Well, I survived first term! I can hardly believe its all gone so quickly, or that its nearly 2014! A few weeks ago we were all given our ‘Secret Santa’ names and given a budget of £5 from the office to buy a gift, and today, the last day of term, is the Circus Space Christmas party!
Read More...

The Circus Space building used to be an old power station, the Shoreditch Electric Light Station, which burned domestic rubbish to generate electricity in the 1890s. The Latin inscription which still remains over the door to the building is ‘E Pulvere Lux Et Vis’ which translates to ‘Out of the dust comes power and light’.

Today we had to hand in our first piece of ‘Homework Project’: Your Circus in a Shoebox. The brief was as simple and open-ended as that and seeing what some of my classmates came up with was really fascinating - From full on outdoor festivals, to merging circus and healing, to erm, Spongebob Circus! this is my effort:

Out of all the disciplines I’m studying at the moment, two of the ones I feel I’m making the least progress in are Handstands and flying Trapeze, but both are still two of my favourite classes. I can’t ever see myself specialising in either of these as I’d have such a long way to go with either of them but I feel they are a foundation for my other skills and they make me feel really satisfied afterwards even if progress is slow!

One of the first things people say when I tell them I study Circus is ‘Oh my, you must be really flexible!’ and I have to smile politely. I am not flexible. I was never flexible as a child, and so I’m not one of those people who have to regain their lost flexibility, I am having to achieve it for the first ever time, and I am finding it an immense struggle. Some people take quickly to flexibility, and there are people in my year who have made astonishing progress already, but sadly I’m not one of them, despite flexibility training taking up almost all of my practice time hours.

After a while of living in London I feel that I can make some observations compared to Scotland: I love that it feels about 5 degrees warmer than Glasgow, I love how dry the weather is, I hate that so many things are closed or close really early on a Sunday, and it is possibly the flattest place I have ever lived. Seriously, I swear I was here over a month before I even saw a hill, let alone had to walk up one! The crazy training schedule doesn’t really give me time to go and see much of London, or even experience much of the cabaret scene which was my whole life for so long before I moved here. Also, my itinerant and somewhat nomadic lifestyle as I try and sort out my student funding also requires that I don’t have a load of unnecessary baggage with me, so nice shoes and clothes are pretty much out of the question, as are hairdryers, straighteners, rollers and tongs - A far cry from the Burlesque world I came from just a few short months ago.

I have a terrible confession to make: I am at Circus School and I can’t juggle. Children can juggle, I’m fairly sure you could train a monkey to juggle, but I can’t even do the beginners exercises where you swap two balls between your hands! Fortunately today we got a hula hoop lesson instead with the fabulous Tina from Hoop-La-La, who eventually managed to get me to do a basic waist circle in my first lesson! Screw you balls, give me a hoop any day!

A lot of people are surprised that there is so much theatre and dance on my timetable, but the course is after all a conservatoire degree, and one of the best things about being here is not only learning the circus arts themselves, but being given help, time, and professional support to develop your theatrical and movement abilities as well. Learning how to translate tricks and moves into meaningful pieces of work is really challenging, but it is precisely that (in my opinion) which sets circus apart from gymnastics or sports; the ability to communicate meaning and make human connections through the performance of the actions you are undertaking.

When I tell most people I’m a student, they often assume its the usual deal of a few lectures a week with a lot of late nights and lie-ins, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. My scheduled classes are Monday to Friday 9 am to 4pm, with practice time after that until 5:30pm. My timetable for the first term look something like this: Mondays are definitely my favourite day with classes in Acrobatics, Ballet, Flying Trapeze, Rope and Movement it definitely feels like I’m at a circus school…especially with the 9am start and morning registration!

First week on the degree at the Circus Space, and its no surprise to discover I am a full ten years older than almost everyone else in my year…in fact, I’m a full ten years older than almost all of the students….I’m even older than some of the teachers! Fortunately very few people here see my age as an issue, which is nice, but I am so far behind everyone in terms of flexibility, movement and acrobatic ability it is pretty damn embarrassing. The only saving grace I have is my strength; all those pull-ups and presses were well worth it!

• Prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next

Help Vendetta to get back to circus school