After the Acts of Clothing performances I’ve been feeling rather exhausted, but happy and content. Despite the fact that in the third performance I had a knee injury and did the last two shows sitting in a wheelchair, Marcia assisting me. It was rather tiring but we quickly decided that we won’t cancel the last performances and in a very short time figured out a way to do the shows in the best possible way in the unforeseen circumstances. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and I’m excited about the upcoming possibilities to do the show in different festivals and venues in the future.

But this all has eaten up my energy! Of course the thing with the knee is a nightmare. I’m dealing with the insurance company at the moment and waiting to get a magnetic scan which will determine what happens next. Day by day I can walk better, with less pain, so I’m not desperate. But it is really strange not to be able to go for runs or nordic walks! I’m very worried about my fitness…

In the last performance I got 36 pink flowers from Marcia to celebrate my age and the number of my clothing items in the performance. I also got amazing flowers from the Regional dance centre of Eastern Finland the regional arts council of North Savo. They all still delight me every day! After the last show I wanted to have a party to celebrate the fact that Acts of Clothing might be last work I ever make. I didn’t really manage as the performance preparations and then the sudden injury ate up my energy and I didn’t have time to organize anything properly. But we had a nice time, some food and lots of cava… We also went out and on the next day I had a hangover from hell. But I’ve never been pushed around in a wheelchair through the city from bar to bar before ! At least it was an experience.

So this is it for a while. I’m not going to make any new work in 2010 but hopefully tour the existing works and focus on developing the ANTI Festival, research new ways of working and collaborating and do some further studies. For a long time I haven’t felt this excited and happy!

To reward myself for all the hard work I ordered two skull bracelets & earrings by Tarina Tarantino. Marcia had the bracelets and I absolutely fell in love with them. So they are a memory of this wonderful collaboration and performance, which I’ve had the best time performing.

Lovely weekend to everybody!

Johanna