So I didn’t mean to go 6 months without posting…but the last term of circus school was really difficult and then summer has been all about working so it just kept getting put off. I even had some blog posts written and just never got around to publishing them. But now that we’re nearing the end of summer I’ve been feeling really motivated and inspired again to write. This summer I started teaching aerial again, at Aloft! I really have missed teaching, but I also forgot how hard it is. I’ve been teaching introduction to silks and youth beginner lyra. I’ve always thought teaching beginner level classes was harder than upper levels, but I’m so grateful to have the opportunity. It feels very surreal that I’m a coach at this circus space that I idolized since the very start of my own aerial journey. Aloft is such an eye catching space that I vividly remember searching “aerial silks” on instagram after a few classes and watching every video posted with the stained glass windows in the background. I saw Sanctuary for the first time in 2021 and thought to myself that I’d be on that stage some day and now I have! And I coach here?! And train here!? It’s just really cool that I set these goals so long ago and now they’re falling into place.
My summer has essentially been full of side hustles and a wild schedule. I clean Aloft as part of a work study, I’ve been coaching my two regular classes every Sunday, I’ve been subbing classes here and there, I’ve been working the front desk in addition to my part time remote job and I've been figure modeling! Hence why I haven’t brought myself to make any blog posts or post on Instagram. As far as training goes, I’ve been training aerial at least 3x per week on my own and then either taking a flexibility class or a silks class. I’ve also finally had the time to add weight lifting back into my rotation and have gone twice a week for the past month! If you’re an aerialist and you’re not weightlifting, trust me when I say it’ll level up your strength so much faster than just aerial or body weight training on its own. And it’s a great complement to all the pulling we do on our apparatus.
As far as the less glamorous part of trying to be a performer I’ve been working on my demo reel, resume and toying with a website. I feel very confident that my resume and demo reel are done (for now)! We will get a lecture on both these subjects and websites in the program this upcoming year so I’ve got a head start on them and can tweak them when the time comes, but I really wanted to email some local production companies before summer was over to try to get on their radars. Making a website is a little above my skillset currently so I will wait for our lecture before attempting to make one. And to be totally honest with myself, I really think I just needed my demo reel and resume to email the local producers and making a website just felt more like an excuse to procrastinate on reaching out to them. I really just need to draft my emails and hit send at this point.
Creating my resume opened my eyes to just how much experience I’ve gotten. I started by writing out the name and dates of every cabaret and event I’ve ever performed at and it ended up being almost two pages long. I, of course, cut it down to be more concise but it was really affirming to see how much I was already booked before having professional training. If you’re needing to make a performance resume, that was a great place for me to start and maybe it’ll help you too! My demo reel process started by gathering all my videos and clips of performances and watching them all to see what highlights I wanted to use. This was a general reel so I wanted to have clips of me doing silks, lyra, duo lyra, lollipop, juggling and ensemble/acro work. I started by making it two minutes long so I could send it to friends and coaches and they could tell me which clips worked and what didn’t. From their feedback I cut it down to one minute and set it to music. The hardest part of making a demo reel is gathering all the footage and getting started. Even after I got started and cut up all the highlights I thought I might like to use (which was closer to 5 minutes of content) it still sat in Final Cut Pro unedited for another month. I definitely work faster on other people’s demo reels, for instance I made Madame Mira’s in about two weeks. I got all her footage on a trip home to Cincinnati through air drop and then edited it at home by picking out what I thought the best clips were and sending the drafts back and forth until it was perfect. (All that to say hit me up if you need a demo reel;) It's so much easier to look at someone else’s creative work than my own and I felt accountable to my friend whereas for myself I’ve got no real deadline. But it is now done! I may tweak it after our lecture if I learn some new tips but hopefully it’ll hold up for a while and I won’t need to edit it until I have new skills to add.
As far as summer goals I set that haven’t panned out: I have not made a lyra act, I have not practiced stilt walking or partner acrobatics or handstands and I have not juggled nearly as much as I thought I would. I have pretty consistently worked on my back flexibility and I have been re-aquainting myself with lyra but the act I had in mind and the skills I wanted to have by now have not come to fruition. Ce la vie. I also really wanted to get some youtube content posted but that motivation was drained along with making blog posts. I’ve had to meet myself with grace on these fronts. Summer has been a lot more stressful than expected. Having an inconsistent work schedule has been nerve wracking. I lay in bed at night and suddenly jolt awake thinking I may have missed a commitment that day or realizing I’ll need to wake up by 7am the next day for some random paid task. It feels like I wasted an opportunity having a summer break again as an adult where I’m not working full time, but to do anything I’d want to do I’d need money. So finally having the time but not having the funds to invest in hobbies or travel has been really frustrating. I’ve really made the most of the opportunities I’ve been given and accepted as much as I could so I can confidently go into this next year of the program. I was unable to find part time work in customer service but my seemingly hundreds of side-hustles have been sufficient*. When the program starts again in about four weeks some of these training things will come back on track and others will be put aside again. I’m looking forward the structure that the program provides and seeing my friends every day but it’ll be a new experience doing the program while also balancing out working a lot more since last year I was able to live off savings for quite a while.
One last thing! I’d really love hearing people’s opinions on what color silks I should buy! I need new ones by November since my gold ones are too short and my pink and blue tie dye silks are too stretchy. Should I go with neon colors since they’re so eye catching on social media? Or should I do a neutral color like champagne or silver so they fit will all the gigs? Or some other color or pattern? Let me know in a comment down below! I appreciate anyone who reads this far and hopefully I can at least be as consistent as last year with posting:)
*Sufficient only because I have a long term partner with a stable career helping me out, if I were in this alone right now I’d be struggling a lot more. Thanks Nick, I <3 you!