Dec 2008 – Feb 2009 – On tour
I was away, tap dancing on tour in Europe and Russia. It was hard work but fun times despite the intense travel schedule and a few hiccups including getting stuck in a barrel during a performance, and nearly being kidnapped with a friend by a crazy taxi driver in Russia! Thankfully we were in a group and had other friends to prevent us being whisked away. Whilst on tour I was looking forward to coming home but when I got home I found I missed being on tour with all my tour buddies. Doh!

March 2009 – Get my acts together
Now recovered from tour and back in London I created a new dance and aerial training schedule for myself. This was me time to work on both my tap and silks projects.

April 2009 – Spain
I spent several days working as a dance judge for a sports festival in Spain. With a few thousand British uni students there for the festival taking part in various sports and dance activities it was certainly an interesting experience. I made the most of being by the sea and stayed on a few days in Spain for a holiday although it rained alot.

June 2009 – Glastonbury Festival
This was my first festival camping experience and my first festival gig. It didn’t exactly go smoothly to begin. First there was a delay in the set up for the circus performance. Then my friends and I had to spent an afternoon moving with all our stuff – inbetween the down pours of rain – to a quieter campsite where we might get some sleep at night. It all worked out in the end. We got to perform and got some sleep!

I drove back to London (3-4hrs drive) and made my way to the London Tap Jam to do the renegade stage and jam. It was nice to jam with some old tap friends from tour that were visiting. Then a couple of days later, still exhausted from Glasto, I managed to muster enough energy for a tap performance at the private view for the Jazzonia & the Harlem Diaspora exhibition. It took a while to recover from everything and get cracking with training/rehearsing.

July 2009 – Pop!
Rehearsing my aerial silks act for a gig, I managed to pop a rib midroll in a Double Curly Wurly. Very painful. So I missed out on performing (both silks and other tap gigs), missed out on an interesting audition opportunity and spent my birthday resting. I’m recovering, no longer in pain and looking forward to my rib healing extra strong. Oh and looking forward to going on my summer holiday before returning to my activities later next month.

This year has been great so far and the rib cracking drama makes the good time extra memorable. I’ve enjoyed making new friends, reuniting with old friends, catching up with family and all the lovely parties and events there have been.

I had a great time. I travelled to the festival with Hangar Arts Trust, AirTime circus artists Danilo, Gemma, Clara & Alcina in my little Peugeot 206 in true contorted fashion with all our stuff and camping gear. I’m not sure how we all fit but somehow we made it work. Fun times!

Highlights:
- Sunshine
- Finding random, small bands
- Dancing
- Fun activities with fun circus people
- Chilling outdoors (although I needed hayfever tablets)
- Watching other circus acts
- Finding the quieter crew camp site
- Meeting lovely people
- Performing in Bassline Circus tent at Shangri-La

Lowlights:
- Porta loos
- Showers too hot or too cold
- Rain, mud and dirt
- 2 days delay before rigging and performance – bit of stress and missed the big stage gigs but all went well in the end!
- Noisy campsite with drunk people falling onto tent so having to spend Friday afternoon moving to a quieter campsite after the rain
- Slightly damp and cramped tent
- 2x 30-40min walk to car with heavy bags
- Leaving a day early