What a weekend this was!
I attended my very first aerials competition, and came home with a medal. I did win my category—professional comedy—by default, but I am still proud of my routine, simple as it may be compared to the silks routines in the contemporary category. And I’m proud that I competed and didn’t give into stage fright.
Kyro & I got on the road a little later than I had planned Friday morning, which wouldn’t have been an issue under normal traffic circumstances. We ran into congestion almost as soon as we got on US-75. And even more congestion on I-35 once we reached downtown Austin. Had the navigation system in my vehicle not been drunk and sent us to the opposite end of town from where we needed to be, I would have been at check-in exactly on time after eating lunch and checking into our hotel. As it was, I arrived an hour later, just in time for tech rehearsal to start. Despite planning ahead, Rachel Time, as my “twin” calls it, strikes again. Hurray…
My tech was fairly quick, because Nicole, Akira, and I were all using the provided black set of silks rather than our own, so we jumped into line while they were up. I was surprised at how much I liked them; I was expecting far more fabric in the tails, based on the initial specs they gave us. Not a whole lot of stretch, though. Tech for everybody else took much longer because almost all of the others brought their own apparatus, and heights for anything other than silks had to be marked, and music/lighting cues discussed, and stage space for floor work explored, and parts of routines tested out, and so there was a lot of hurry up and waiting going on. Erendira was the last person from Vertical Fitness to get teched (after 6pm!), so I waited with her for moral support. As soon as we got back to the green room, we found out about the drama pertaining to our silks duo.
Cynthia & Laura had been working on a silks duet using two silks. When they first submitted their applications, I asked if they made sure to let the organizers know they were using two silks instead of one. At dress rehearsal, I thought about reminding them to make sure two silks would be available for them, but didn’t have the opportunity to and didn’t think about using Facebook to do so. I thought about borrowing the troupe’s red silk, but didn’t ask on Tuesday after rigging at Clown Gym. I had a nagging feeling Thursday night that I should ask about borrowing it, but it was really late and I had to be up early and I’d decided that it would just be easier for me to use the provided silk. The reason I should have brought it with me? There was some miscommunication about what they needed for their routine, and if the organizers couldn’t get another silk to rig in time, Cynthia & Laura wouldn’t be able to perform. Fortunately, they found a second black silk to rig at the last minute, and the two did a beautiful job with their duet. Lesson: pay attention to that nagging instinct before a competition. (Also, make sure event organizers are 100% clear on your apparatus needs ahead of time.)
That did delay the beginning of the show by about 15 minutes, but that gave me time to apply my makeup minus my nose before going to watch our novices compete. In addition to the pressure of competing, Michelle had the pressure of being the first performance of the night. Immediately followed by Erendira and Maria. In contrast… I performed almost last (third from the end), and the last of everyone from Vertical Fitness.
I don’t think I could ever be a competition judge. There were so many good performances, not just from our crew. And a lot of Reach For Beauty. It makes me happy that most of the VFD routines managed to escape that.
I didn’t get to watch as many of the professional routines, because I had to get ready for my turn on stage while people were competing—that was the downside of performing at the end of the night, instead of being first. I’m really glad that Kim & Christopher were performing just before me, because that helped with the remaining calm backstage and not letting the butterflies take over. Following their timing for warming up, getting into costume, reviewing my routine one time on Christopher’s phone… I felt much more calm and collected than I would have otherwise. (I’ll be honest, knowing I had no competition in my category did a lot to take the pressure off, too.)
As for my routine, while it wasn’t perfect—I think still dress rehearsal was my best run-through—it went well. I got laughs where I wanted to, and I didn’t drop the ball. Although at one point it almost fell out of my neckline at one point. (Before the awards ceremony, Christopher asked me what I did to keep the ball in place, which amused me considering how many times during rehearsals he watched me shove it down my shirt. The answer: nothing. No sticky, no tape, no rosin, just fabric tension & luck.) I did drop the parasol at the beginning of my floor work, at the end of the body roll, but it didn’t get captured on video and apparently people thought it was scripted. Yay for good recovery! My chair drop was not so smooth. When I let go of the slack, I didn’t drop immediately because the parasol handle was tangled in the silk. Of course the thing I drilled the most on Tuesday is the one thing that I messed up. Oh, well. We should get our scorecard and judges’ feedback within the week; I’m both curious and nervous to see what they thought of my piece. Pretty sure “Point your toes!” is going to be on there.
Vertical Fitness did well at the awards ceremony. In addition to Marian, Cynthia & Laura, Kim & Christopher, and me winning our categories (Novice Large Props, Novice Contemporary Duo, Professional Contemporary Duo, and Professional Comedy respectively), Nicole took home the award for Novice Best Costume, and Akira took home the awards for Best Floor Work and Best Contemporary Novice. Not bad, especially considering this was the first competition for almost all of us!
My VFD family:
- Michelle, novice contemporary lyra
- Erendira, novice contemporary lyra
- Maria, novice contemporary lyra
- Nicole, novice contemporary silks
- Akira, novice contemporary silks
- Cynthia & Laura, novice contemporary silks duet
- Marian, novice large props lyra
- Taylor, amateur contemporary lyra
- Christopher, professional contemporary lyra
- The Blondeshells, professional contemporary cube duet
Other routines I liked:
- Johanna, novice contemporary lyra (I knew this would win when I saw it)
- Toni Tobasco, novice comedy lyra
- Sarah Agate, amateur comedy silks
- Amanda Brown, professional contemporary lyra (fun, showing contemporary doesn’t have to equal Reach For Beauty)
- Angela, professional contemporary hammock
- Elise Sipos, professional contemporary halo (her stage presence, I want; also, that costume)
- Cat Carter, professional large props lyra
All of the videos from Friday night: https://vimeo.com/album/3645747
My Instagram report of the weekend:
Aerialist-in-Training 