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.
Silvia hula hoops on ‘Blue Peter’ – BBC
July 10, 2015
I’m not sure if it was a coincidence or through word of mouth, but just before my multi-media performance on the John Bishop Show was released on the BBC, I was invited to hula hoop live on the Blue Peter show…
It was so last minute, everything literally happened within a few hours, and that included running from London to Manchester to live TV, whilst beating a tube strike, in true ninja style… BOOM, HOOP, BANG!
You bet I got a Blue Peter badge for that!
Many thanks to everyone at the BBC Bridge House Manchester, it was great fun!
‘Atma’ for SmashFestUK, the Albany, London 2015
February 13, 2015
Just as 2015 kicked in, I had the immense pleasure to work with top gentleman juggler Mat Ricardo and perform ‘Atma’ in his End of the world cabaret at the Albany, London.
It was an ‘Apocalypse now’ sort of show, where the only thing left to do before the asteroid hit the earth, was to steep oneself in amazing acts of gravity-defying dexterity, laugh and be entertained by some of the greatest variety acts in London.
Did we get hit? Are we still alive now? One thing is for sure, I am still spinning like Saturn.
Valentine’s cheekiness for the National Centre for Circus Arts
February 11, 2015
Photographed by Bertil Nilsson for the National Centre for Circus Arts.
‘Urban Xmas’ photo shoot
January 19, 2015
Back in my home town in Italy for a few days, I hooked up with old school friend and photographer Riccardo Lancia.
We drove around town, our main goal being catching up, after years of not seeing each other.
It was a beautiful, crisp winter morning and so we ended up dropping some layers off to play outside.
What came out was a totally impromptu and absolutely fun shoot – a proof that good friendships are hard to die, even with years of distance in between.
All photographs by Riccardo Lancia. You can find more lovely shots on my Flickr.
Over the Christmas period I collaborated with the amazing Bertil Nilsson to create some images for the National Centre for Circus Arts.
The theme for the photo shoot was the ‘5 Gold Rings of Christmas’ and consequently, there was a lot of spinning involved.
