Another! In the same year?

Whats this? A new blog post? Lies! No-one uses this... Or reads this... I could say anything I want on here and no-one would know! Something scandalous like...

Underneath all of my clothes, I am not wearing a single thing... Nothing at all...

Pretty racey, I know! However, in order to shift the hate and shame of that last statement, I offer you something rather trashy!

HA! and you didn't think this could get any worse? You obviously don't know too much about me... Or the current incarnation of this club... However, I digress!

This weekend passed us with another wonderful Unity in Diversity performance from our wonderful team! I would give you more details, but I wasn't there, because I am a slacker and secretly do not like these people. They are too awesome for me and I try to avoid them at social occasions!

All I can truley offer you, in terms of how wonderful they are is this image...

Not going to lie... Reminds me of this guy...

 

But in more seriousness, the amazing Kathryn has shared with us some backstage photos and I have ungraciously stolen them! If she reads this and doesn't ant these photos on here, then it was her mistake to let me have access to these...

"The square peg should go in the square peg... Why is this not working?"

Theres something seedy about this picture, but I can't figure it out...

She needed to make a call and managed to find a phone box!

The giant's wives. He liked them, so he put rings on them!

I'm not sure what he's looking at, but it must be really amazing...

So, until video footage comes to light, you have to just take my word that this actually happened and that these photos were not falsified in any way... If I fin anything I will post it on here and our Facebook Page thingy (I know how to technology!). Until then, you can see us at the Glow in the Dark Wave Rave, This coming Friday!

Peace!
Ty

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Good morning! Hello! Ave! Guten Tag! And other such greeting from differing locations!

So, while ambling around the internets, I found a large pile of digital dust, gave it a wipe and you know what I found? Well, this blog...

With a can of rust remover and a massive jar of elbow grease, I have started to chip away at this thing and see if there is life left in it! Fingers crossed there is...

From memory, our last post was generally about what has happened over the last little bit of 2013. That was fun and exciting, but ultimately, things must be kept moving forward. HOWEVER! The majority of those things will happen again! Hurray!

Now, as you would all like to know, I'll start with a basic run down with what we've been up to over the last year!

There was... Uh... We had... This one time, we...

O.k... I'm not going to lie... This year has been kinda slow... And quiet... However, we are still here! And we did a couple things that people were at!



There was also this!

The former was a fun musical night with the Funtastic team at Groovylicious. There were pirates... The other was where some of our crew hung out with the crew at the Celtic for an awesome concert night!

See! Through the magic of the internets, we still live! And we're still kinda pretty!

So, what have we been doing in the meantime? We have been playing with new things! All the new things! New skills! New toys! New acts! Old acts! Other things that can and shall not be described!

Through the overwhelming wisdom of the short attention span generation, I offer these as extra proof we live and have done things! All acts are property of respected performers and are subject to availablility (so says our lawyers).



And because I am not super magical with computers, heres a youtube link to another thing that our crew gets to play with!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63pgP-xiv-A&feature=youtu.be

Now, onto the future! With more excitingness and colour! Well, more accurately just words... And more words inbetween...

On our calender we have these things happening!

Unity in Diversity! 16 August at the Globe Theatre! A fun two show event where multiple cultures come and enlighten us with some of their dances, stories and generally showing us all how fantastic some of the other cultures in our cities are. Also, we'll be there swinging stuff around for funsies!

September 6, we are helping out the Roller Derby girls fundraise to send some of our local bruisers internationally with the Nation Roller Derby Team! The last time we hung out with the ladies, we had an absolute blast and it was amazing to be around these girls. This time it's meant to be bigger! Details are limted at this point, but come on out and support some of our awesome local sports type people! More info to follow!

Whanganui festival of Cultures! 18 October in Whanganui!

We were there last year and we had an amazing time! Make the trip over for a whole days worth of shows and performers!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/photos/news/image.cfm?c_id=1503419&gal_cid=1503419&gallery_id=138270#12647876

A new event coming up on our list to be aware of is the Marton Market Day. This is in November, so keep you eyes posted for more information and when you can see our awesome faces!
http://www.rangitikei.com/marton-market-day

We also have a couple other things in the works, some of which are on a "need to know" basis, so if we get the go, we (or I) will word vomit them in your lovely direction!

With that all said and done, I shall leave you with what I have written and actually return to the work I'm supposed to be doing... Or... Get lunch then do work...

Peace out!

Ty

Our End to 2013

So this post is a little bit later than planned. Unfortunately it took a little longer to find time to write it than expected. First off, happy New Year and we hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas.

