Being Injured

Being injured is rubbish.  I just want that categorically and emphatically stated for the record. 

To add insult to ankle injury, this week has been acro intensive week.  That means that everyone who specialises in acro (yes, me) has had around 20 hours of taught acro time in addition to our normal lessons, where we would only normally have 4.  Translated, that means a lot of sitting and watching and taking notes and making videos, when everyone else is having fun.

Don't get me wrong - my injury is not that bad.  If I had a desk job it wouldn't even be a problem.  However, when you have a whole day of classes learning to lindy hop, it's more of an issue.

So now I'm limping along the fine line of trying to be cautious and protect my ankle as much as possible in order for it to heal effectively, and trying not to be too scared to try things, to still push myself in order to squeeze every last drop of training as I can from the course.  Last night I got the balance wrong by taking part in an extra rope class, and so today I've had to miss ballet. Rubbish.

There are always positives to be gained from any situation, and in this instance it's the opportunity the problem has given me to step back from 'doing' and think about creating instead.  Rather than taking part in this Friday's presentation, where the group will showcase what we've learnt from the week, I'm helping Lisa, our very lovely acro teacher, actually devise the presentation and put it together.  Every black cloud...

And on an altogether more positive note, here's a link to the blog of the New Perspectives Step Up ensemble, with whom I spent a day teaching circus based stuff in February.  I think it's poetically written, and a nice summary of the day from the participants' point of view.

http://yourperspectives.wordpress.com/

Next blog is going to be more cheery.  I promise.

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!