Ahhh daaahhlink, you look like you need a future…..now just relax, this won’t hurt a bit…

The world is fraught with dangers… bad hairs days, ingrown toe nails, high waisted pants, soy dandies parading as lattes, it’s a sea of obstacles designed to trip you up… but don’t worry; we can aide you on your journey through the wild ride of life.

• Have you ever wondered what the future has in store for you?
• Do you even have a future?
• Does it involve a walrus?
• Will Khalu the god of overheated curry visit your house… ever?
• Does someone else have the same mismatched socks as you?
• Do all Brazilians have Brazilians?

Performance details;

Roving entertainment – Highly interactive character Desmerelda is great for meet and greet, at festivals and events, as one on one roving entertainment.

Future booth – For a greater level of guest participation I can set up a future booth with a gorgeous table and zany props. Guests have readings which undoubtedly require their involvement in song, dance, or other silly shenanigans to appease a deity or two. Great for team building too!

MC – Available for all manner of corporate, community and social occasions, Desmerelda and Miso will bring magic and mystery to your event. With an assortment of lighthearted and intriguing segues on offer they can be as interactive or as minimalist as required.

Psychic Party Host – Would you like a party with a difference? With an emphasis on having fun and getting everyone involved, bring your event to life with interactive psychic games that will make you giggle and squirm and maybe even show you skills you didn’t know you had! Great for hen’s nights, birthday parties, corporate team building events, festivals, and psychic fairs.

Ritual – If you want to delve a little deeper we can co-create a beautiful ritual for the celebratory person or event, such as for someone having a birthday or celebrating an anniversary.

Past Shows;

Include; Jun 18, Old and Gold, Strumpet Salon, Brunswick Heads; Nov 17, Hen’s Party, La Di Da, Melbourne; Aug 17, Betwixt and Between festival, Wadeville; Jul 17, Splendour in the grass, Byron Bay; Mar 17, Melb Polytechnic Open Day, Greensborough; Jan 17, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Oct 16, Community Halloween Event, Officer; Jan 16, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Jan 14, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Jan 13, Dandenong Community Festival, Dandenong; Dec 12, Bon Bijou, Melbourne; Dec 12, Corporate Event, Melbourne Zoo, Parkville; Feb 12, Corporate Function, Sumac, Melbourne; Jan 12, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Mar 09, Bizarre Festival, Wangaratta; Nov 09, Private Party, Brunswick, Dec 09, Mont Albert Festival, Mont Albert

Biography;

After over fifteen years of theatrical involvement mainly behind the scenes, especially costume making, Tjoni took to the stage ten years ago after falling in love with the art of spinning fire. Since that momentous occasion, and the fiery obsession that sprouted from it, she has performed around in an eclectic variety of shows, including fire shows, clowning, bellydance, African dance, burlesque and physical theatre. 
 
Presently Tjoni’s focus is on exploring elements of performance art as a medium for healing, self-empowerment, spiritual growth, and social awareness. 

She is also passionate about education and has started running Creative Bootcamp programs in schools and festivals, fostering empowerment collaboration and community through the arts.

Technical requirements

MC – radio mic, music player if required.

Legal

Fully insured P/L up to $20M and P/I up to $10M.

Current WWCC

Contact;

Tjoni Johansen

Luxor, Egypt

Email; tjonij (@) outlook.com

The post THE AMAZING DESMERELDA appeared first on In-Spiral.

Earlier this year we were blessed to be back at Swifts Creek P12 School, this time with a performing arts intensive for the Year 6s and 7s.

In collaboration with the contageously joyous Chris James from The Dreaming Space and talented actor and teacher David Clisby, the students were immersed in a swell of creative classes. Chris and David spent more time on the physical aspects included acting, clowning, improvisation and singing, offering loads of technical skill interspersed with time for creative development and presentation. I offered creative movement, puppetry, and the creative production aspects such as script and story writing, facepainting, music in theatre and costume design.

We spent three days on skills development with the students, helping them get comfortable with ‘playing’, building trust and starting to formulate an idea for their end of year production .The last hour was a chance for students to get up on ‘stage’ and present something they had been working on – and everyone loved the puppets!!

Creative Movement with Tjoni

Acting and Improvisation with David Clisby

Puppetry with Tjoni

Puppetry Intensive

They loved them so much in fact we did another bootcamp a few weeks later, to bring back more puppets!; this time with the exceptional talent of puppeteer David Splatt. As well as being one of a small number of traditional puppeteers left in Australia, he is also very well known for playing a saw with incredible precision, with which he did very well on Australia’s Got Talent.

David worked with the students on honing in their puppeteering skills, as well as deepening their improvisation, mime and clowning hats. Meanwhile I was working with them to create story lines, pepping up their facepainting, and bringing in more creative movement.

In the last few hours the classes all came together to begin writing a story together in collaboration, following the trail of the Heroes’ Journey. The biggest challenge was trying to keep the characters out of politics (it was Trump time on the media and half the class wanted to do a piece on that!)… but we managed to steer it steeply back to something more appropriate!

The students are now well on their way with the help of their dedicated teachers and staff to create their own performance for the end of the year.

I’m super keen to hear how it all goes!!

Creative Bootcamp runs collaborative projects and workshops fostering creativity, wellness and sustainability.