The last few months of 2013 were fairly busy for us and were a lot of fun J

Kicking it off was the Wanganui festival of cultures. 7.30 am on the 5^th of October the first of us started to gather to get in to costumes and get creative with face paint. By everyone was in the car and off to Wanganui.

What a fantastical day. We had great weather, great people, a great crowd, and a wonderful time. We had a voodoo man with a diabolo and card tricks, a punk rock hooper, Peter pan and Tinkerbell doing adagio (aka people stacking), a mime, a ninja, a pink cat on stilts, an ice fairy with a contact ball, a guard with a staff, and warrior demon with a staff (which sound scarier than it was). We also had to wonderfully formally dressed ladies who came down to burn with us on stage.

Everyone’s costumes were amazing and everyone did a wonderful job on the day despite a few hiccups with the performance.

 

The next event we had was Manawatu Harvest Festival on the 19^th of October. The Harvest Festival is an event by the Sustainable Living Trust to promote the use of sustainable resources and leaving a better planet for future generations (more information about these guys can be found here: http://www.maifarm.org.nz/).

Once again the weather was absolutely brilliant for us which meant everyone had a great time. We had stilts, the rolla bolla, poi, staff, and we also welcomed some new characters to the show, The Flowers who were doing adagio and were definitely a crowd favourite.

This event was a first performance for quite a few of the people who came out with us and they did absolutely fantastically! Thanks to all of our performers the day ran smoothly and everyone loved us and we already have a few plans for next year.

 

Just over a week later we had or next event, ROLLER DERBY!!! Well the after party at least. Eleven of us rocked up to The Royal here in Palmerston North where the after party for the National Roller Derby Tournament was being held. People from all over New Zealand had come to this event making it one of the biggest events we had performed at all year. The theme was circus so of course we with all our crazy fitted in perfectly. We started off with a bit of indoor stuff which included contact juggling, poi, and regular juggling. Then it was time to block of our little area outside and start the fire show. The crowd enjoyed it and our performers and safety crew did an absolutely wonderful job.

Once again everyone made an effort to be in costume. We had all manner of circus from simple crazy face paint to a strong man and woman duo and crazy fluorescent.

 

Every year on the 31^st of October we have a regular event with St Albans Church who runs a Come as You Are Mardi Gras as an alternative to Halloween. This event has rides, an impressive amount of bouncy castles, and stalls. Then, once it’s dark, a pretty awesome fireworks display. Every year we rock up and act as filler while they are setting up the fireworks. This group is probably one of the best behaved crowds that we have and is an enjoyable event for all the performers involved.

 

And finally we were out at Rongotea on the 8^th of November for the best fireworks display ever! Another regular gig that we have which, once again, it was awesome. We started off slow with bit of crowd work, followed up by a mass free spin which lasted about 20 minutes. Then we all sat down to watch the fireworks, which were absolutely amazing.

 

A big thanks to everyone who made 2013 awesome, whether you were a performer, safety or just came and hung out with us at an event or club night. We have a few things in the works for 2014 including a showcase for the first night of club for the newbies to show off all our toys so keep an eye out for that.

Let’s make 2014 even more awesome and as always, happy twirling!!

Under the Spinfluence 2013

In early September some of our club members packed up and headed off to the Brookfield Scout Camp in Wainuiomata for the three-day madness that was Under the Spinfluence 2013.

It’s the second time this fire spinning and circus arts festival has been held, following its successful debut in 2012 – and this time it was bigger and better. Fire and circus lovers from all over New Zealand rolled in, as well as some new friendly faces from all the way across the ditch.

The Friday evening came around in the form of an Instructors’ Showcase, where the talented performers who would be running the workshops and other lessons over the weekend showed us what they were made of. After a busy day of workshops on Saturday we were entertained with the Renegade Show -  a show that anyone could enter to flaunt the new skills they’d learnt from the workshops on offer. More workshops followed on Sunday, including the hilarious Circus Olympics that saw competitors performing some unusual and very entertaining tricks to take each other out of play.

The overall vibe of the weekend was very chilled and relaxed, and the weather was much kinder to us than it was this time last year. We were free to roam the camp grounds which included access to facilities such the lake, open-air cathedral, flying foxes, bush walk, confidence course and incident course.

The weekend’s resident carnies scheduled their own days to fit in as many different workshops as they could, and we all tried a lot of new arts and toys. Some ‘glamped’ it up and stayed in the cabins on site, while others camped it up in their tents in the fields. With the shows, extended burns into the night and a dance party, there was never a lack of something to do. Also notable was the fantastic aerials dome that was constructed in the middle of the camp, the vegan meals provided by the awesome kitchen crew, and the frequent cries of ‘MORE DANGER!’ that are somewhat Spinfluence-famous.

