Debrief & a reminder

This Thursday the members that came along to the weekly meeting had a little bit of a brain storm about what we did right and what we could improve on at the Pontardawe Summerfest event. So here is a bit of a summery of things that were mentioned.


Things we did right:-

• Despite height and space issues with the bandstand area, we worked with what we had, squeezed in, carried on, improvised and did it all with a smile.
• Everyone felt we did well in the parades, engaged with the crowd and showed off our circus skills well.
• The short performance we did at the end of the Torch Light Parade was well received and our en masse 5 minutes of 'showing off ' (for want of a better description) did grab the crowds attention.
  
• On Saturday we didn't let the fact that the stage we were meant to have was pulled at the last minute and we improvised by finding another space to perform and entertain passers by.
• In the Saturday Parade, the stopping and starting of the dance troupe in front of us made parading for the unicyclists quite challenging, but they worked around it and kept on smiling and chatting with the crowd.
  
• Biggest highlight for most of us was Robert's reverse striptease on his unicycle on the Friday evening. It was well practised and stopped passers by who wanted to see how it progressed. He got a large round of applause.
  

Things we can improve on:-

• Communication with the organisers of events to make sure they know about how much height and floor space we need to perform and so we know exactly what they are expecting from us. To that aim we need someone to go along and see the space and do a risk assessment on the space, to be sure we are safe, and so are the audiences.
  
• We need to create & practice routines and stage acts, so that we have ready made performances to pull out of the bag when we are invited to these kinds of events, as sometimes the notice we get between being asked to join in and actually performing is short. To this aim we decided that we would have more regular renegade nights/ time at the end of each meeting for people to show the rest of the group their performances and get feedback on what they are doing.
• We need to encourage as many members of the group as possible to work on MCing skills. The more we have willing to stand up and guide the audiences through the shows we give the better, so it means there will always be at lease one at every event we do, because, as you all know, we have a rolling number of members and not all show up to any one event.
• If the venue of where we are going to perform is changed we need to take our audience with us by announcing the change and parading loudly to the new venue, hopefully taking the crowd with us and gaining more people as we go along.
• If we are to be part of a parade, ask in advance to be at the very back of the parade so we can have enough space to perform in and not end up sandwiched in a space that shrinks when people in front of us stop and people behind us shuffle forwards.
• Send out an email/text to all members to confirm all details of meeting up and performance times, so everyone is sure where we need to be.
• Appoint a person that writes a running order of stage shows, collates all the music needed and makes sure everyone knows that running order.

If you have any more suggestions for improvements please to pass them on at club meetings.

This weeks Club meeting is the last of the month, so the first hour 7-8pm is Unicycle hour, when the hall space will all be handed over to the unicyclists to use as they will. The rest of us can either turn up at 7 pm and use other areas of the building or arrive at 8pm to use the main hall.

Hope to see you there!

Pontardawe SummerFest August 12th-14th 2011

Last Friday and Saturday, Elephants Not Included were involved in the Pontardawe SummerFest. We were in both the Torch Light Parade on the Friday and the Lunchtime Parade on the Saturday. We also did a stage spot on the Friday evening at 6.30pm. All went fairly well as the below photos show. All those involved had lots of fun and we had a lot of positive feedback from the community and the organisers of the event.

Everyone that did the Stage show on Friday night.

The star of our Friday night show, Rob and his amazing unicycle reverse striptease.

Nick showing off hi unicycle skills, backed up by the juggling and staff work of Dan, Robert and Daniel.

Now Bring on the Friday night Torch Light Parade. With all the glow equipment and sparkles

Peter and his nephew carried our banner at the front of our group in the parade.

Cath managed to dash down after work to arrive just in time to unicycle her way down the dark streets of Pontardawe.

Here are Dan, Daniel, Hannah and Lynne passing the Cross community centre.

Lastly we have John and Rob with Kim just in the background on their way down Herbert street.

Thank you to everyone from the club that came and joined in. I hope you all enjoyed being involved. I also want to thank all the people that organised the event, and those who stewarded, helped set up and take down the stages... well just everyone involved.

All the above photographs were taken by Bob Grainger. You can see more of his work on his website. Thanks you Bob for allowing us to use the photos!

Practise, practise, practise, practise, perform!

