Grilled Cheese and Spanish Web

These first weeks at NECCA they have us try out a bunch of different circus apparatuses and disciplines. Today my group did duo trapeze and Spanish web. Here's a short little video that demonstrates something like what we were doing today on Spanish web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmT-mMTUPwQ.

On Tuesday we did wire walking and Chinese pole. I really liked being on the wire. I enjoy anything that involves balancing. Chinese pole was hard because of my pulled groin muscle, but I will try it again when I'm feeling better. My handstands are improving, which is really exciting. Practiced my tuck ups and pike ups a bunch this week since with my injury straddle hasn't really been my friend.

After a long day of circus my little Boston crew got together this evening at Morgan's place for grilled cheese and tomato soup. I brought the bread, plus Sabra hummus (the best!), pita chips, and chocolate. Alissa and Vanessa brought homemade glutton free corn bread and Jewels made one of his beautiful and delicious pumpkin pies complete with freshly whipped cream. It rained two inches in Brattleboro today and we all agreed that considering the dreary weather, this was the perfect rainy day meal.

And then we did what circus people, and many other people do when they get together. We watched youtube videos. I highly recommend both the literal video of The Safety Dance and You're Beautiful. They make me laugh every time I watch them.

Big E Festival

Anthony on the rig

Helped woman the aerial rig for NECCA at the Big E Festival in Springfield, MA today. Drove up around 9am this morning with my buddy Anthony who is also in Protrack. Arrived at the festival a little after 11am. Serenity showed us the basics of working the rig and how to bring the apparatuses up and down. I felt a might intimidated by the responsibility of the task, so good thing Anthony has loads of experience. He spent the summer touring eastern Europe with the Aerial Angels, so he's dealt with his share of rigs. Here's a pic of him cat the top of the one we used today.

Some great performances by young people who are students at NECCA. I particularly liked the duo trapeze act performed by Fern and Megan. And watching nine-year-old Emily on hammock. Awesome! Also, Anthony and I got to perform a little partner acro at the beginning of three of the shows. It was fun noticing my comfort with the crowd building each time we were out there.

After helping Serenity strike the rig we were free to explore the festival, and to go see the Big E Super Circus. T, another NECCA student, joined us. Ben and Jerry's gave us free ice cream cones for working the rig and I bought a hot dog for dinner, the single cheapest food item I could find at the festival. I got it with sauerkraut, so I sort of ate a vegetable today.

The Big E Super Circus was pretty fun. Amazing female tiger tamer act, great doubles trapeze, hooping, juggling and a quick change magic show. I had never seen quick change before myself, so I will explain briefly for those of you who are unfamiliar. Quick change is a version of illusion or magic show in which the performers appear to change their clothing multiple times throughout the act with impossible lightening speed. Sounds silly, no? Well, yes, but I must admit I was impressed. T pointed out that the woman appeared to be carrying more weight at the beginning of the act than at the end when she looked relatively slim. All those layers of clothes I'm guessing. Wow!

Overall a good third week at NECCA. We celebrated Anthony's birthday on Thursday by surprising him at Fireworks, a local Bratt restaurant, when he and his girlfriend Christina showed up for dinner. There were about twenty of us their and we all crowded around and sang to him when he arrived. He was so touched he even shed a tear of two. It was very sweet. Loving this Protrack crew and how we are coming together as a team of performance artists. It's very, very sweet.

Groin muscle pull

Grr! I pulled my groin muscle today doing aerials at tumbling class. I swear my body just does not want to be flexible in certain ways. Getting injured really sucks. Going to NECCA in the morning for Members Only and hoping someone will have some good advice for me about how to heal it.

Homework #1

Yes, we do sometimes have homework in circus school that requires using our brains and not just our brawn. Our first assignment was to identify two acts online that inspire us and write a couple paragraphs about why. Here's what I wrote. Read it if you want, but definitely check out the links to the acts. They are both really great. And let me know what you think...

Circus school study buddies homework session
over at Kelsey and Morgan's place.

Assignment #1

I chose two very different partner acro pieces for this assignment. In the first one, titled You & Me, we are drawn into an intimate moment between two young lovers. I like acts that tell a story and start by setting the scene for the audience. In this one we are sitting with the lovers under the stars. He alternately points out constellations and looks lovingly into her eyes. These first moments transition easily into the body of the piece, which highlights the skills of these two well rounded performers in dance, theatrics, acrobatics, hand balancing and contortion. The music and costumes are simple and add to the delicate tension. You really believe they are in love. 

