April 2006

The Easter Holidays dominate this month, but unfortunately, Trix Circus has been unable to produce a show. Private training and preparations for the flying trapeze act take priority.
Trix Circus will be performing a flying trapeze act at the Robina Town Centre shopping mall during the June - July holidays and more time has been dedicated to the training of those aerialists who will take part in those performances.

March 2006

Trix Circus is represented by Rodleigh Stevens and Maddy Bisby at the Common Wealth Games Festival Melbourne 2006 in Alexander Gardens in Melbourne from March 20th till 27th. They performed their bungee act as part of a show titled "Fly By Night" along side other performers like Emma Aitchison (silks and aerial ring), Joel Salom (MC and comedy), Ben Lewis and Stephen Williams (straps) and live band Bat Attack. There were 9 performances on an outdoor aerial rig supplied by Showtech and all this thanks to the very competent organisation by Sue Broadway and her team.
Three more rigging jobs by Rodleigh for Aerial Angels coincided with the Festival trip.
While Rodleigh was in Melbourne, Jennie and the other Trix Coaches continued teaching our community classes and did a successful workshop with performance for the Rotary Club.

February 2006

Trix Circus starts this month with the debut performance by Rodleigh and Maddy doing their new bungee act at a corporate function at the Brisbane Convention Centre for a Japanese cosmetics company. Over 2000 people attended and gave the two aerialists a resounding applause. The conditions were very difficult thanks to a total lack of reasonable lighting, but true to form, Maddy worked like a seasoned professional and did a great performance. This act will continue to be developed for the Festival Melbourne which coincides with the Common Wealth Games in Melbourne next month.
Another big change is all the rigging at the outdoor facility was re-arranged and put in different places to accommodate the changing season sunshine and shade. Many thanks to all the students who assisted in this large task.

January 2006

Trix Circus has great expectations for 2006 and wishes all the students who train and all the artists who perform under our banner, a safe and successful year of circus enjoyment. As usual, people come from all over the country and indeed, from all over the world, to get good quality circus training with us. We welcome Kadja and Petri from Finland and a host of people who made the interstate trip to come to train here on the Gold Coast doing intensives during their holidays. Thank you for your efforts and I trust it was worth your while. Some students have relocated permanently to the Gold Coast to get their training with Trix, so welcome Jo Mion from Sydney who is the first this year. More rigging work for Aerial Angels performing at Robina Town Centre for the last week of the school holidays.

December 2005

Another corporate rigging job for an Austar event starts the last month of the year. Trix Circus has been teaching the year 8's at Southport State High School and to highlight this program, we put on a show representative of their efforts throughout the year. The show was on December 8th and viewed by parents and other school students. The show got some coverage on the local Channel 9 TV news. Staff and other students were impressed at the high skill levels achieved and the Principal - Rob Stones wants to find more ways to use circus as a recruiting tool to increase enrollments at his school. Well done to all the students performing, stage managing and controlling the sound system.
Our final official community circus class took place at our outdoor training site where the students got to try many skills they are not normally exposed to. Flying trapeze was by far the most exciting of all the skills followed closely be bungy bouncing. More bouncing took place on the trampoline and swimming cooled everyone off when it got too hot. Thank you to coaches Nikki and Tim for getting the students safely in the air on the flying rig all afternoon. Certificates of achievement were handed out to all the students to acknowledge their efforts in circus this year.
Trix Circus closes from December 24th until January 9th for our holiday, but did a rigging favour for Flipside Circus setting up all the aerial gear at the Queen Street Mall where Flipside were to perform at the start of the new year.

