Past, Present & Future

Welcome to my website.

Below are highlights from the artistic projects I’ve been involved with in the last few years.

2008

March 08

Tribal Massive, Las Vegas

Had the amazing opportunity to attend  a week long course in Tribal Fusion bellydance with top teacher Rachel Brice. Also brought along the chance to perform with in the Tribal Massive Hafla with the wonderful girls from Seraphine Fire. It was a pleasure and a honour to learn and perform with all the wonderful women I meet during this week. Hope to make it back out again for next years.

2007

December 07

This month was the usual busy Christmas season.

My main work this month was at Newbury Racecourse ‘Fire & Ice’ christmas events. They asked me to choreograph and perform a 10 min indoor fire show. I also performed a contact juggling act standing on a podium dressed as the Ice Queen during the drinks reception .

November 07

Switch On of the Festive Lights at The Oracle, Reading
This was the second year that the group brightFX received a commission to produce a show for this event. I was responsible for co-ordinating and directing the whole stage show, as well as choreographing the new routines. Again it was so successful that we have been asked back to do the next event in November 2008.

October 07

Circus Tatovski at Warwick Arts Centre
We received a commission from Warwick Arts Centre to take the brightFX street show ‘It’s All About Me!’ and extend it to a 70 min theatre show. Ian from Albert and Friends Instant Circus was hired as the director and following an intensive 2 weeks of rehearsels we ran for 3 days at the theatre to very favourable reviews.

Great fun for all the family with laugh out load moments for children and adults alike……. Coventry Telegraph

September 07

International Bellydance Congress
The biggest European belly dance event of the year, offering a unique combination of teachers and performers from around the world. One of the highlights of my year was being invited to work with my belly dance teacher Jo Wise on a fire and bellydance collaboration for her new dance group Johara Dance. This was premiered in the Saturday night show and provided the desired ‘wow’ factor to the event. The audience loved it.

Photograph by Isabel Radage

August 07

Norwegian Juggling Convention
I was invited to teach and perform both fire and poi skills at the Norweigan juggling convention in Stravanger. It was a fantastic festival and I was made to feel most welcome by everyone I met there. A great opportunity to introduce people to the flowing style of poi and flag spinning.

Herne Bay Festival
This month also saw us perform the BrightFx streetshow at the Herne Bay Festival

July 07

Pflasterspektakel in Linz, Austria
The Pflasterspektakel is a multicultural street arts festival that attracts virtuoso acts from all over the world. I was there as a performer in the new brightFX street show ‘It’s All About Me’.

Street Arts Festival, Jersey
An invitation to brightFX to perform their new street show and also to run a week long series of circus workshops with the local children which lead to their own afternoon show at the festival.

June 07

Winchester Hat Fair
The Hat Fair is Britain’s longest running Celebration of Street Arts and Community.
This was first performance of the new BrightFx street show ‘It’s all About Me’ in 2007.

April 07

This month I organised the fire show for the 20th British Juggling Convention, which was held in Nottingham. With so many amazing fire artists and groups emerging in Britain today, it was a great opportunity to provide a platform to showcase and celebrate this growing art form. So I persuaded the convention organisers (thankyou P’chi) to provide proper staging. Dream State Circus provided us with an amazing sound system. All acts where pre booked and performed fantastic routines showcasing the variety of props and styles of movement used in fire performance.

I also choreographed the finale. This was open to anyone, whatever their skill level, to have the opportunity to participate in the fire show in a highly entertaining way for both the audience and the performer. For many of the participants it was the first time they’d had peformed in a choreographed fire routine. For everyone it was a chance to express their inner cheesiness. Here’s footage of the finale . Please remember this is the result of 2 hours of workshopping. The emphasis is on being part of it and enjoy it, not on producing a piece of tight and practiced choreography.

Sorcha is an excellent performer and event organiser, creative and competent. She organised the 2007 BJC Fire Show. It all went smoothly and was a big hit. Needless to say this is a complicated event to organise and all the fire safety mechanisms were is place and executed effectively. Sorcha also performed a beautiful routine in our Cabaret show. I would recommend her as a performer or organiser for future events if you want a great show that is stress free, fun and spectacular for your audience.
Peter King - BJC2007 Event Manager

March 07

Farida at Ford Castle
A full weekend event of bellydance held in a real castle in Northumberland. I was invited there to both teach and perform.

2006

November 06

Festive Light Switch On at The Oracle, Reading
Our first brightFX commission for this event. It was so successful we where immediately invited back the next year.

September 06

Bristol Juggling Convention
I organised the fire show and choreographed the finale.

August 06

Jwaad Residental Summer School
This is one of my favourite events in the annual bellydance calendar. A week long residental bellydance course held at a performing arts college in Tring, Hertfordshire. A chance to spend time living, learning and dancing with some of the most inspiring women I know. Here I had the opportunity to showcase my new fire bellydance show as well as teach some fire and spinning skills to the other dancers.

brightFX

In 2003 I joined brightFX as the fire poi soloist for the tour of their pyrocircus Ignite! which was sponsored by the Arts Council. Over the next 3 years we took this show all over England (see calendar) and also to Cyprus for the 2004 New Year celebrations in Nicosia.

In 2005 we headlined the Fire and Dance stage at Glastonbury festival and were featured on BBC2 coverage of the festival.