The first week after the ankle

Notable pictures from the second week of circus school. Thank you to Louise Mellor for taking all the pics and letting me use her camera to take pictures!!

Here I am giving advice since I can't walk. This is right after I had the real cast put on that morning.
My favorite picture of Tay Tay.... we call him Perez!!

Katie walking across the tight rope.... our teacher Dario is in the background rooting her on!
Bob's hanging pose...
William, Brian and Louise on the tissue.

Let me just preface this by saying these are the weeks following the vicious ankle breaking. I am counting down the days I have left at this point with my cast on. A whole new start to circus school.

Day One

With Elena we learned some new climbs and falls on the tissue. First, use B climbing method (right leg passes in front of the tissue for one wrap around, then the other foot pinches the tissue on top of the foot underneath). Now you get both feet under the tissue and bend knees to the right while moving the tissue around the foot and pinch again. Next you put your hands through the middle moving your shoulders to the front. Grab right tissue with your left hand and left tissue with your right. Pull tissue into a cross on your back below your shoulder blades. Make sure the tissue is around your thighs. Then your head goes down towards the floor with legs out. Now from the ornament position you fall back and tissue holds feet.

Day Two

Preparazione Fisico got crazy today!! Always begins with different runs, normal, A in-out, skip, one step in front one step in back, walk on tiptoes. Stretch Achilles, now bend back knee, then stretch thigh. Lines are intense – knees up front forward, feet hit glutes, one short one long leg (deer jump), long long long long, jumps feet together arms circle back and up, quattro zampe forwards and backwards, hands on ground – legs in A position – jump forward hands then legs (legs stay straight), plank down roll over back plank up, plank walk forwards and backwards. Next we worked on more stretching and prep. Candle up to the middle then down into a stretch over straight legs, cobra plank, headstands.

Acrobatics with Matteo – Begins with capovolta from standing (STO DURO!!!!); Preparation for Flic Flac.

Aeree with Elena – Work on the trapeze:

First you airplane onto the bar then flip forward and legs wrap around ropes. Reach up and grab ropes, pull yourself up so that the bar is in front of your bacino. Reach high while pulling bacino forward hands go out. Keep closed, do NOT straighten legs, sit back and grab bar while you scende (stringi abdominals).

Acting with Raymonde

Point of contact –

Move around shirt, move around hand, move around finger – move like a predator around finger

Walk neutral – no sounds on the ground – finger emerges – suspicion moves you around with the whole body

Couple work – SILENCE!! Take – move – give – silence! MAXIMUM!! – PRECISION all body in minimum, no stereotypical gestures – DENTRO TUTTO IL CORPO!!

Day Three

Preparazione Fisico with Matteo

Pretty much the same. We added some lunges and sagitale lunges.

Stretching on the bars –

Legs together with hands behind bar, head to feet while partner holds hands. Now feel open, arms between legs head down. Last, hands up and open, you go upside down and slide down between arms.

Acrobatics with Matteo

Trampoline work – walk, lunge, block, 1 2 3 knees to chest, feet to glutes, jump scissor, toe touch arms between legs, capovolta – normal, small push (tuffino), push land on back and return to standing, backwards normal, now land on back and then over feet,.

Day Four

Preparazione fisico was about the same. Some different things added to bar work – with elbows bent hold bar elbows near chest stay teas and swing, hang off bar and pull knees to chest.

Aeree with Elena

The first real drop we learned starts with open legs, right leg in front of the tissue the left leg prende il tessuto per fare il diaper – next step turn over so you are hanging and put it around front – now wrap it around the leg and around the stomach. That is when you let go and roll down the tissue.

Acting with Raymonde

Strike a pose and push with all of the body. Hands straight – one hand for action and the other for feeling

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I ran out of paper at this point but most of these exercises are repeated on Friday. I don’t have as many notes for acting because I am usually able to participate in either a chair or on the floor. I wasn’t able to participate in many of the other classes the first week but as I continue I am able to do more. I had to stay as still as possible so that the injury was not aggravated. It was quite frustrating. That weekend I laid low. I stayed with my foot up and went out only to do laundry with Caroline and Meredith (or as I call them – the most wonderful girls in the world for constantly being there to help me out).

Circus School Week One

While we were on Elba Island the girls and I decided to get back in shape and do some acrobatics on the beach before we started circus school. This is one of my many handstands from that day.

4-5-10

Today was much harder than yesterday and much more frustrating. We started with Physical Preparation taught by Matteo. He is a great teacher but the moves are obviously difficult because it is preparation for circus. We went straight into equilibrium class with Dario where we studied tight rope today. It was harder for me than what I expected considering my dance background. Next we met Elena who taught us tissue. Also very difficult, yet much less difficult once you put resin on your hands so you stop slipping. Then we learned all about how to be a circus actor from Raymond.

5-5-10

I hurt myself today… of course I was the first one to hurt themselves. I sailed (literally) through acrobatics, doing fantastic work (I was even surprising myself) then went on to dance where I came down on the side of my foot during a hitchkick turn. Luckily, it was just sprained, but I hit my butt against the floor pretty damn hard and that is definitely going to hurt for a week or so. I was fortunate that juggling was in the afternoon and I was able to participate.

6-5-10

Today in equilibrium we tried the tight rope again, then we touched on the basics of the giant ball (walking on top of a free rolling ball), the free standing ladder (walking on and up a free standing ladder), and the sphere which is just a circular can with a piece of wood on top. This one was my favorite and it was much easier for me to understand than the other pieces. I don’t like the ball because you are always on uneven ground and I panic a little bit, but the sphere is more like a skateboard, you can gain control of the mechanism much faster. We worked on tissue and I climbed all the way up, yay me!! Then we started with basic tricks on the trapeze, which was fun but painful. In the afternoon we did more work on the actor with Raymond. We love him!!

7-5-10

So I almost died during physical preparation today. It is Friday and Matteo decided to turn up the heat a little bit. Since he has trained Olympic medalists he probably could have pushed us even further, but I definitely was at my limit. He began teaching us acrobatic basics but I hurt my neck and back during a backwards roll. Nothing horrible, just need to get a massage to fix it. We went straight into juggling, which is my most frustrating class. I just get really bored with it and I never really wanted to juggle so it is hard to care. But I try as hard as I can to concentrate and Dario is a great teacher and very patient, so maybe I will actually be able to juggle. Whoopee! We went into dance with Erika who looks like she dances on water, is teaching us a beautiful piece that is extremely difficult. It is an acrodance (acrobatics and dance put together). I’m picking up most of it, but with my foot still hurting I have to be careful. I’ll rest over the weekend and hit it hard again next week.