The act itself is gorgeously choreographed, employing movements and shapes that enhance the tricks and allow the lines of the performers bodies to echo and compliment each other. There are so many beautiful little moments, like when she arches to lie down under his handstand. He balances over her in a split with his back leg bent, and she gently pushes his foot into the air once, twice. A number of times throughout the piece she provides a solid platform for his handstand. Her shapes and strength in these moments are impressive. The aspects I love most about this piece are the emotion that is communicated, the acrobats' skills as dancers, and their solidness and strength that adds to the levity and apparent effortlessness of the tricks. 

The second act employs more dynamically powerful tricks and movement than the first. These two women are warriors, super-heroines, amazons, pirates. They're connection is solid as they perform tricks in hand to hand, acrobatic drops, lifts and counter balances. It's an act that I could watch over and over again because of how quickly it moves through unique tricks and transitions. There is no less of a story here than in the first act, but more is left up to the imagination about who these two women are and what they are up to. It's an act that would be hard to watch sitting down, especially because the driving music makes me want to move or at least clap. The costumes are also fantastic. 

These two acts represent aspects of the strength, beauty, subtlety, and dynamism that I aspire to bring to my own act creation and performance. They also reflect an interest that I have in challenging limitations and stereotypes about what it means to be a female acrobat and performer. 

Enjoy!

Amanda

Homesick Hike

OK, it's finally hit me. The first couple weeks of school everything was so new and exciting that I could kind of forget that I had just picked up and moved myself away from everything and nearly everyone familiar. It took a while, but after 12 years Boston is definitely the place I call home. Who would have guessed it? Not me. In fact, I like to tell a story about visiting my Aunt Wendy and her family in Boston when I was about 10 years old. At the time I remember having the distinct thought, "I will never live here." Funny. I think that at the time it just seemed so different from my midwestern home of Ann Arbor, Michigan that I couldn't imagine settling there. And because I moved to Boston for a dude it just took a while for me to claim the place as my own. But you know what did it? The Cape. The ocean. I love the ocean. And now I really can't imagine living far away from a giant, salty body of water. Not to mention the fact that I have built an incredible community of friends and support there over the past decade plus. So despite the many wonderful people I have met since moving to Brattleboro, and the few Boston friends who came here with me, I have been feeling a little homesick this past week.

So, when Elizabeth called me on Sunday to say that she, Andy and a cadre of friends from Weston were in Amherst for a day hike I cancelled my other plans and drove there as quick as my little Honda would allow (look ma, no speeding ticket!). It was really wonderful being enveloped in a sea of familiarity and caring all day long. Everyone generously listened to me blab on and on about school. They obligingly asked lots of questions and oohed and ahhed at all the right moments. Thanks guys! Below is a pic of me and Elizabeth from our day on the mountain (Holyoke Range I believe).

Happy 100,000 miles little Honda!!!
Here's to 100,000 more!

P.S. On my way down to Amherst my car turned 100,000 miles old. I pulled over and took a pic to mark the occasion.

My Schedule

A number of people have expressed an interest in my weekly school/work schedule, so I thought I'd post it. Here 'tis...

Monday
11-2pm Lunch shift at Shin La
3:00-5:00 Member's Only (otherwise known as open studio time at NECCA)
6-9pm Dinner shift at Shin La

Tuesday
8:45-12noon Protrack
12:30-3:30 Member's Only plus weekly lesson

Wednesday
10-3:30pm Member's Only
5:30-9 Dinner shift at Shin La

Thursday

8:45-12noon Protrack

12:30-3:30 Member's Only

Friday

8:45-12noon Protrack

2-3pm Tumbling Class

Saturday

9-12noon Member's Only 

5:30-10pm Dinner shift at Shin La

Sunday rest day

NECCA requires we put in a minimum of ten hours training outside class time each week. That can happen during Members Only or at Outer Limits Gym(where membership is covered by NECCA tuition). We also get a weekly one to one lesson with a coach. So far those lessons happen on Tuesdays.  

That's all folks!

