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.

The imaginative students came up with the idea of  and Alice in Wonderland themed show this year, so we proceeded to co-create Alice in Tumbleland; Curiouser and Circusier.

Stretching some seriously brave creative minds and bodies we created a landscape to draw Alice through a foreign land of poi, staves, juggling, acrobalance and tumbling.

We had the awesome support of Year 8 Co-ordinator Sarah Carr who was amazing as always in ensuring everything behind the scenes was smooth for all involved. And past student Elisha came on board again with her fabulous make up and facepainting skills which was super.

We were lucky to have the help of super talented acrobatic and theatrical superstar Joana Joy on board this year. She coached the students through the physical aspects of circus, while I focused on object manipulation and story, which created a balanced foundation to collaborate with students.

The audience, staff and students were all thrilled with the results. My highlight was having some involvement from students that were initially not keen on circus, but with gentle invitation ended up being integral parts of the production and performance.

We are looking forward to more circusy goodness next year!

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The post ALICE IN TUMBLELAND – A CIRCUS ADVENTURE appeared first on In-Spiral.

Monday:

Joined by Luth Wolff from Solid State Circus, we begin with an introduction to all the skills we are going to be learning and cocreating with during the week. They are picking skills up pretty fast, and are surprisingly aware of their bodies for their age group. After warm up games and chatting about the storyline we will weave, we delve into tumbling, acrobalance, sliding table, hoops, staff, poi and movement.

Excitement – 95%, Skill – 15%

Tuesday:

Today we begin creating patterns for each of the skills, so everyone has a basic choreography to come back to. Some pick it up straight away, but many find it confusing to work with the music, moving to a beat and counting out spins on staff and poi. Still have 2 days til showtime though!

Excitement – 80%, Skill – 30%, Confusion – 15%

Wednesday:

Now it is time to work the pieces into a story line so we have a full performance. Somehow I have managed to create two entirely different beginnings for the staff piece. Students are confused but patient. Co-ordinator is worried. I have faith.

Excitement – 60%, Skill – 50%, Confusion – 50%

Thursday:

We only have the morning sessions to fine tune and rehearse, as the afternoon is full of facepaint, sorting costumes and setting up the performance space. A show is emerging. The students are knackered. I ditch the last classroom rehearsal in favour of 20 minutes of yoga nidra (relaxation) By the end nearly all the kids are asleep. I let them sleep into lunch, they’re gonna need their energy!

Excitement – 50%, Skill – 60%, Confusion – 60%, Panic – 20%

Creative development of The Toy Box

Thursday evening:

Parents and community members arrive for the performance. Staff have all pitched in helping with bits of production and logistics. It feels good to have so much support, especially from the Co-ordinator.

We are all set. Students are painted and costumed, stage is set, bums are on seats, time to announce.

I’m watching as if in a dream from the sound deck. They are nailing it. The start is a little wobbly, but by the time they get to the staff routine they are all in sync. I’m getting chills. I’m actually trying not to cry. I am so freikin proud of what they have managed to achieve in only 4 days.

They finish, they bow, the audience errupts. I don’t think i’ve felt this good in a long time. The Co-ordinator is crying. The Principal is ecstatic and already planning next year. The staff, students and parents are all jubilant and so thrilled.

Excitement – 95%, Skill – 80%, Confusion – 20%, Panic – 0%, Exhuberance – 100%

Friday:

We have time for one last run through before setting up for the lunch time show. This is for the students over the road at the primary school. Some of them I taught earlier this year in Performing Arts.

The kids nail it again. I couldn’t be more proud. After a late lunch we play the video of the performance for them. The best bit was seeing the kids cheering for each other when they did super cool somersaults and dive rolls. The comraderie among them was just wonderful.

Excitement – 100%, Skill – 90%, Confusion – 0%, Panic – 0%, Exhuberance – 100%, Pride 100%

Yes, this is what I love doing, helping these amazing young people bring out their best and absolutely shine – and do it together. I can’t wait to get back for the next amazing Circus Week at this school, and more, in the coming years.

Images from the circus show The Toy Box

Video of full circus show – The Toy Box

Would you like a Creative Bootcamp at your school, event or organisation?

We run collaborative projects and workshops fostering creativity, wellness and sustainability.

If you are interested in a Creative Bootcamp please email Tjoni Johansen at tjonij@outlook.com for a free consultation on how we can generate a program to suit your needs.

The post HEAD OVER HEELS @ SWIFTS CREEK 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.

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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.