Integration Week and Spring Project

Last week at Circomedia was Integration Week - and it was AMAZING!  We had workshops which gave us tools with which to create our own choreographies, working from the pedestrian to abstract, workshops in musicality of movement with the lovely Anna Helena McLean, we learnt from Bim about how to discover the theatre-ness of circus, and learnt how to generate text with Adam Peck.  I loved every second, but interestingly it really showed the differences between the students who are at Circomedia to explore creativity, and those who are here to train in the technical and skill elements of circus.  I wonder why we define ourselves as one or the other, and where the true meeting point is?

And on a different note, here's the link to the video of my Spring Project.  Obviously, as videos of live performances often can, it really lacks the atmosphere that was present on the night, but I think it's interesting as a work in progress.  I'd like to take the idea further, but know that the finished product will look very different to what it is right now.  As they say in the musical theatre world, I'm prepared to kill some babies to get there.  Lovely analogy, eh?

http://youtu.be/FOnITdfnWkA

Week of Workshops

Half term has been and gone, and what a week it's been!  It kicked off with 2 days of  Creative Circus workshops on Monday and Tuesday, for children and Young People aged 8-16 years.  

There were 29 participants over the 2 days, who all learnt elements of drama, acrobalance, manipulation, aerial silks, and brought them together in a devised task at the end of the day.

Many thanks to the lovely people at Lakeside Arts Centre for hosting the workshops, the Arts Council for their funding and the amazing Nikki Disney for her invaluable support.  We had a great time!  

Here's what some of the participants had to say:

"I felt confident because Cat and Nikki helped me and I knew everyone's name"

"It's something new and I really enjoyed it.  Brill brill brill"

"It was so fun.  I can now do a handstand!"

Watch this space for more workshop opportunities in May and July.

And on Sunday I joined forces with Ria Ashcroft to run a circus workshop for the New Perspectives training ensemble, called the Step Up Creatives.  We had such a lovely day working with brave, talented young theatre makers, and can't wait to see how they use what they learnt from the day in their final show in June.  You can read more and see lots of pictures from the day here:

https://www.facebook.com/newperspectivestheatrecompany

And finally, I have started to get a little bit technological in my old age and have joined Twitter!  You can follow me (get me, using all the lingo!) at @CatherineBoot.  However, I have no idea why this blog entry has decided it wants to centre all of the text.  Ah well!  You can't win them all!