Photoshoot With Nick Delaney

I have some beautiful new images from Nick Delaney (www.nickdelaney.com).  Nick is a fabulous photographer who I highly recommend to anyone needing photos.

F1 Grand Prix Singapore

I have just returned from Singapore where I performed with the fabulous Incandescence for the F1 Grand Prix.  It was so fun I think i may just class it as one of my favourite events I have done and I have done a lot of events!

It is an absolute pleasure to be part of Incandescence's amazing shows, Satya who is at the core of Incandescence knows exactly how to make a show look beautiful and how she puts the shows together, costumes them, the music, the lighting, everything, it just works.  In Singapore we performed 3 different 20 minute shows - Night Circus, Cirque Surreal, and Masquerade.  The shows went down extremely well and we also had the pleasure of performing to the Royal Family of Brunei.

To add to the wonderful shows that we did then we were also in the most amazing hotel where our balcony overlooked a large chunk of the racetrack, the racing was absolutely amazing to see live :-)

Manchester Trafford Centre Contortion

This month I travelled up north to Manchester's Trafford Centre.  I performed 4 ambient sets of contortion around the shopping mall to entertain the shoppers.  It was very enjoyable :-)

Cool Picture

I saw this photo online, it is kind of cool!!!  I think it might be from the ICC but am unsure, but anyhow here it is :-)

Bikram Highbury and Islington Equity Card Offer

If you have an Equity Card (www.equity.org.uk), then you can get a lovely discount on classes at Bikram Highbury and Islington.

Why I Love Yoga

I love yoga, it is something that from February this year I picked it up again and I now go every day when I can.  I primarily go to Bikram Yoga, mainly at Bikram Highbury and Islington.  There are many more benefits than I am going to list here, but here are a few reasons why I love it.

1. Flexibility: Yoga has taught me a different way of stretching, I am beginning to open up my whole spine, and I am beginning to hinge a lot less through a few vertebrae meaning my stretching is becoming healthier.  It also stretches both sides, in the past although I have always worked both sides i have always worked one side far more, gymnastics training is so one sided and so i am a lot more developed on one side compared to the other, this is now beginning to even out a bit, again leading to healthier bending.  It is also nice when i have had a hard week just to give my body a gentler stretch, things like camel posture in the beginners series feel sooooooo good!  Also, believe it or not my hamstrings are actually quite tight, but through yoga they are lengthening.  I have also never before touched lateral hip rotation, I never realised how seriously lacking i am in this movement until i began yoga, i can not tell you how weird my hips currently feel as they begin to access movement previously unknown to them, and now I am stretching out those impossibly tight muscles then i am sure i will reap the benefits.  And lastly, however flexible you are there is always that bit further you can go, I have postures that elude me and one day I would like to be able to do them :-)  And also, it is not just about how bendy you are, it is about how the postures make you feel, all those lovely benefits you get from them :-)
    
   
   
2. Stength: I love Bikram Yoga for it's strengthening aspects.  In combination with my flexibiity work it keeps my body healthy and strong.  
   
   (Eagle on a snow ball. Photo from 2010 hence the wrong arm to leg, whoops!)
   
   
   Click the below link to read the rest of this post, it began to get a bit long :-)

The physio geek inside me... an interesting article on spine injuries and backbending

Here is a really very good and interesting article, basically it sums a lot of things up to do with backbending and spine injuries, and is a really excellent and informative read.  Because it was so good I felt I should share it, as the more information that is out there to educate people then the better.  It is written with regards to rhythmic gymnasts but I tihnk much of the information can be transferred to a variety of backbending activities.

Click here for the article

 

Ooh and interestingly the MRI above is my spine from a few years ago when I was in Love Never Dies, so interesting to see your own actual anatomy!  I had what turned out to be a soft tissue injury and so this is a healthy spine MRI.