I left off telling readers how I started in circus arts somewhere around the 'learning to eat fire' stage. After learning a few disparate skills, I bought it all together doing a Dip of Small Companies/Community Theatre at VUT. The particular incarnation I did was focussed on festival performing; I developed a lot of characters there and many good friends.
I was pleased to be going somewhere each day where I could focus on circus, and in particular, sword-swallowing. It takes a lot of dedication ~ in the realm of 6 or 7 sessions of 3 or 4 swords a day; many sword-swallowers take years to learn and often rack up tens of thousands of swallows by the time they master it. Then there is learning to do it at anytime, anywhere, with an audience heckling you and people and other performers distracting you ~ a completely new kettle of lobsters.
I first decided to try sword-swallowing after seeing The Enigma, a head-to-toe tattood swallower with Jim Rose Circus. He jokingly told me the exercises to do to start killing off the gag reflexes, and on radio, Jim Rose outright told me that I'd never do it, being a woman (maybe he was ragging me, but it seriously pissed me off, and I was determined from then on). I lost my lunch every time, and it would be another 10 years, when I started the circus sourse, before I would make any progress in the art. I had, in that 10 years, done a lot of yoga, and that, combined with being 29, not 19, meant I knew my body far better, had an inner sense of calm (a lot of it is a mental skill), and progressed to the stage very quickly, initially starting as a duo with Bo Svoronos ~ 'Gunther and the Feral Beastie', progressing to cabaret, and then studying every street-performer in town to learn how to run a street show.
Today I mainly work on the street in the summer season, and at venues and festival gigs, parties, whatever I can get year round. I also trained a small dog to work with me ~ Snicket ~ so I'd have company on the street, a gear-minder between shows, and an enthusiastic partner for burlesque shows.
Will post pics to accompany this when I get the chance.