As we have been asked to be involved with the Pontardawe Summer Festival of Music, Dance & Circus 2011, not only in the 2 parades, but to do 2 stage spots we have decided we really need to come up with some routines for such occasions, so for the next few weeks we are going to spend time in and outside the club meetings coming up with ideas and rehearsing. That way we will have something more structured to do on the stages and not just go on and wing it.

To that aim can all of you please spend this week thinking of themes, ideas and music you would like to perform to and then bring them to the club meeting next week so we can all work on them together.

See you Thursday, if not before.

Thank you and a new invitation

I'd like to thank all of you that were involved with the parades last weekend. I have had lots of very positive feedback from people that watched the parades and the organisers. I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did. The part that gave me the greatest pleasure was seeing members of the club, that were obviously a little nervous about showing off their skills at the beginning of the parade, were beaming and brimming with excitement by the time we reached the end. The rounds of applause and cheers we got as we passed the crowds watching was very heart warming too. You were all amazing!

I hope you all had a great time as I did as we have been invited to join in next Saturdays parade for the Pontardawe music festival. This time it will go from the Gilbertson's Suite down to the festival site on the field behind the Leisure Centre. It is a much longer distance so those of you unicycling will get more of a ride out of it. We need to gather at 12.30pm in the car park of the Gilberston's suite to be wrist banded and briefed. The wristband will get you onto the festival field for the day as a thank you for joining in. We need 2 people to carry the banner so if you don't wish to perform you can still be involved.

It would be nice if all members could dress up in fancy dress or bright clothes to make it a bit more of a spectacle for the crowds watching. We didn't have a theme last time, but if you would like one we could do that, but I think the mix we had last time was great!

I need to get back to the organisers with numbers so please let me know if you wish to be involved.

See you all on Thursday!

(Photograph by Kim Hopkins)

13th and 14th August Parades

We will be meeting up at 8.30pm for the Parade on the Friday 13th August at the Gilbertson Suite/The Football Club (see purple pin on the map below)in Pontardawe.


View Gilbertson Suite Church St in a larger map

It is a torch lit parade so please bring along any glow props you have and if you feel like dressing up in fancy dress that will be great too. If you have neither props nor fancy dress don't worry, come along and we will be able to provide you with torches to carry or give you something else to do in the parade. We hope to be moving out at 9pm along the road onto the Hight Street, into Herbert Street and down to the Pontardawe Art Centre.

The Saturday Parade 14th August will be done in daylight so bright colourful props and clothing is what we are looking for. For all those liking fancy dress please do dress up. We don't have a theme, just come in anything you think is fun. The meeting place is the same as the night before but at 1pm for a 1.30pm start.

I would like to stress that the organisers know we have a lot of people that are beginners and are looking forward to seeing all of us joining in and showing off anything we have learned so far, so don't think that just because you have only just learned 2 moves with a prop that we don't want you there, we do. The more members that come the better. It will show the people of Pontardawe that the club is all about having fun whilst having a go at something new. So grab your favourite prop, put on a tutu, a red nose and some giant shoes or anything you like and come along and join in.

If you have any questions please leave them in the comments of this blog post. Thank you!

Hope to see you all next Thursday!

The Invitation.

So for those of you that didn't make it to last nights meeting and those of you that did but need it in writing to remind them, we as a group have been invited to be involved in the Pontardawe village festival parades.

The torchlight parade is on Friday 13th August, the start is 9ish pm and we need to assemble at the Pontardawe football club(Gilbertson suite) car park beforehand.There will be a safety meeting just before that one member of each team has to attend. The procession finishes at the Arts Centre and then we can do a short twirl on the stage and they will announce who we are and where we meet etc.

The Saturday Parade starts at 1.30pm 14th August and everyone meets as above at the football club if you want to take part.

The majority of people at the meet yesterday have expressed a wish to join in and dress up a bit. In the Torchlight parade we have been asked to use glow toys so we light up the night. For the daytime parade I think just dressing up in fancy dress costumes would be good as it will make it more interesting for the crowds. If you do not wish to perform with your circus skills we would still like you to be involved, either holding a torch light in the night parade or a banner of flag in the day time one. It's more about taking part than performance.

We will have another chat next week to see who is in or out for each parade and make sure each person joining in has all they need for the day.

Hope to see you next Thursday!