ROLL UP , ROLL UP

Starting on Wednesday the 30th of September and finishing on Friday the 2nd of October, Lenya, Alexia, and Eve went to a 3 day Circus School at TAPAC - The Auckland Performing Art Center.

On the first day Eve, Lenya, and Alexia went to Circus they started with 2 warm ups. The firstb one was a fast moving activity. There were lots of of actions that Mike (one of the teachers) called out extremely fast. They were: seal, road kill, torpedo, tornado, ninja, dead cow, man the life boats, climb the rigging, crows nest, scrub the deck, captains coming and admiral on deck. The second excersize was called “mat sliding”. There were 2 mats and everyone got split into 3 groups. The first 2 groups lined up behind the mats and the other team sat down. One person from each team slid on the mat. Whichever team got the mat to bang the wall first won. Whoever lost swapped with the team that was sitting down. They were then told to organise themselves into a different 3 groups. Eve, Lenya and Alexia all were in a group called the Mminions, and everyone had minion names. First they went ton the triple trapeze where the learnt box, birds nest, and some more with a teacher called Ryan. After that they went to the hammock. There they learnt how to do the splat, which is a way of getting down, they had to hang from the hammock then drop their legs. Also they learnt how to sit and roll. Finally they went to the tissue (also known as the silks). First everybody had to climb, then they learnt the mermaid. After they learnt the rolls, turns, and coathanger. Their day was finished with a show and tell.

Lenya, Alexia, and Eve started day 2 nice and fresh. As they arrived everyone was sitting on the mat. They joined the group and got into the warm ups. Then they got into 2 groups for tumbling. Alexia, Eve and Lenya’s group was with Mike. Everyone had 2 tricks and they peformed to the other group at the end. Then they did the same aerial routine as the first day. Eve and Lenya also learnt how to spin plates.

Lucky last day and everybody was excited. First everyone did the 2 warmups. Since it was the last day everyone peformed juggling tricks. Some people did poi, juggling or stick throwing. But Alexia did diablo with Mike, and Lenya and Eve did a hoop throwing routine with Ryan. Then they swapped tumbling groups, this time Lenya, Alexia, and Eve were with Bronwin, who they called Scarlet Overkill. Then they peformed again to each other. The teachers told everyone then that there would be a small peformance on the aerial equipment. Alexia did a duo on the lyra, Lenya did tricks on the spanish web, while Eve had a special routine on the tissue which included split, coathanger, and rolls.

Overall everyone had a great experience. Some quotes from the participants were:

“It was amazing, my favourite was the tissue!” from Eve.

“There were so many new things!” from Lenya.

“I really want to do 5 days!” said Alexia.