A

NECCA Week Two

Somewhere in the middle of this past week I lost track of my computer cord and, seeing as my battery lasts about 10 minutes without it, the ability to blog for a few days. Luckily, my lovely roommate Lauren tracked it down at NECCA and returned it to me. Thanks Lauren!!

Acro with the Boston crew. Me, Micah, Roger and Ellen.
And Morgan took the picture.

School was awesome and challenging this weeks. Whew, could I feel my lats by Thursday! Tuesday morning we got up on the trapezes for assessments and conditioning. Turns out I have some skills up in the air after all. Worked a bunch Tues afternoon and Weds on a basic trapeze routine, which is why my lats were killing my by Thursday morning. Did a bunch of acro with Micah and others on Weds, including some hand to hand and fun multiple person tricks. On Weds afternoon I got an amazing Thai massage from Rhada that helped my hips and hamstring feel much better. They've been bothering me since the program started.

This man can balance on anything!

Thursday was an acro assessment with Bill and Amy (all these assessments!), first solo then partnering tricks. There's a big blue fuzzy mat at NECCA that we call Grover (hello Sesame Street). Most acro related stuff and stretching happens on Grover. Anything that requires a little cushioning underneath. In the afternoon on Thurs two dancers from Pilobolos came and taught a three hour partnering dance/acro class. Pilobolos is an awesome company that's been around since the 70's and combines a lot of what I love about circus and dance in it's pieces. Lots of cool counterbalancing moves that allow smaller and bigger people to take each others weight.  Damon and Molly were our teachers.

Friday morning was running, then yoga, then more conditioning with Amy and Bill. In the afternoon we had our first tumbling class at Woodman's. Back handsprings, tucks, front handsprings, aerials and illusions. Alyssa threw a front aerial, which is a fairly difficult and very cool looking trick that she'd never done before. She landed it beautifully on about her second try. We were all very impressed.

Other exciting events of the week included Roger's 30th birthday, Karaoke at Rocky Top Tavern, and me getting just a little better at my waitressing job at Shin La. I'm there again tonight. Everybody cross your fingers.

Brattleboro Farmer's Market

I'm about to make a serious statement. For those of you who know me, you know that I have lived in some places that have incredible farmer's markets, among them Ann Arbor, MI and Olympia, WA. And Boston's got a few, too. These are great markets with incredible baked goods, artisan work, local meats, fruits, flowers and veggies. But I think I am not remiss in saying that the Brattleboro market puts them all to shame. The setting is gorgeous, just a quick three minute drive out of town. Booths are set up in a large ring around an open grassy area with picnic tables. The market is surrounded by trees and just far enough from the road that you can't really hear the cars. In addition to produce, vendors sell incredible chai tea and an impressive variety of delicious prepared foods. Many booths offer samples of whatever they are selling, from granola, to watermelon, to cheese. Lest I begin to sound like an advertisement for the Brattleboro market, let me move on...

Being in circus school and hanging out with friends who are circus people means you kind of take the show with you wherever you go. This was the case yesterday when Micah, Alyssa, Zac and I visited the market. Zac is from Cambridge where he runs a twice weekly acrobalance class that a bunch of us Boston based circus people take. Before long we were handstanding and flipping on and over picnic tables and each other. There were applause.

Micah basing Zac in arm to arm

Alyssa and Zac picnic table hand balancing

Tired

Whoo-hee!! All the training and conditioning of the first half of the week really caught up with me today. I'm exhausted. All I've wanted to do all day since class ended at noon is eat, lie around, and then eat some more. Yummy spaghetti dinner at Morgan's apartment tonight. I brought chocolate and cookie dough ice cream. Half of Protrack jammed into her modest living room. Lots of laughter and cozy conversation. Lots of reminiscing about circus days of old.

Glad that tomorrow is a light training day. Running form class with Elsie's husband Jim, stretching, then theater/team building with Bill. Should be good. Short entry tonight cause I just don't have much in me. Plus, to top it all off I got a flat tire on the way to visit my friend Jana in Keene. Luckily, I was right near a Goodyear Tire when it happened. Sadly, they seem to think I need four new tires on my little green Honda. They are the Goodyear tire people, so I guess they would say that...

