As I’m approaching the end of my first year at the NCCA I can hardly believe I managed to make it through on practically no money, and with no fixed address! Its been a tough old year with lots of tears and gots of picking myself up and dusting myself off, both literally and figuratively. I really need to thank all of amazing people for their outstanding generosity in putting me up for various lengths of time and for making sure I didn’t end up on the streets! Ed & Harri, Helena & Dave, Kerri, Mike & Craig, Sadiq, Adam, and everyone who offered me places to crash I love you all!

Yesterday I had my first proper circus injury; a vola plate fracture, otherwise known as a broken finger! Its a pretty common circus and acrobatics injury as it happens when the finger is hyperextended on impact, in my case the impact of my hand under my face as I fell squarely on my head from the trapeze!

Well today is my birthday and I’m now 30 years old! I don’t really know how I pictured myself at 30 when I was little, but it certainly wouldn’t have been at circus school sharing classes with18 year olds! For so much of my teens and twenties I had given up on having a creative career because I was told it was stupid, childish, unrealistic, impractical, narcissistic, unfeasible, too much hard work, I was so unlikely to succeed……Even when I really got stuck into Burlesque and Cabaret it seemed that making a career out of creativity was impossible for me. I feel so lucky that I have managed to get to where I am now. Its nearly broken me many times, but I’m surrounded by amazing people who help get me through and remind me that passion is worth fighting for.

Today was a pretty big day for everyone here - the Circus Space is no more. We have officially changed name to the National Centre for Circus Arts!

In the UK the term ‘National Centre’ is protected by the government, who have designated the school a ‘centre for excellence’ and today we had our official name change ceremony with a 6am press call, photoshoots, television interviews (where I was interviewed by the BBC while upside down on a set of straps!) plus a visit from the Minister for Culture.

I have been training in doubles and static trapeze for a few years before I came to the Circus Space and decided I wanted to try single point or ‘dance trapeze’. Its a much heavier bar rigged with a swivel so you can spin, swing and pirouette as well as all of the standard trapeze moves. I chose to try it as I’m looking for a discipline that is going to give me transferable aerial skills, as well as force me to work on my movement quality and flexibility - two things I feel I currently lack most as an artist.

Yesterday saw something of a return to former glories as I was strutting my stuff at the Leicester Comedy Festival at Kitty Cointreau’s BraHaHa. Ive performed at this show for a few years now and love the mix of comedy and burlesque, as well as getting to spend time with my amazing friend Kitty, who was showcasing some of her hot new fire skills!

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been having specialisation assessments in tightwire. I initially tried it out at Circus Warehouse in New York with Sonja Harpstead and was surprised to discover how utterly exhausting it is! When you start learning wire you begin with walking and you fall off a lot, so not only do you do a lot of walking, you do a lot of climbing back up onto the wire again, I swear its akin to two thirds of a step aerobics class!

Today I received a letter from SAAS (the government body that deals with Scottish student funding) informing me that despite the appeals and evidence from myself, Circus Space and a leading mental health charity, they will no be assisting me with paying my tuition fees.

One of the new classes we get this term is ‘Understanding Circus’ with the schools Performance and Academic Leader Rishi Trikha. Rishi is an academic and theatre director who has taught on the degree for years and his passion for raising the academic standard and nurturing the critical abilities of the students is really invigorating.

well its now 2014 and a whole new term, with an exciting new component: Specialisation! The aim is to get all of the first years through the process of choosing a discipline to specialise in for the rest of their time at Circus Space. For some it may be just a starting point in a varied circus life, for others its the equipment they work on for the rest of their careers. Either way, its the discipline you graduate with, and will be spending the majority of your time working on for the rest of the course, so its a big decision.

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