NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! (Patreon)

Hello my dear, strange, and wonderful patrons,

I hope you've enjoyed the first 8 episodes of Atelier Barbette (I loved your comments and feedback throughout their airing, thank you all!). A long but exciting update post for you. Buckle up! 

I was hard at work in freezing-cold Montréal for the last couple weeks, continuing work in-studio on Le Numéro Barbette:

• I worked hard on my endurance-heavy end sequences with acrobatic coach William; 
• I dug deep with conseil artistique Marie-Josée to continue to deepen the floor-section that takes us from 'Barbette' into 'Créature' (or ... maybe I should just say 'Ess', because that's all there is at the end, there, on stage -- just me); and 
• I continued plugging away on a little side quest in ballet training: it's making my lower body way more stable, and it's introducing a movement quality and sureness in the earlier sections of my straps act that have been sorely missing it 

And here's what you can look forward to in the coming weeks: 

(1) I'm off on an adventure this week ... to PARIS! For 5 days! I'm going to...

•  go watch the Cirque de Demain Festival (I know two artists competing in it this year! Antoine Boissereau on tissu, and Agustín Rodriguez Beltran on aerial straps; I will be screaming my head off for both of them); 
• take lots of detailed notes on all the sights and sounds of the Festival to help me return to (and complete, damn it) a manuscript I started revolving around my own experience performing at the festival with Troy James in 2019; 
• see if a Parisian research librarian can help me track down some 1920s-era original show reviews for Barbette (I've sent the email inquiring; cross your fingers for me!); 
• I'm going to hunt for *special shiny things* in the couturier suppliers to bring back to my costume designer and seamstress to go into the Barbette costumes
• eat my bodyweight in croissants and patisserie

(2) COSTUME MIRACLES ...

• (!!!!!!!!) I finally spoke with the original costume designer again, Michael Slack (I've mentioned in previous updates that he has been having had a pretty rough year with family things; he dropped out of contact late last Autumn and it was looking unlikely he could continue with the project) -- HE'S BACK ON BOARD AND NEW COSTUME DRAWINGS WILL BE A THING VERY SOON. I cannot WAIT to see, and to share with you all!

(3) CONTINUED BARBETTE-ING:

• I'll be cutting together more Atelier Barbette vlogs from my January rehearsals to share with you all in early February; 
• I'll be returning to Montréal for more work in-studio on Barbette from February 6th to 14th: visits to the costumer & seamstress's atelier are in order, more rehearsals with the big floofy dress, all of it –– and, yep, you guessed it: more Atelier Barbette vlogs will come from that as well! (I record all of it for my own review; I'm gonna keep editing it together and sharing with you all :) )

(4) VACUUM is being resurrected for a friend's fundraiser in Toronto on February 19th at Birdhaus TO! (If you're a new patron and you're going "what the heck is that?", it's this, and you can read all about it under the #VACUUM tag)

• It's not listed on their Events Calendar yet, but I'll share an update to the event here when relevant, for any local patrons who might like to come see!;
• I'll be rehearsing with my VACUUM technician, Miranda Tempest, in early February (after Paris; before Montréal), and again the week of the 13th;
•  This'll be my first time back in the Danger Balloon (I mean, vacuum tower) in quite some time: I'll be revisiting and adjusting some choreography so that it's safe and comfortable in my current body (hello, aerial straps muscles & possible new strength moves in the tower; au revoir, ass-on-head-level noodle-body contortion tricks)

And (5) WORKSHOPS ARE COMING BACK!  

I told myself that 2023 will be the year that I knuckle down and run regular virtual workshops again so ... HERE WE GO.

As patrons, you'll be receiving news about these workshops first, have the opportunity to sign up before anybody else, and will receive sweet little discount codes to boot on the following if they're relevant to your interests & practice! 

• I will be BRINGING BACK my two flexibility workshops that sold out in minutes when I ran them for the first (and only, whoops) time a year or so ago:
  
  "Magic Middle Splits: Road to the Floor & Beyond" and "Thoracic Park: The Lost World of Upper Back Flexibility"
  
  These were small group (6 to 8) workshops divided 50/50 between classroom (to go over the anatomy and biomechanics relevant to the area we're working on) and practical stretching together, and the curriculum was reviewed by flexibility/biomechanics genius herself, Dr. Jen Crane, AKA Cirque Physio  
  
  A lot of the material in these workshops might be familiar to those who are part of Jen's MyFlex program (if you're not, and you want something TRULY comprehensive and innovative when it comes to have a flexible and happy body, I cannot say enough good things about it), but the focus of each workshop is on the above-stated specific areas & the practical stretching is informed by my own contortion career and experience.
  
  I'm happy to share that 10% of profits from either of these workshops is going to go towards a new pool of funds for Jen's virtual sliding-scale consultations for athletes and artists undergoing (or thinking about!) top-surgery/gender-affirming surgery !!!
  
  Jen is a passionate advocate and educator for hypermobile artist-athletes, transgender artist-athletes, and more; she continues to work with and consult with surgeons who perform gender-affirming surgeries around the U.S. in developing after-surgery care protocols, and she's the reason why top surgery & return-to-training for me went as well as it did. I couldn't be more excited to be starting something that will tangibly help other folks access the same amazing knowledge and care.
  
• I'm designing two NEW virtual workshops focusing on writing about your work & applying for grants and residences!
  
  My preliminary discussions with circus artists are showing me that there's two big camps of people: there's those who know what they want to apply for, they just don't feel confident about the details of a grant application; and then there's those who want to get into applying for things like grants and residencies but don't know how that can help their career, exactly, or how they might even go about starting. So!...
  
  One is going to be small-group seminars with a MENTORSHIP focus geared towards circus artists who don't know where to start when it comes to dreaming up ideas and executing them effectively (aka, developing and maintaining an artistic practice); and
  
  The second will focus on the nitty-gritty of GRANT WRITING (project essays, how to do a proper budget, supplementary material, the whole 9 yards). It'll be reference Canada Council for the Arts grant application formats, but I'm aiming to make the concrete advice and education around proposal/essay writing and budget crafting useful for artists of all stripes (not just circus artists), wherever in the world you might be (as in, even if you don't have access to an amazing organization like the CCA). 

My goal is to run the first flexibility workshops again by mid-to-late February, as a recurring monthly offering (AKA, if it's not good timing for you that month, there'll always be the next one!).

I'm hammering out the format and curriculum still for the writing & mentorship ones, but my goal is to have the first of those happening end of February as well (because grant deadlines for Canada Council for the Arts is early April!)

Phew! 

Alright folks – that's it from me for now.

On February 1st, you can look forward to a post arriving in your inboxes starting in on the Barbette costuming situation. Woo hoo! 

Until then, stay strange & wonderful!
XOXO ess