Aloha friends, family, and art admirers!
I have successfully arrived to my new home at Dragonfly Ranch located on the Big Island of Hawaii! I'm sure you'd like to read about this tropical adventure, but I will be sharing more about that in a future blog post. (If you'd like to see things about it right now, check out my “stories” and “highlights” on my Instagram @artbyjulieyoung This blog post is actually about my circus performance that took place one week ago from today!
Last Saturday I performed with a cast of talented flow and aerial artists in Once Upon A Circus, held at McCormick's Creek Amphitheater in Spencer, IN. This unique show featured aerial silks acts, lyra, chandelyra, aerial net, acroyoga, juggling, hula hooping, whips, numchucks, dancing, and great acting skills! This show was put on by FlowMotion, Aerialogy, and Bloomington Acro, directed by the one and only Paula Chambers. Paula directed this show last year as well, which we did so well last year that we got a grant to perform it again, but a shorter version outside at a beautiful outdoor theater as a part of Indy Arts in the Parks.
Last year I performed in two scenes as an evil Raven, on aerial silks as well as a scene that I died in. I LOVED the routine that the four crows performed together. We were pretty bad-ass I must say. A lovely friend of mine named Senora was the lead character, a sister that winds up lost in the woods with her brother, but she moved away this year so she would not be able to perform with us again. With that role needing to be filled, I was offered the position and accepted right away with excitement. After accepting the role, I became very nervous, but thankfully our rehearsal and training continues to go extremely well and my nerves dissipated.
We rehearsed for about two months on the shoe, writing most of our own choreography, and collaborating with each other to figure out the best ways to execute the scenes. Writing the witch battle scene with Maggie (who played the witch) was by far my favorite scene. That girl can act and move so well, and I am extremely proud of our routine together, as well as her and my “brother's” (played by Arianne) scene, where *spoiler alert* the witch kills my brother. I also really enjoyed the transformation scene, because the mermaid (played by Olivia) gave an entrancing performance that I basically got to watch the whole time. I enjoyed performing in the Reuniting scene, where I saw my brother again after losing him deeper in the forest. I really liked that scene because I got to do a fun acro yoga act, as well as doubles AND triples on aerial silks! Also at the very end, I performed a solo Lyra piece, and that was also a favorite because I got to write the piece myself, on an apparatus that I wasn't as familiar with. I love a good challenge!
We had to arrive early to the site to get everything set up, and we arrived to an empty amphitheater full of potential. Through out the day, we had campers and park visitors stroll by and ask what was going on, so we would hand out extra fliers to spread the word. We had been canvasing online and around the town of Bloomington for a few weeks as well so we could get a good audience to come. By the time the show was starting, the amphitheater was nearly full. Half way through the show (we had a lot of stragglers) the amphitheater was so full that we had over 500 audience members! The park ranger who had been working there for a few decades let us know after the show that we had brought in the most guests to the park for a show that she had ever seen. For that, I am so proud! I feel really good about the performance I gave, as well as my cast members. I was in almost every scene, on multiple apparatuses, and I am so thankful for all of the friends and family that came to see the show. A few people even drove a few hours to come check it out!
If you would like to check out our show, you can view the YouTube video here >> https://youtu.be/C303i0zuslk
Here's a few photos from the event as well. photo credit shout out to Mike Young (My dad) for these photos!
Enjoy the video!