The Blog of an Upsidedown Girl

Samsung Gig

Sally M — Sat, 19 May 2012 23:21:54 +0000

I don’t always get photo’s from gigs, but when I do then I like to post them

Here is a photo of me from a gig I did for Samsung at the beginning of this month.

The cost of Adult Gymnastics

Sally M — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:21:53 +0000

IS VERY OFTEN RIDICULOUS

I currently train at East London Gymnastics Centre which is GREAT value for money and I love it there. I can train for 3 hours for £5. And Maurice the coach is great. As a result I train 2-3 times a week there. The journey takes me 1hr+ but because it is a 3hr session I do not mind.

I used to train at Camden Gymnastics/Talacre Sports centre as well, it is closer to my house. But they have very recently been taken over by GLL and have put the price up to £11.20 for a 2 hour session. When you wish to train a good couple of times a week then it becomes a rich persons sport that I can not afford.

I did a quick look into adult classes around London, they are generally between 1.5 to 2hrs long, roughly about £10 per class. The places that do offer it have 1-2 sessions a week. For me a 1.5hr session is pointless, it is enough time to warm up and do one piece of apparatus.

I guess there is a difference between wanting to train once a week as a beginner for fun and wanting to train a sufficient amount to actually get somewhere with learning skills. I’m old and i am not a kiddy anymore but I still enjoy gymnastics and the adrenalin rush of doing new things. And I am not the only one.

Yoga I also find ridiculously expensive. I used to do alot of Bikram Yoga, but again the price of this is astronomical even with a carnet. It is something I now only do now and again.

Anyway, luckily I can go to East London Gymnastics a few times a week and it does not break my bank account. It keeps me in shape, keeps me happy, and makes sure I keep up with skills to use in my work.

Blue Costume

Sally M — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:48:04 +0000

I added some more rhinestones to my blue costume. The picture is only taken with my mobile phone and so doesn’t do the costume as much justice as it deserves, but in it i sparkle and glisten and look beautiful under the lights

Gymnastics Competition

Sally M — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:37:04 +0000

Two weeks ago three of the children I teach in my group at NELGC did a regional gymnastics competition. They all did fabulous, especially on vault. I was so proud of them all, they all ended up with big smiles on their faces and gold and silver medals around their necks.

Simply Glitter Video Shoot

Sally M — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:33:38 +0000

Here is the video of me at last months videoshoot for Simply Glitter :-)

Born to be upside down

Sally M — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:29:49 +0000

I was transferring old family vhs videos to dvds last weekend. There were many quality moments that would likely bore anyone other than my family. As a child me and my brother and sister and friends did a multitude of plays, dances, fashion shows, and random kershazzle, and my wonderful dad filmed alot of it. Some of these shows were at events, but most were in our living room with our parents being the sole audience.

The video below shows two of my moments most relevant to what I do today. I did womens artistic gymnastics, but it shows that as a kid I was rather talented at handstand pirouetting. I do remember when we had handstand pirouette competitions (number of 360 turns in handstand) it would be the rest of the groups cumulative score V my score. I used to do 30+ pirouettes in one go…

The second part of the video shows why my parents put me into every sport that they could… I must have just have begun gymnastics at this point?

The Power of a Gold Sticker

Sally M — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:17:48 +0000

It is AMAZING how the British Gymnastics London 2012 Olympic Gold Stickers have the effect of completely improving the listening skills and behaviour of some kids. They LOVE them! I award two stickers every lesson to the two best behaved kids who have also tried exceptionally hard. I will need to find something to replace them with once London 2012 is over and my Limited Edition stickers have run out! The excited look on the kids faces when they get a sticker is awesome.

I teach a lot of gymnastics in schools. Teaching gymnastics is one of my passions that I knew I would always do alongside anything else that i do, I enjoy passing my knowledge on and helping others to be able to participate in a fun sport which has so many benefits.

Ummm Just because it’s one of my nice headpieces :-)

Sally M — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:52:36 +0000

Quote from gig

Sally M — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:40:20 +0000

Another lovely quote from a gig me and Lisa performed our duo act earlier this week :-)”You were the best thing that has happened in this room tonight. You were amazing.”

Well I must say that I thought me and Lisa were pretty awesome too

Lisa and Sally - Ambient Sets

Sally M — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:21:57 +0000

Last weekend me and Lisa spent three wonderful days at the Gadget Show, we were performing on the Lenovo Stand promoting the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga. Every hour we performed a 5 minute ambient set of acrobatics, acrobalance and contortion, all our favourite impressive moves culminating in me getting into my tiny perspex box with Lisa in a one arm balance on the top of it. It was a very fun three days and we did a good job of getting more people to take notice of the Lenovo stand and the IdeaPad Yoga

Hunting for any audience photos post gig I found this nice quote:

Having just been to the Gadget Show yesterday I got to see a lot of cool upcoming tech… one thing that caught my eye was the Lenovo Yoga… tbh it was mainly the two contortionist girls being incredibly bendy that first caught my eye but the laptop looked pretty awesome too.