The biggest thing we all took from this festival was inspiration. With so many passionate fire and circus performers all concentrated in the one place, it was hard not to feel the firey love.

Club member Carolyn Edgecombe tells us why club members who have yet to venture to Under the Spinfluence (and anyone else interested in learning and experiencing what it’s all about) should head on down with us next year: “Spinfluence is amazing and you not only learn heaps but you start to build an extra crazy carnie family around you. It's also a great way to get to know new people and you learn more about people in club who go as well. It's really just an awesome opportunity”.

Our club President Steph Yeung says: “I cannot emphasise how amazing of a weekend it was. I learned so much and have been inspired to do so much more. The people there are absolutely amazing! Not just skill wise but they are a lovely bunch. I think a big part in developing one’s own performance is to meet other performers and expose yourself to new ideas and styles”.

Check out Steph P’s Spinfluence video at

Check out the official website for Under the Spinfluence at http://underthespinfluence.weebly.com/instructors-and-performers.html

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!!

So it’s that time a year where we get a new committee and it seems we have almost had a complete overhaul so let me introduce the new troupe.




Firstly we have out New President Stephenie Yeung (Also known by The Asian)  showing us the intensity of how much of an awesome president she plans to be this year.

 

Second we have out new Treasurer Katheryn Pascoe Serving us fierce 80’s colour pop realness 








Next Up is the boy who recently decided he will no longer grow up and admit to being as crazy as the rest of us our new Safety and Gear officer is Scott Newberry

Returning in a new position we have Carolyn Edgecumbe As our Performance coordinator
















This year Our Fuel is Taelon Batty  Again and since last year we only had a pic of a cat and a water melon here is Taelon as a cat and a bat .

 

 

 

And this yeah Myself Matt Gray am filling the role of secretary

This year we also have Ty As our Assistant……. EVERYTHING
And finally this year we have our Patron Lynelle Munns

 

 

Super Happy Fun Times in Wangas!

Yes, you read that right! You can have Super Happy Fun Times in places other than Palmerston North.
Now, calm down Palmy... It's summer break! Uni's been over for a while and, as you would know, people do some crazy things over Summer Break...

But, as alway, I digress. We got invited to a Festival of Cultures by the local council and we jumped at the chance to hang out in the River City! We rounded up the kids and set up camp at The Riverside Motel, and we bought the fun to the party!

This was also an introduction of our stilt walkers!

A rather sinister shadow in the back....

From there, we were invited back for a couple other shows, such as the River City Caboodle. This was a day celebrating the vintage eras and was a blast for all involved!

Look, they think they're Beatles!

I can't tell who was the Egg and who was the Spoon in this race...

Some-one call a Doctor!

Moving on to the most recent stint in the River City, we've been doing some stuff for the NZ Master Games. As yet, there are no photos of this event, as we are waiting for them to be released, but we rocked out some fire shows over the last weekend and have one more this week! This was a fantastic event and gave the crew an opportunity to discover the pitfalls of togas! Much adjustment on the night!

Will keep y'all posted on our next event!

See ya soon!
Ty

Return of the Club

Well...

It would seem that things have one again gotten the better of us over the last year... But let's be honest. If you look through the last little bit of our blog, you'd likely see that its a fairly common theme. However, given that this is a new year and it is actually at the start, We shall endeavor to appease the masses and make some updates! One can always be hopeful!

So, with the end of the last year, we had another change in leadership with the tragic loss of Steph and Claire, due to study related incidents. But who am I to judge?

Carrying on!

We have new people on the Committee this year, and with the wonderful powers of the Internets, I shall present them forthwith, using some of the worst photos possible!

Taking the lead this year is our new President, Beth! Or... Iron Bess... Or Amy Army! Sometimes even going by "Oi, you there!".

Coming in safely and on the new front, is the ever co-ordinated Te Rina, as our new Safety Officer

And rounding out our list of new comers is Taelon! This wonderful young man is our new fuel guard!

Unfortunately, we couldn't find a picture of him, so here is a cat pushing a watermelon out of a lake... I hope that appeases you.

Now, mainly because I'm lazy, and it saves on read length (honesty and logic is how I work), I present, in all their... Glory?
Lynelle (Performance Co-ordinator), Carolyn (Treasurer), Nicky* (Assistant Performance Co-ordinator) and of course, Ty/Myself as Secretary!

*(O.K. it is a pretty good pic of Nicky, but that girl is strangely photogenic... Or she know how to be awesome infront of a camera).


Anyway, enough of this hoohah!
The next one will have what we've been up to!

Peace!
Ty