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.
Despite the weather and extreme survival conditions, Glastonbury is always amazing.
This year, however, was particularly exciting as I got to perform not only ‘Atma’, but also 2 of my most recent hoop acts.
‘Black Out Days’ was specifically devised for the Circus Big Top and, although it was presented as work in progress, it received very positive feedback.
The greatest surprise of this year’s festival, however, was that I got asked to perform at the BBC Studio as part of their Friday Night Highlights, directly from the channel’s stage at the Park. This was an excellent and fun opportunity to show my ‘Great Gatsby’ inspired piece ‘Jazzy Daisy’, which went down a storm.
After all that excitement, keeping it up rehearsing and performing for almost 24 hours, after dragging your hoops all day around miles of muddy fields, what do you do when at Glasto?
I don’t know about you, but I go and dance my heart out until sunrise, at the jaws of a gigantic, fire spitting and laser shooting spider. That is why I love it so much in the field: it never stops feeding you its magic insanity.
An even bigger, even better Circus Big Top was my home for a week at Glastonbury Festival 2013.
Once again, it was an absolute pleasure to share the stage with so many incredibly talented performers, coming from all over the world.
In fact, thanks also to what was probably the warmest English summer in years, this was definitely the best Glastonbury of my life.. for now! A million thanks to Jade and Shaun Dunbar for making it happen. You guys rock!
In celebration of the 15th Petronas Malaysia Formula 1 Grand Prix, a series of galas, parties, competitions and fashion shows were held in Kuala Lumpur for the Mercedes – Benz Stylo Fashion Grand Prix 2013.
Stylo also presented its first ever public showcase at the Petronas Twin Towers @live concert.
It was the 3rd time that the Twin Towers @live concert was held in Malaysia and all 3 times it was organized in conjunction with the Formula One race happening at Sepang International Circuit.
This was a massive, 2 – days, public concert, that attracted more than 30.000 people and had an international line – up of artists coming from both east and west.
I had the great pleasure to entertain the crowd with my glow hula hoops, as part of an act that was directed by choreographer Pat Ibrahim, to the soundtrack of DJ Mario Schizo.
On the same night, artists such as South Korean boy band, U-KISS, and American pop star, Demi Lovato, were among the acts that took the stage at the free public show that went on from 5pm to 2am, despite the rain started to pour down during the night.
It was such a buzz performing for thousands of people on such a gorgeous stage! And an absolute pleasure working with all the team from London and the lovely staff from Kuala Lumpur, who welcomed and made us feel at home every day. This included talented make up artists, like Lin Chong, who did a wonderful job of my white cyborg character.
Thanks to Sydney Jo Jackson and STYLO international for making this happen. I am very much looking forward to the next one!
Stay tuned and find more lovely pics on my Flickr page.
In ‘Gynoid’ I’m exploring movement and manipulation, as well as the relation between the machine and the human body, through hula hoops.
How is our body affected by the props and tools, that we use every day? If our body is the main tool, the machine, what can influence and radically transform its appearance and purpose?
All photos were taken by Jonathan Green, at Mowlem Studios, London. The following shot got us a feature on Hooping.org, the online hub for the worldwide hooping community.
You can watch the trailer for ‘Gynoid’ on my Vimeo page here.
Many thanks to Jonathan Green and Damian Pajak for doing such a great job and making it a really good fun experience too.
Anywhere can be an office.
In September 2012, I collaborated with the talented Andrew Meredith, on a feature for OnOffice Magazine.
This hoop isolation film is the result of a short period of research and development that was supported by the Circus Space and the funding from Lab:Time – experiments in circus. Francesca Martello and I wanted to explore the possibilities of circus, and specifically hoop manipulation, on film. We originally started our R&D together with Lynn Scott and Helen Orford, with the idea that the piece would be made for film and on location. However, when Jackson’s Lane theatre gave Lab:Time winners the opportunity to perform their work in progress in a mixed bill of freshly created performances, we reoriented our focus towards creating a stage performance. I hope that we will be able to keep developing this work further, both for film and the stage. Special thanks to Jon Aaron Green, director and producer and Ben Green, editor of the film.
In the run – up to Christmas 2010, I had the opportunity to work with some of the best hoopers in London (including Craig Reid, Jessie Rose and Tiina Tuomisto), performing as part of the ‘Big Give’ fundraising event at Fortnum and Mason, London.
Our performance area was on the ground floor of the shop, where they have the most amazing displays of sweets, chocolates, wine, tea, cakes and biscuits.. Basically, all the delicious things in life.
With the direction of Marawa the Amazing, we created a bespoke piece, specifically for the event, inspired by all the treats in the shop and taking advantage of the dramatic spiral staircase that they have.
Stephen Fry was the host of the night and we had a chance to hang out with him in the cellar of the shop, in between performances. He was very friendly and liked our hoops a lot!
The result was a very sparkly, brighter than bright hula hoop routine, which was pure fun to perform.
A big thank you to the Circus Space for making this happen. More fun photos of the night are on my Flickr page.
Balagan (literally ‘chaos’, in German), is a state of mind, a mood, a feeling of joy and pure energy.
Last August 2011, I joined forces with eight true musicians, a charismatic singer and other circus performers from all over the world to create a colourful sea of images and feelings – the Balagan show, directed by Sebastiano Toma.
The cast was made by incredibly talented and friendly people, including:
Alba, a gorgeous and superfunny contortionist.
Thomas Dürrfeld and Marie Seeger, as known as Fernando and Serafina, who did lovely ball and club juggling.
Momo Kohlschmidt, one of the most beautiful women I have ever met, who accompanied us with her sweet voice.
I loved spinning my hoops to the live music, a cheeky mix of classical, klezmer, tango and even punk music. The energy of all the musicians on stage added a real buzz to the joy I feel when performing.
All the artists involved in Balagan made this one of the best experiences I have had so far.
Photos were taken by Sebastiano Toma and Giorgio Radoja, during our tour in Binz ans Sylt, Germany 2011. You can see more on my Flickr.
This summer I got to live one of my dreams, as I got booked to perform in the Circus Big Top at Glastonbury Festival.
Despite the extreme, hardcore conditions, it was one of the best, most fun and exciting experiences in my life. The Circus Field was possibly one of the best areas on site, and I was lucky enough to camp, work and spend most of my time there.
Behind the Circus Big Top there was an amazing team of smiley, hard-working and talented people, coming together to keep the show going on day and night, for 4 days. Performing on a massive stage to such a varied audience was truly incredible.
To me, Glastonbury was like a joke, the best joke I’ve ever heard. I am very much looking forward to the next one.
Photos were taken by Jon Green, Andrew and Joey Allcock.
