Leaving Scotland, knowing that there wouldn't be much access to Irn Bru, saddened me. (Of course I miss my family, friends, work but Irn Bru is vital in my diet...). I arrived in London really early and sat in the café thinking to myself "am I going to be okay?", "What the heck am I doing?!", "I'm terrified". The prospect of being away from home for a period of time is something I've never done before. I sat there, filled with these thoughts at half 6 in the morning. When the time comes, I walked down to the building and met the wonderful people for the first time. Safe to say, I was bricking it.
We all said our names and did a little name game. Once that was over, we were straight into the warm up and the stretching. The first equipment we worked with was the silks. Silks. I have to admit, I hated them. I think it was because I couldn't even lift myself off the ground. It was difficult. Holding onto the silk and not jumping into the position was hard. As the time pass by, I fell in love with it. I managed to climb to the top. I managed to do a couple of moves on it. I was proud of myself and I was pleased, as you can tell by the picture...
Myself on the silks, having a lot of fun. Photo taken by myself
Onto the trapezes and my hands were in so much pain holding onto them. It was something you do get used to and it gets a little bit fun after a while. I did my performance on the trapezes and I did it based on a Scottish Fairy Tale which I've been reading for a few days. I tried to make it into a visual piece but the time was a bit short so I talked through it and I think it was decent (although I'd prefer to do a visual piece but you can't have everything...). I did enjoy the trapezes but I think the challenge of the silks is what I enjoy. It was difficult and challenging but exciting to do. Those two were the main thing we've learnt. We've learnt a few others like Acrobats (which I hated, sorry girls!), harnesses and cocoons.
I feel like I've done alright in it. Nobody is going to walk in and be perfect at it whether you're fit or not. It is a truly physically demanding course and it's been a pleasure to be involved in. The people on the course have been kind (although I've been shy most of the time there...), I wanted to thank those people to making me at ease. I've missed the Irn Bru.
Over the past two weeks, I've been taught by Vicki Amedume, Jessica Andrade and Krista Vuori who have been patient with me as I've never done anything like this before. Upswing is a fantastic company, encouraging people with difficult backgrounds to get involved. It has been an overwhelming experience and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself as I haven't done anything like this before. Thank you Upswing. You've been so good to me. I've been searching for some classes as it is something I want to continue with.
So it's been a week since my performance on the Trapezes with Upswing and I am still buzzed. I feel like I've stepped up to a physically challenging course.
Links:
Upswing: http://www.upswing.org.uk/
Step Up: http://www.upswing.org.uk/workshops/step-up-workshops/ (This will happen again and I would apply for it as soon as the application forms come out...)
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