Fire in The Sky-performance day!

30th October

A very exciting day! Today was the Fire in The Sky performance at Greenhead park and it is estimated that up to 10,000 people were at the park tonight.

We have been rehearsing at the park all week so the performers were used to being cold but no-one was prepared for the icy stage. Literally it was like an ice rink and concerned for my performers safety I spent the hour before the performance de-icing the stage with people’s donated anti-freeze from the cars. If anyone knows how to de-frost a large stage fast please let me know for future reference!

The piece was performed three times and everyone did really well despite the mud and ice and not having practiced on the stage before.

Thanks to Nathan Rae who filmed the performance and is creating a DVD for the performers.
Video here

Stage presence and how to make fire fingers

22nd October
Sean working on stage presence with the guys from Kaotik Arts. Noticed a really big difference in how they presented themselves at the start of the session and at the end. Sharing what they are doing with the audience….

How to make your own fire fingers!

You need…

A pair of gardening gloves

Strong gardening wire

Wick

needle and thread

1) Put  hands inside the glove and get a friend to wrap a length of wire round each of the fingers leaving a long length at end of your finger

2) Remove hands from gloves carefully and stitch the wire to gloves to keep it in place

3) Wrap sections of wick round the ends of the garden wire and secure in place.

Fire in the Sky-the fun begins

7th October 2008

First rehearsal for Fire in The Sky  Kirklees Council’s annual fireworks event. Following on from last year’s professional fire show provided by ?….it was decided that this year’s fire show would involve local performers. The performers come from two different groups, Kaotik Arts and Imbolc Fire Artistes.

Today was spent learning about each performer’s skills which include poi spinning, club swinging, hula hoop, staff and juggling.

Naomi taught some simple choreography to the club swingers.