Aerial Amelie

What a spring! The last few months have been full-on preparation for Sky Candy’s first-ever production, The Red Shoes. Sky Candy co-founder Chelsea Lauman directed the show for FOUR sold-out audiences the first weekend of May. Aaaaaand, we made a profit!

We couldn’t have done it without the support of our community through our Kickstarter fundraiser in January in which we raised $7500 to buy new equipment, insurance and cover the costs of our show.

I cannot believe how lucky I am to be a part of another amazing cast and crew within a year of Madame Pain’s Boudoir Circus. In all honesty, I really thought the opportunity to perform in a full-scale production was nil when I moved back to Austin. But am blown away at Chelsea’s vision and the dedication of our little Sky Candy team. We’re looking to do another run before the end of August, which is super exciting.

And in other amazing news, Sky Candy recently sold MORE THAN 1000 CLASSES through a LivingSocial deal last week. There will be lots of Austinites dangling upside down over the next few months.

Here’s a video of the performance:

Paris is Burning from The Red Shoes, Presented by Sky Candy

Above are some photos by Ryan of my aerial rope. For the full gallery, check out Ryan’s SmugMug page.

Exciting news, everyone! I have the privilege of becoming a co-owner of Sky Candy Austin, the only aerial arts collective in Austin that offers a broad range of aerial apparatuses and performance opportunities for students. We just raised $7,500 in start-up money thanks to everyone who believes in what we are bringing to Austin.  This money is going towards new equipment, insurance and – most excitingly — a new, permanent home in East Austin. Stay tuned for an update on the new space where we will offer loads more classes.

On a personal level, the last few months have been quite tumultuous and challenging as I grappled with relocating back to the US as well as dealt with some crappy medical issues.  Both caused me to be out of training, teaching and performing for more than 3 months.

It’s felt so good to get back into training.  I also have been filling in on teaching beginning trapeze and I adore teaching. My students are frickin’ amazing. And I’m also gearing up for my first rope performance in Sky Candy’s upcoming production of The Red Shoes (mark your calendars for May 6 – 8!).

It’s also been infuriating, frustrating and humbling getting back into shape.  While I was out, I gained about 5 pounds and lost nearly all my strength. I couldn’t do a single pull up. Not. A. One. And I also couldn’t invert on the rope.

After 4 weeks of somewhat steady training, I can do 1.5 pull ups (yay) and my inversions are slowly coming back.  Unfortunately, I pushed myself too hard and managed to tear a deltoid, pull a hamstring and gouge out part of my middle finger (the part that gets trapped when all your weight is in your grip) so that’s slowed me down. Grumble.

If anyone is interested on tips to get back in aerial shape after being out for several months, I’m thinking of doing a post or video on that since I’m livin’ that dream right now.

I’m recommitting to maintaining my blog more frequently now that life is settling into a more predictable routine.

It’s been far too long since I last updated because so much has happened. Ryan and I relocated to Austin from London about 3 weeks ago and it’s been non-stop activity since we arrived.

An amazing opportunity popped up the week I arrived with Sky Candy, an aerial artist collective here in Austin. They invited me to join the group AND perform in the East Austin Studio tour! I managed to pull together a very basic piece — read VERY basic — and took absolutely zero risks with it because I only had 1 hour to rehearse a routine I put together in my head on a new trapeze bar with no mats. Here’s the routine:

I look forward to teaching static trapeze and corde lisse lessons with Sky Candy soon but am DESPERATE for indoor training space that gives me the flexibility to train whenever I need. So I’m investigating warehouse space now and crossing fingers something turns up soon because I may get to perform at Auditorium Shores on New Year’s Eve and would love to do a rope piece.

By the way, here are some of the new tricks I was learning as I left London and hope to build these into my NYE routine:

Death roll:

Drop to mermaid:

I miss London so much but am so happy to be back home.