November 2005

Another corporate function rigging job starts this month, then all our efforts go towards the end of year fundraising show with the youth performers which takes place at the training space in Southport on November 26th. We had more audience than last year, but sadly raised a lot less money. This still did not change the fact that our show was great, featuring many new acts never seen before. We were able to get 24 performers trained to performing level, including my five year old daughter Raelene, who was part of the five girls lyra spectacular. All of the more experienced performers had upgraded their acts and Tim the clown had practiced the leaning Conductor act, also performed for the first time. Congratulations to the new young performers who have not performed before and to those who practiced innovative new acts which included Jamilla's static trapeze act. Skye and Lara's combination of rolla bolla and tight wire. Shauna did web beautifully. Kate and Georgia combined to do a duo hula hoop number. A big success for Jason on his German Wheel. Kate and Shauna worked hard on their duo wide bar static trapeze act. and Maddy closed the first half with a brand new cloud swing routine. Michelle and Biance did a rip off of Mission Impossible, calling themselves Jane Blonds and their mission was to find the Intermission sign which ended the first half. New acts in the second half of the show started out with a new trio of young ladies doing triple trapeze. Well done Naomi, Danica and Anna. We especially built a new set of steps and platform for the unicycle act which included Zane, Dom and Pascal. Lisa and Skye showed us their duo acro balancing act, and some different pyramids with a much bigger cast ended the show. Well done to all the performers and as usual, a big "Thank you" to the parents who helped us to put on our best show yet.
At the end of the month, we took some of these acts to perform at the Marymount College for all the year 4's and that too was a big success.

October 2005

So far this month's activities have been dominated by Rodleigh doing many rigging jobs for Aerial Angels, a local Gold Coast company supplying aerialists to shopping centers and corporate functions locally and around the country. A trip to Canberra, a show at Conrad Jupiters Casino and the Lexmark Indy 300 evening entertainment at Cavill Mall in Surfers Paradise was included in this busy itinerary. Training the youth group for the coming fund raising show on November 26th is increased.

July 2005

Trix Circus youth performers joins up with Circus Xsavia during the September school holidays to do 17 performances of the highest standard from September 9th until September24th. This has been one of the best opportunities for our students to get the real taste of performing in a professional circus ring. It was very pleasing to see how each performer matured in their confidence and presentation by the end of that run. My congratulations go to Tim Wilks who did all the clowning and his swinging trapeze act and I label him as the "Most Improved Performer" for this run of shows. Well done Tim! Another "Congratulations" goes to Skye Sowden who took the place of Bianca Ruyssnaers in the Manequine Adagio act with Rodleigh with just a few rehearsals. Bianca could not do the run with us due to competitive commitments during the holidays. Maddy Bisby upgraded her Lyra act for the run and did it beautifully. Michelle did her hand balancing act as well as ever despite a pulled hamstring muscle. Kate Petersen did her straps act, and Jason did his Corde Elysee act. The full cast did the skipping act for the opening act, the mini tramp act to open the second half of the show and the tumbling and pyramid act. Trix Circus thanks Jan and Brazil Rodriguez (the directors of Circus Xsavia) for this wonderful opportunity for our students and we look forward to doing this again in the future.

August 2005

Thanks to Plamen and Kristen's disciplined training as an example for Michelle Wurtrich, her solo hand balancing act has developed very well and she continues to make impressive progress with it. Well done Michelle and I hope that your example will be followed by all of our youth students in the future. Other very talented students who are also competitors in gymnastics and sports acrobatics will represent their state at the National Titles later this month and we wish them luck.
Business continues with circus workshops at schools, rigging rentals and agreements to do future shows with the youth performing group.

July 2005

Trix Circus youth performing group have been invited to perform with the Gold Coast Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert titled "Masquerade". Acts chosen to perform have to choreograph their acts to accommodate the new length of the music pieces. The concerts are held at the Robina Community Centre on July23rd 24th and are a great success. My congratulations to the performers for adapting so well to a new variety of performance! The Orchestra conducted by Mark Turpin have asked us to collaborate with them for their end of year concert.
Duo Milany are a professional casting cradle act consisting of Plamen Milanov and Trix student Kristen White. They have been training together since February this year and performed for Trix Circus in April. They have been preparing for a contract with the Friederichstad Palast Variety show in Berlin starting in September, with rehearsals starting in August. Their training has been very successful and I am pleased that Kristen has progressed better than predicted. Despite a last minute knee surgery for Plamen, they had the final practice session with me on July 30th and are now honouring their contract in Berlin. Trix Circus wished both Plamen and Kristen a wonderful experience and to be great ambassadors for our circus school. Break a leg!

