Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
Delhicious
Part two of the Merry Krishna tour! We are now in Delhi where we have met up with some friends for Christmas. Already our whole world (as we know it in India from our entire 4 day experience) has been turned upside-down! Suddenly in a latitude climb of er…. some… perhaps lots… or even a great many degrees in our journey northwards from the sweaty closeness of Mumbai, we were hit with the shocking absence of heat, sweat and stink as we alighted the plane. Without any beaches, the lack of dust and sand makes a much cleaner feel to the whole place – though it’s still India-clean, so there’s plenty of rubble and rubbish and random animals in pretty much any direction you look!
We also now have two slightly more India-wise people with us, who are used to working in Indian money and dealing with tourist-price attempts from taxi drivers and street stall sellers.
We have been shown to a great hostel in the midst of a vibrant bazaar area, called Pahar Ganj, which is about a 20th of the price our client was paying for us in Mumbai, and yet it is just a s clean, the room is only marginally smaller, and the feel of the place is hugely more welcoming, friendly and comfortable – we have the best room in the place right up on the roof with our own little terrace.
We now have a couple of days here before the next
show and my and Tim’s subsequent return to the UK. I will spend some time trying to get some costumes tailored here, but I’m happy to also have the chance to do some touristy things – it will make a change to the non-stop party nightlife we enjoyed in Mumbai.
I am so happy to be able to get the best of both worlds during my short stay here 
Hello! I am spending Christmas in India this year, hooray! Me and some performing collegues (monkeys) got booked to do a couple of shows at fashion lauches out here - for a hiphop label, Ed Hardy. The clothes are surprisingy good actually!
India is much fun. We did the first show last night - oh… it wasn’t the best for me as I dropped my juggling clubs pretty much as soon as i went on stage! ahhhhhhh doh!!: but other than that it went well and we made a lot of good contacts out here who might want to book us again in jan and feb. We also met lots of fun people at the after party, who are going to show us some fun things to do in Mumbai before we go to Delhi. 
Driving around Mumbai is fun in the crazy little rikshaws!
o keep it to 1500 words, since I’ve already written almost 4000 just in note-taking. doh! It’s just such a fascinating subject and on so many levels! Firstly I get captivated by the interesting projects and choreographies that have been pioneered - all the amazingly creative works and inspirational ideas. There are so many things that started appearing on stage in the 19th century that are being presented now as something avant garde and exciting, and harldy anyone knows that actually that idea of a woman high up in the air in a dress that billows to the ground covered in light projections and luminescent illusions was actually created by an American woman working in Paris at the time of Matisse and Picasso… which makes her eminently more cool 
To this end I’m going to be getting a load of costumes made up while I’m there - which means chasing around like a mad thing at the moment trying to get designs, sketches, prototypes made up. That and rehearsing for the show of course. joy!
So the first of our dance assessments are completed now. Solos, group pieces, improvised dance structures, set technical phrases and anatomical understanding work have all been put through the first appraisals of the term, and with the written work to be completed by next week the first part of six terms of my total course is nearly over…
erm….. good, yes, yes, and yes! well, mostly all yes. I’m over the honeymoon period of “ohmygod ohmygod this course is the best thing ever moremoremore!”… and now it’s more a “yeah this is good, but some things don’t quite float my boat”. Overall though, it’s extremely beneficial; I am slowly becoming more flexible, I am hugely more aware of how my body works and moves, and I’m starting to learn how to control that and use it in a way that is not damaging to me! Brilliant! I also feel like I have a more critical eye on the routines I am involved with in my work, which is extremely useful.
hey happen much more frequently - my uber-giant-massive A4 notepad is chocabloc of sketches, notes, random texts and stimuli that keep bombarding me… sometimes its so much information that I cant sit still! hahah that happened today actually! and I found myself just kinda bouncing gently in the corner and smiling or laughing to myself, hahah! I think everyone else was oblivious, but I was having a great little private trip. Am I self-absorbed or what?!
In other news, it looks fairly likely that I will be going to India for Christmas. It’s not fully confirmed yet, but very nearly. It will be two Glow-shows; Mumbai on Dec 18th and Delhi on Dec 26th, plus a couple of days either side travelling and preparing. It will be me and a collegue from Chimaera, Tim Chown (www.timchown.co.uk), plus two other Chimaera performers: Chanti Humphrey and Sandy McClure who will be doing human statue work. So Christmas will be with a different sort of family this year, but one that I am very close to