If you are interested in a Creative Bootcamp please get in touch with Tjoni Johansen VIA tjonij (@) outlook.com for a free consultation on how we can generate an inspiring creative program for your organisation or event.

Back to Latest News

Back to Past Events

The post ACTING UP @ SWIFTS CREEK appeared first on In-Spiral.

Year 8s are fun. They have enough motor skills to do all the awesome technical things we teach, and enough playfulness to explore and create, and enough mind to bring their own ideas to the table.

I was glad to have the collaborative company of Luth Wolff from Solid State Circus. My background is mainly in fire manipulation, production, dance and theatre, so her awesome talents with tumbling, trampoline, acrobalance and more created a great balanced program. Learning front flips was one of the highlights for many students, as well as the opportunity to perform in front of their peers, “I’m looking forward to being able to show off how awesome we are!” was the comment from one young acrobat. Staff spinning was another favourite, as well as the opportunity to make some friends and deeper connections that weren’t obvious before.

By the end of our week together we had all managed to pull together a 15 minute show, and the students did an amazing job pulling off all their crazy antics and cool stunts to a receptive crowd of family, friends, staff and co-students.

Along with students and staff, Year 8 co-ordinator Sarah Carr who organised the program was thrilled with the result.

‘One of the great things for our year 8s has been that circus is all about communication cooperation and collaboration, compared to a lot of the activities they do which is all about competition. It’s been really good for the year 8s to work on their teamwork skills, communication with each other and to bond as a group. As an English teacher as well I can just see how their work together will impact their learning in the classroom in a really positive manner. It’s been an awesome week and we’re looking forward to doing much more circus in the future.’

Well, so are we! And we are super excited to be joining them again later in 2017 for another fabulous Circus Week.

Creative Bootcamp offers programs across performing arts as well as creative arts practises.

If you are interested in a Creative Bootcamp, please get in touch with Tjoni Johansen via tjonij (@) outlook.com for a free consultation on how we can generate an inspiring creative program for your organisation or event.

Back to Latest News

Back to Past Events

The post SCARY CLOWNS TAKE TO THE STAGE appeared first on In-Spiral.

Workshops in upcycled craft, roleplaying, facepainting and much more kept the children delighted. Stunning market stalls bearing handcrafted magical creations and a stage gently ebbing with a flow of musical treats laid a beautiful foundation for the mingling crowd. While food stalls and chai nurtured hungry bellies and people gathered around an open fire to warm their hands and hearts.

A goblin feast of Saturday night was a step back in time in a lavish setting as performers opened their hearts, faeries served plate after plate of festive offerings, and guests cheerfully nourished their bodies with culinary treats and shared jovial tales with their neighbours. All this was held in a stunningly decorated rustic hall in Wadeville, complete with toadstools and candles and flowers and all the things to make one feel at home.

The weekend was awash with faerie wings, facepaint, lavish costume creations and swirls of magic; and that was just the participants! But most of all there were smiles, many many smiles, and many many cuddles.

Personally I enjoyed bringing The Amazing Desmerelda’s mad hat antics to the festival, and Miso loved the magical kiddies on Saturday. There were many fortunes to be told, but to be honest I think the kids were more interested in my oracle fruit lollies in the present than their awesome futures.

So then the facepaints came out and my ‘office’ was probably the most relaxed and enjoyable to date! It was a choose your own adventure and the kids were playful enough to instruct me on their designs from Picachoo (Spelling?) to mermaids, superheroes and even… fairies.

On Sunday it was time for me to bring on Creative Bootcamp. We pulled out the craftings for puppet workshops, and wow do these gorgeous kids love to create!! We had superheroes and rockstars and unicorns and mermaids and all sorts of colourful creations. Using socks, feathers, beads, fun fur and chenille sticks, the little artists got super crafty and had an awesome new buddy to take home!!

Guests were so thrilled to be in a space where the parents could relax into their own experience, knowing their children were safe on their own adventures. And the focus on wellness and creativity offered such a supportive space for this to occur in a wonderful community environment.

I’m looking forward to the next stage of this lovely festival!! Hope to see you there too!

If you would like The Amazing Desmerelda or a Creative Bootcamp at your event, please get in touch with Tjoni Johansen at tjonij (@) outlook.com

For more information or involvement in future Betwixt and Between events please send a message via the the facebook page.Back to Latest News

The post CREATIVE BOOTCAMP @ BETWIXT & BETWEEN appeared first on In-Spiral.

The Future Living Festival hosted a variety of discussion spaces with topics ranging from fermenting foods to intentional communities, collaborative project management to tiny houses. It was inspiring to see so many people from all walks of life seriously considering how to best venture into an often uncertain future in the best way possible.

Creative Bootcamp was abuzz with workshops in circus skills, dance and weaving, while discussions around in-Spiral Intentional Business Community and Katherine Cunningham’s work Living Gently kept active minds engaged.

Next stop, (f)routeville!! where CBC no 4 will be a creative blaze. Looking forward to it

If you are interested in a Creative Bootcamp, please get in touch with Tjoni Johansen via tjonij (@) outlook.com for a free consultation on how we can generate an inspiring creative program for your organisation or event.

The post CBC at Living Futures Festival appeared first on In-Spiral.