June 2005

Business resumes, now teaching from the new premises. The youth performing group are invited to do half hour performances for the opening of the ANZ bank at a local shopping centre. A week later they did a similar show for the final day of the 92.5 Gold FM's "Give me Five for Kids" fund raising for improving children's wards facilities in Gold Coast and Tweed hospitals. The heaviest rainfall recorded in history causes flooding through the Gold Coast and my outdoor training space becomes part of a vast lake with most of the rigs up to 2 meters deep in water! Normal training can only resume a week later after the flood water has drained away.

May 2005

Trix Circus moves to a new premises. We found a very good location and house with a very large garden and have set up all the outdoor equipment in the new space.

April 2005

Trix Circus senior students do six full shows for The Lions International fundraising. Acts which performed were Danica Hilton on the swinging straps, Rachael Gibson on the cloud swing, Jason Fergusson on the corde elyse, Jason Reed and Susie Philpot did their standing casting act, Tom Flanagan did reprise clowning, Duo Milany did their incredible casting cradle act, Mali De Goey did his hand balancing act, Maddy Bisby did her lyra act, Rodleigh and Bianca did their adagio act and Mark Winmill and Amanda Lynch did their double swinging trapeze act. Four other members of the senior peforming group filled in with the opening sequence and pyramid building finale bringing the total number of artists to 18. The sound and lighting was supplied and operated by Troy Smith Entertainment and the tent was supplied by Somersault Productions. Rigging was done by Rodleigh and tm Wilks. We thank them for a very professional run of shows, we are proud of them all. We thank the family members who also contributed to the success of these performances keeping us well fed and watered!

February 2005

New student Kristen White teams up with veteran professional Plamen Milany to become his new casting cradle partner. They start training at Trix Circus for a contract which will take place at the Friedrichstadt Palast in Berlin in August this year. They train every day and Kristen is progressing very well.
Plamen offers to help coach the youth classes on Saturdays, so we are lucky to have someone of his quality sharing his expertise with the young students.
Five students from our youth group are selected to do interviews and their acts with the Totally Wild children's television show to be shown later this year.

January 2005

The Trix Kidz consisting of all the community class youth performers are invited to perform at the International Expo for Kids at the Gold Coast Convention Centre from Jan 15th - 17th doing a total of 6 performances. The show was only half hour long and highlighted the following acts:- Lisa and Kate Petersen doing acro balancing, Bianca doing her silks act, Jason, Zane and Bradleigh doing their slapstick comedy Baker Boy act, Kate Petersen doing her aerial straps act, Michelle and Rene doing their duo hand balancing act, Bianca and Rodleigh doing their adagio hand balancing act and Lisa, Kate and Michelle doing their triple trapeze act. Congratulations to all the young students who performed very professionally, you made us proud!
As a result of these performances, the circus community classes every Saturday afternoon swells to 45 students plus, so more coaches are hired to deal with the large numbers. We are anticipating a lot of growth this coming year with our youth program.
We purchase a used tumbling strip with the proceeds of our fundraising show in November last year.

December 2004

9 Performers do a one-off performance titled "Airspertise" at the Woodford Folk Festival. Due to very little rigging and rehearsal time, the artists were nervous for their show, but did very well considering the difficult conditions. The group lyra act consisting of Pieta Clear, Kristy Seymour, Amanda Lynch and Free Coulston is a great success on the big aerial frame. Danica Hilton did her swinging rings act. Pieta Clear did her cloud swing act. Jason Fergusson did his corde elyse act for the very first time and did very well. Congratulations to Jason Reed and Susie Philpot for their great standing casting act 'a la Samba' (Rio style!). Amanda Lynch did her upgraded swinging trapeze act and finally the double trapeze act of Bracken Cunningham and Free Coulston went off very well as expected, despite a miss at the end. A hearty thanks and congratulations to all the artists and support staff who made this show possible.
Trix Circus was disappointed with the lack of professional courtesy and consideration shown to us by the event organisers and other performing companies using the same venue. We will not be performing at Woodford again if the conditions are the same next year.