playtime

   We spent a few days working with Petra - a German teacher of clown and physical theatre who has like a 15 year history with Dougie and was there from the begginning of The Invisible Circus, learning to move together, exploring theatrical and dance oriented techniques which seemed to help me let go of my ego and learn to move with the group, finding the flow, letting go of needing to lead at times and finding times when i must take the lead when i actually felt like taking a back seat. As a ropewalker, i know a little about balance and now with the group dynamic, i was learning to balance my movements and personality to fit my fellow performers.

   Until; disaster struck.  After a successfull first day where I pushed myself to my limits, i awoke the following morning to discover that i had clearly pushed beyond my limits. Exertion caused a serious strain in my lower back muscles and by evening, i could not stand up.  The pain was so severe that I could not walk for about five days.

   Now I see that i was lucky in that time to be able to come in and watch the process from the outside inside if you like.. people exploring their discipline and trying new ways to attain heights which alone we might not reach!

   The next phase of rehearsals was a series of weekends we called key labs where as many as possible of us would meet up and explore our various disciplines, seeing in which way we could work together on them or use them more collectively than we usually do when creating incividual acts for a cabaret format.... i really liked watching them throw people up the chinese pole, only time will tell if we will actually use that in the 'final cut'