Anyway, have a little research of that; I’m almost tempted to get one!

Simply Glitter Photoshoot

Sally M — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:25:14 +0000

I LOVE to be painted, I was first painted back in 2007 and i find it absolutely amazing what these people can do. I’m someone who could never have something as permanent as a tattoo, but having my body as a canvas but being able to wash it off after i love.

I also love everything that glitters and sparkles.

So I seized the opportunity to be painted in glitter this week. It was for a photo and video shoot for Simply Glitter (www.simplyglitter.co.uk). I was painted by the wonderful Cat (www.catscreations.co.uk) in a wonderful colurful glittery design. I really can not wait to see the final photos and video, but until then here is a very quick video taken from my phone! You can’t see how glittery I was in this but I was really wonderfully sparkly. I am wearing a stick on bra.

April 2012

Sally M — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 13:17:45 +0000

Soooooo I have been slightly slack in keeping this blog up to date, but the good news is I haven’t fallen off the planet, i have just been busy being upside down and entertaining the nation and also doing various photoshoots.

One of my 2012 aims was to get some new acts together. I don’t like creating if i’m not feeling the creative vibes. But the last month ideas have been popping out of my head an awful lot. I have so many cool ideas right now, and I am feeling quite creative, be it costume, choreography, or anything else.

As well as a new handbalance on canes act, I am also working on a new floor based acrobatic and contortion act. I have many themes I would like to explore, but I am prioritising a more corporate act since first and foremost this is where the majority of my work is. And then in my little ideas pad I have written some different and exciting ventures I want to explore and create.

Exciting Times

Training March 2012

Sally M — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:38:51 +0000

Soooooooo the last two weeks I have been doing a lot of training. Having been working a fair bit and holidaying abroad I haven’t been in the gymnastics centre for months and months. Well I’m back and loving it I have also been busy creating a new aerial hoop act and a new handstand contortion act - hopefully more about them soon!

But for now here is a video of some bits of training I have done over the last two weeks. I got bored so made another video hehe !!!!

Love Never Dies

Sally M — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 13:26:35 +0000

Some lovely audience member sneaked their camera in and took a video of Love Never Dies

Until this moment I had NO footage or pictures of me on this stage, a whole year of being on stage 8 shows a week with nothing to show that I did it except my picture in the programme and a few backstage pictures.

I appear doing contortion at about 6:35mins into this video.

ETA: It appears that RUG have now had this video taken down, lets face it it was going to happen at some point! I’m just grateful that some random audience member uploaded it in the first place. I still find it kind of sad that I had to wait till someone illegally uploaded a copy of it to actually see me on that stage…

Me and Lisa in Singapore

Sally M — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:02:13 +0000

Here is a short clip of me and Lisa in Singapore performing our marvellous duo act.

Photoshoot with Simon Richardson

Sally M — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:42:23 +0000

It’s always a pleasure to shoot with Simon and I always get some fabulous images. He is amazing at capturing jumps and leaps at their peak. After having to postpone the shoot a couple of times we finally got round to shooting last week. More pictures will be found on my Facebook page very soon, but for now here are a few

Singapore

Sally M — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:08:40 +0000

Just before Thailand I was in Singapore performing at an amazing event with Incandescence. I performed my duo hand2hand contortion act, plus aerial hoop hangabout. It was a lovely event to perform at, and the performances were very well received.

Thailand 2012

Sally M — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:02:02 +0000

I have been absent, uncontactable, and escaping from life the last few weeks. I would have been contactable but where i was staying there was no internet, and tbh i quite enjoyed escaping from reality for a bit. I went on my first non-working trip away for a very very long time. In pure Sally style, I handstanded everywhere, plus did some aerial hoop off a tree on the beach which was very very fun. I had two weeks of pure chilled out relaxation time. I’m now back to the UK, trying to catch up with work and emails!

My Blog was Hacked

Sally M — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:27:10 +0000

I haven’t looked at or written any posts since the last photoshoot i posted. So I was horrified to go onto my blog tonight and see it had been hacked with some vile person writing obscene posts. Please be assured these most definitely did not come from me, the only posts I will ever write are those to do with my gymnastics, contortion, and handbalance. I am going to look into the security settings of this blog and keep a closer eye on it, possibly even move to a different location for my blog.

I have removed the offending posts.

Sally x

Photoshoot with Paul Harrison

Sally M — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:40:16 +0000

Here are a few pictures of me by Paul Harrison of PRH Photography. You can see some more of the pictures by clicking on the link to my Facebook Page in the post below this one