This spring I literally threw myself into a wonderfully mad journey of self discovery with the world-renowned Gandini Juggling.
If you don’t know them yet, the Gandini’s are a company of ridiculously talented object manipulators, whose work has been reinventing and reinvigorating juggling over the past 20 years, whilst challenging people’s perceptions of contemporary circus all over the world.
I joined them for a 5-day, French run of ‘Cløwns & Queens’, a beautifully brave and visceral show that comes with balls, plush penises, exchanges of bodily fluids and horizontal juggling.
‘Full of sex, but never sexy’, the show depicts a mad court full of queens and clowns, engaged in a ‘constantly shifting dance of desire’. With echoes of Stanley Kubrick, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Federico Fellini,’Cløwns & Queens’ explores the nature of lust and imbalanced power relationships in a brave cross over between circus, dance and performance art.
For me personally, this was an incredible opportunity to explore some of my own taboos, both as an individual and a performer. The risk of juggling on stage for the first time ever in my career, after only a few rehearsals with the company and the specific task of hula hooping without the shield of technical tricks were emotionally charged challenges that stripped me down to my most vulnerable… let alone the actual naked scene on the cold, white lit up tables.
The risk paid off. When life offers you the opportunity to manifest your feelings through work and by doing that, learn about yourself, that’s when the most exciting adventures are bound to happen.
Immense gratitude and big respect to Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala, Artistic Directors of Gandini Juggling, all the performers in the company and Le Maillon Theatre de Strasbourg , for adopting me onto this crazy journey.
William Baker for Popcorn Storm Productions
November 20, 2015
Premiering as a work in progress performance at the Roundhouse in Spring 2016, Pop Circus will bring together a creative team from across the worlds of theatre, dance, music, fashion and circus – a new collaboration aiming to create a new kind of British performance, that is thrilling and glamorous but also anarchic and subversive.
All photos by William Baker.
Black Out Days – LED hula hoop act
October 14, 2015
A revamped version of my ‘Black Out Days’ LED hula hoop act, performed with latest technology smart LED hula hoops at Jackson’s Lane Theatre, London, 2015.
Filmed by Mark Morreau and Thomas Forsyth. Music by Phantogram.
Metamorphosis
August 13, 2015
When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty but of her weirdness.
They wanted her to change back into what she always had been…
But she had wings.
Photographs by Simon Yin. Big thanks to Chenghao Liu and Jacksons Lane Theatre, London.
The hoops in these images are LED smart hoops by SpinFX. I can program them to change colours and patterns to any chosen music, which allows for endless possibilities to create bespoke acts and fit with specific requirements and special events. You can see more photos here.
I have always had a great interest in animation and mixed media, so when Cirque Bijou offered me to collaborate on a bespoke piece that mixed my hoops with Howie Bailey‘s visual graphics, I dived right into it.
The piece was commissioned as an intro to the John Bishop Show on BBC1, which made the whole project even more exciting.. and slightly nerve-racking.
We knew it was going to be hardcore and risky – we only had a few days to research and develop ideas and then put it all together into a live show for prime television.
Yet, despite the time and space constraints, we just went for it wholeheartedly, feeding off each other’s passion and inspiring each other through laughter and relatively appropriate doses of OCD.
The result was a wonderful work of circus and visual arts that I hope will lead to more opportunities for exploration and collaboration.
Massive thanks to Julian Bracey, director of Cirque Bijou, and Howie Bailey for being absolute legends. True gratitude and respect also for John Bishop and his crew and the BBC.
Now rock on!
More lovely photos on my Flickr.
