Improvising

Aerial arts are so hard to train when you don't have the energy! We were joking at training tonight that this change in weather has put us all off. The dry season has kicked in tonight and our bodies are unaccostomed to the lack of sweat. I found myself almost complaining that my hands and feet were too dry. Damien, our director, tested my tissu for flame-retardedness. I thought he was kidding when he sidled over with a cigarette lighter asking me if he could "light it up". And darnnit, it DID catch on fire! This means the sound/lighting people will have to set a truss underneath the lights on the stage.

It's going to be a fun show. We are going to do our acro-balance/group pyramids as a grand finalle and the plan is that we'll incorporate the musicians into our pyramids, it's going to be hilarious working that out!

So tonight I tested out the possibility of decending a rope without pain. A dance company here have asked me to teach their male dancers how to ascend and descend (upside down) a rope. I put this brace (pictured here) on my foot to help with the pain but alas, it didn't help! Professional Rope and Cloudswing performers use 'leathers' to deal with the friction burns. I broke the news to one of the dancers tonight and said I hoped he had a high pain tolerance. After watching the poor guy start to break out in a sweat I felt bad and talked to their director about changing it to tissu instead of rope - much kinder on the skin! He was much obliging so there's hope for the guys yet!