G'night

Sauna

OK, one of the very best parts of Protrack is the membership to Outer Limits Gym. The facility is fine and will fulfill our needs for extra strength training and cardio during the cold Vermont winter. But the really great thing about Outer Limits is that it has a sauna. Really, it is wonderful. I think I would be significantly more sore at this point if not for the 40 minutes I have spent in the sauna the past two evenings. Also, a really great time to just chill, talk and get to know the other ladies in the program. I imagine I will be making frequent, perhaps daily, trips to the sauna over the next 9 months. Also, the guy who owns the gyms name is Chip...and that's just a great name.

First Training Day: Assessments

I hardly know what to say about today. In some ways it wasn't as hard as I expected. In others it pushed me to my limit. Class started at 8:45 sharp this morning with a pretty standard name game, the one where you toss a ball around the circle in a pattern repeating the name of the person you're receiving from and passing to, then add more balls, then do the pattern backwards, etc. It was useful, but honestly I already knew everyone's names from a couple of months of Facebook stalking them before we even got here. So maybe I had an advantage. Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands...

After that we did some basic stretching, then moved on to the main focus of the day, Assessments. For a little more than an hour we worked with partners and as a whole group to chart how many pulls up we could do (me, 5), push ups in a minute (me, 21), handstand against the wall (only a minute and 15 seconds!?), various fabric climbs, trapeze holds, and wall squats (I thought my 2 minutes was pretty good, but Morgan and Ellen totally showed me up by staying in their squats for 5 minutes!). I was pretty happy with my results, fairly even across the board. It will be interesting to see how much I improve in strength throughout the year.

Next, Serenity worked with us on proper alignment. We did an interesting excursive where we walked around the room just noticing how we naturally hold our bodies. Then we laid down on the floor while she instructed us in how to tweak everything back into it's proper place, followed by another walk around to notice what, if anything, had changed or felt different about our postures. It was useful.

One thing I've noticed and really like about the NECCA program is that it's very holistic. We'll get the traditional learn the tricks and apparatus training, but they are also planning to bring in a nutritionist to talk to us about food, they have a gyro-tonics specialist on staff, a massage therapist who is a circus performer herself, dance classes, running classes, theater classes, and membership to a gym that has a sauna (whoop-whoop!). Basically, this appears to be paradise.

Ended the day in the sauna (right next to the school and a five minute walk from my house) with three new friends from the program. Tomorrow more training at school and a shift at the restaurant.

NECCA Orientation!!!

Did my first post-training shift at Shin La sushi restaurant today. It went well. Always hard to tell if these waitressing jobs will work out or not for the first couple of weeks. So far so good with this one. Keeping my fingers crossed. The owner is a middle aged Korean woman called Mrs. Kim. She's friendly and helpful, but I could see her getting pretty serious given the perfect storm of events that so often typify restaurant work. I'm sure I'll get yelled at more than a few times over the next months. Comes with the territory. It'll help me build a thicker skin. Mrs. Kim was very sweet to me today, though. At one point she whispered, "Don't let Mr. So (the chef) get to you. He's very cranky". Awe, thanks Mrs. Kim.

And after Shin La was (dun dada dun!)....NECCA Orientation for Protrack!!! For anyone who doesn't already know, the school I'm going to is called the New England School for Circus Arts, or NECCA. Protrack means the "professional track training program", and indicates that I may someday be a professional circus performer. More on that later! NECCA is run by two twins, Elsie and Serenity, who perform doubles trapeze together among other things. Serenity was there with her whole family, husband Bill (awesome acro coach), and three kids.

Elsie, kind of the head hancho of Protrack, introduced a few of the coaches, then talked to us for a long time about paperwork, scheduling, private lessons, random rules and guidelines, i.e. "No open containers of liquid in the training area!", and "No, you can not do your own rigging yet!"

There are 18 of us in the program this year. We got to introduce ourselves briefly (nerve wracking!), before taking a tour of the facilities. I was so excited during the tour I just wanted to do handstands the whole time. But somehow, even among a bunch of circus performers, that didn't seem very "professional". So I waited till I got home :)

After orientation my wonderful Boston circus crew (Roger, Ellen, Morgan and Micah) came over to my new apartment and made a delicious dinner. Fish, sweet potatoes, kale and quinoa. I am so happy to be here with a built-in little family. Makes everything feel just a little easier, a little safer.

