My Week - Christmas, Clowns, Russell Grant and Ted the Pomeranian!

Firstly I'd like to say I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I have to say it is been one of the best Christmases I've had in a long while, last year being in the West End was an incredible experience over the Christmas period, however it was a different sort of Christmas where you have to consistently concentrate on a task and of course my task was Dance 'til Dawn, that was my priority and other things have to be second in line. This year I have had probably the longest Christmas I've had in years, my decorations and tree were up by the 4th of December as I wanted to make the most of my break, I managed to spend lots of time with family and friends which is a rarity for me. One of the highlights of my Christmas this year was a theatre show that I went to see with Jimi and some of my family, it is called 'Slava's snow show' at the Royal Festival Hall in London. I've not seen all that many theatre shows however this was one that left me and my family talking about it for days after, we absolutely loved it. It was created by Slava Polunin, the show in essence takes you back to your childhood dreams it helps the audience to be released from the jail of adulthood and rediscover their forgotten childhood. The cast are all clowns but not clowns as we know them these clowns are able to portray a tragi-comedy and magically fuse drama with laughter. It is a great show for children however at times a little scary just like children's dreams can be, I believe it is the adults in the audience that really engage with what's happening on stage and are left with the magic of the show for days after. As my dad said it is a show not to be missed and I would love to go back next year and relive the same experience over again. 


         

Here is a short Poem from the 'Slava snow show' programme 

I Love Theatre

Born of dreams and fairy-tales,

A theatre, ritualistic and magical, a festive spectacle,

A theatre arising from images and gestures, from play and imagination,

A theatre where spectators and actors create together,

A theatre of hopes and dreams, suffused with solitude and longing, premonitions and disillusions,

A theatre that is like a joyful bridal procession, where I attempt to 'wed' all the facets of life,

A theatre on the edge between art and life, tragedy and comedy, absurdity and innocence, cruelty and tenderness,

A theatre that is constantly changing, that thrives on spontaneous improvisation and dearly respects tradition,

A theatre that eludes all definition and uniformity, and all attempts to usurp its freedom.

Just after the new year I had  a lovely surprise visit from the one and only Russell Grant my very own Mamma Rose. I was given a gorgeous copy of his new colouring book which is now number one seller on Amazon, I am so pleased for him, he asked me to say a huge thank you to everybody that read my previous blog and purchased a copy. We were talking about future projects that are in the pipeline for both of us and we were also remembering some of the bizarre thing that we have been asked to do in the past, I think Russell's list is probably a little longer than mine as I shy away a little more from out of the ordinary requests, having said that some time ago Vincent and I did dance with a vacuum cleaner!



You can Order Russell's book on Amazon here

As we were going through some photos and videos we came across this!! Russell Grant as the Love Guru filmed last year.... Love it! 


Here's Russell! But I think i remember somebody else being a Love Guru at some point LOL

Russell came to see me with his lovely friend and driver Matt who has a gorgeous Pomeranian dog called Ted, there is always room in my blog for a photo of me and a cuddly dog lol, don't be jealous Pablo! 



It will not be long before I will be back on tour with Vincent and our fabulous cast to continue our tour of  'The last Tango' this will take us all the way to July, our first venue will be the week of 25th of January and our 1st show will be on the Tuesday at the cliffs pavilion in Southend. We will then be moving onto Bristol, Sunderland, Wimbledon, Crawley and many many more theatres all around the Uk, Scotland and Ireland. we hope to see many of you at some of these venues.

You can see our Tour Schedule, Buy Tickets and meet the New Cast for "The Last Tango" here