Tomorrow is our first training day, which will include a physical assessment. How many pull ups can you do, how many leg lifts, how long can you hold a handstand, and who know what else?! Then I have my first lesson with Bill at 1pm.

Bedtime!!!

Guilford Country Fair

I met up with my friend Jo and her sweetie Ray at the Guilford Country Fair yesterday afternoon. Jo grew up around here, so I also got to meet her sister Terry, two nieces and assorted other friends. The definite highlight of the fair was the sheep sheering demonstration. It happened just after I arrived and I was reluctant to go because I had just found Jo and wanted to hang out with her. She had seen the demo earlier in the day and said it was not to be missed. And so, thankfully, I went.

So, out behind the barn where the prize Jersey cows were being kept was a small area containing a pen in which two freshly shorn sheep stood chewing their cud. Beside the pen was a man with white hair and a friendly face holding a very hairy sheep by it's head and back side. He invited people to come up and feel just how thick the animals fur was before sheering. Then he started shearing, first with on antique pair of shears, later with antique clippers that were operated by a hand crank. He kept up a steady stream of delightfully entertaining banter throughout the entire shearing process. I captured some of it on video.

Also took an adorable picture of two worn out piglets cuddling.

Cats

Made my last trip to Boston today to pick up the cats. Now they are here in my room trying to figure out what the hell is going on. They spent a few days living in separate places (thank you Anya and Sheera!!!), while I did the work of packing and moving. Now they don't recognize each other's scent and keep hissing and growling whenever one or the other gets to close. It's kind of cute, but also annoying because I'd like to go to bed soon. Gave them some Rescue Remedy (highly recommended by my sister for both human and animal anxiety). It seems to be helping them chill out.

Tomorrow I'm going to take advantage of my Outer Limits gym membership (comes with the whole circus  school package). Then off to the Guilford Country Fair with my friend Jo. She grew up here, so I'm excited to check out her old stomping grounds and see a prize heifer or two, and maybe a goat.

There is a giant spider in a gorgeous web on the back porch. And on my way back into town I saw a couple stargazing in a field. Country living, ahhh...

Will try to figure out tomorrow how to post some pics of the house and from the move. Nima's given me some good blogging tips over email, so I will see what I can figure out.

Big Move

Welcome to my circus school Blog! 


The name's not quite right, but I was anxious to get my first entry out, so I just chose something off the top of my head. Do you like "Off To Join The Circus" better? Not quite right, either, I think. Any other suggestions? I think it should have the word circus or acrobat in it, or reference flying in some way. The right name will come to me I'm sure. At any rate, here it is, my first entry....


I am now a proud resident of the town of Brattleboro, Vermont, population 11,000.


I made the move today with the help of many, many friends. Elizabeth, Chris, Eric, Matt, Barb, Jon, Rachel, Dost and my cousin Emma helped me packed the Uhaul yesterday evening. With all those people working at it the job took about an hour and a half. Same deal today with Andy and Micah, plus new friends Anthony and Christina, and new housemates Lauren and Emelia (and Emelia's dad) lugging boxes and furniture into the living room, kitchen, and up to the second floor bedroom of my new home.

Micah handstand on Uhaul

My dear friend Andy followed Micah and I out this morning to Bratt (which is what everyone here affectionately calls this little town). We left Arlington at 11am with Andy driving my little green Honda, while I commandeered the giant Uhaul full of our (mostly my) stuff. As soon as I got over the fear of driving such a ginormous vehicle I got to feeling like kind of a baddass behind the wheel. Micah and I sang rounds in the car. It takes a lot of humility on my part to do this with him, but my voice and ear have improved a lot since he started coaching me many months ago. 


One shocking part of the move was facing how much stuff I have collected over the seven years that I lived at Hall Street. Wow, do I have a lot of stuff. I tried to get ride of some things during the packing process, but apparently I was a bit too liberal with my own hoarding tendencies. I'll have to leave a lot more behind in the next move. 

Me and Andy

After a week of packing and two days of moving I am exhausted. I drive Andy back to Boston tomorrow morning, then back up to Bratt tomorrow afternoon. Brattleboro is exactly 100 miles from Boston, and it's a pretty drive at parts, but I am really looking forward to being done with all the back and forth and settled into my new home. Orientation for school is on Monday evening, and training starts on Tuesday!

Goodnight, sleep tight, and all that stuff about bedbugs.