Below are highlights from the artistic projects I’ve been involved with in the last few years.
2010
June 10
British Council’s 10th Anniversity Celebrations, Chongqing, China
“It is such a great pleasure to have you in Chongqing to perform for our 10th anniversary celebration in several occasions; all the attendees at the first day reception and audiences at the second and third day exhibitions were amazed by your performance and of course impressed by the UK creativities. You and Sorcha have done a great job, we are really impressed by your ability of working under various environments especially when the weather gets really hot, you still handled it professionally and smoothly. Well done and Thank you! “- Taylor Tang, Arts Officer, British Council, Chongqing
May 10
World Expo, Shanghai, China
May and June took Sorcha to China as part of the amazing group Calvos. The etherial statues, stilt walkers and stunning contact juggling was watched by visitors to the British Consulate. Calvos performed to over 70,000 a day
April 10
Another sold out show at The Brickhouse. A massive thank you to everyone who came to see Fire in The Belly and made it such a success. The show feature a mix of some of the best artist in the world of circus, fire and bellydance.
2009
Dec 09
Fleur Estelle Bellydance Cabaret at ULU theatre, London
Swords, Veils, Drums & Sequins!
Featuring Fleur Estelle’s Dance Company,
Graduates from the school’s levels 1, 2, 3 & 4 as well as guest professionals.
From traditional to modern types of belly dancing, featuring a number of outside influences such as Bollywood, Salsa & Saidi to name just a few, this show is set to get you shimmying on the spot, not to be missed! Sorcha did a guest act, performing a flag veil bellydance fusion routine.
Sept 09
International Bellydance Congress
The biggest European belly dance event of the year, offering a unique combination of teachers and performers from around the world.
Fire In The Belly aka, Sorcha Ra and Miss Trixta performed their fire fan routine ‘The Snake and The Peacock, in the Tribal Alchemy show on the Friday night. This routine was originally choreographed for the sellout Fire in The Belly show at The Brickhouse in May.
August 09
Private booking for Ignite at wedding in Kent.
July 09
Private booking for a solo fire and bellydance cabaret in North London, at an Indian wedding celebration
June 09
Glastonbury Festival
Flame Fatale performed in the late night cabaret at The Snake Pit, in Shangri la field at Glastonbury Festival.
Magic Bullet at Jacksons Lane Theatre
Flame Fatale guest starred in Christian Lee’s evenings of magical frolics.
May 09
Fire In The Belly – Cabaret & workshops
Sorcha is one of the founder members of this dance collective that put on workshops and shows involving bellydance and fire performance. This event was held at The Brickhouse, Brick Lane, London and featured dancers and circus artists from both England and mainland Europe.
You can more pictures from the event here
Flame Fatale performed their fire cabaret act in Christian Lee’s Naughty Magic Extra night at this decadent little supper club in the heart of the city of London.
Taj Mahal at The Working Mens Club, Bethnal Green
March 09
Sorcha performed in the Hafla as the Tribal Massive in Las Vegas.
January 09
Antitassel Circus Cabaret
Sorcha performed as part of the duo Flame Fatale, alongside a fantastic mix of circus performers including jugglers, grotesque clowns, aerialists and acrobats at this amazing event at the Brickhouse in east London.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IIlECCDfgU]
2008
November 08
Christmas lights switch-on in Reading
Performed with brightFX in a fire and light display for the third year running, to celebrate the switch on of the Christmas lights at the Oracle in Reading. It all went smoothly and the crowd loved it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzT0uP7hLco]
October 08
Circus Tatovski in South Shields
Took the Tatovski show to The Customs House in South Shields where it was very well received – a great audience and a terrific show.
September 08
Fire in the Belly Show
This was the first of an exciting new event in London, celebrating the new emerging genre of fire and bellydance. Fire In The Belly are a dance collective that are passionate about promoting this dance form. Co-organising the event were Philippa and Jesse from Moira Tribal Bellydance. Workshops were held in the afternoon, concentrating on the use of different fire props with dance. In the evening there was a fantastic show, featuring fire acts, bellydance acts and of course fire bellydance acts!
To see pictures from this show please go to http://www.myspace.com/fireinthebellylondon
August 08
JWAAD Summer School, Tring, England
This is one of my favourite events in the annual bellydance calendar. A week long residental bellydance course held at a performing arts college in Tring, Hertfordshire. A chance to spend time living, learning and dancing with some of the most inspiring women I know. This year the weather was against me when it came to any fire performance so instead I performed a veil flag routine. Also had the opportunity to teach more poi spinning.
Performed a flag poi routine and taught workshops in poi at this fantastic annual event.
June 08
Dance Jam 08 at Ferneham Hall, Fareham.
Performed extracts from the new duo show Flame Fatale
Hired as principal fire choreographer for this specially commission finale show from No Fit State.
March 08
Had the amazing opportunity to attend a week long course in Tribal Fusion bellydance with top teacher Rachel Brice. Also brought along the chance to perform with in the Tribal Massive Hafla with the wonderful girls from Seraphine Fire. It was a pleasure and a honour to learn and perform with all the wonderful women I meet during this week. Hope to make it back out again for next years.
2007
December 07
This month was the usual busy Christmas season.
My main work this month was at Newbury Racecourse ‘Fire & Ice’ christmas events. They asked me to choreograph and perform a 10 min indoor fire show. I also performed a contact juggling act standing on a podium dressed as the Ice Queen during the drinks reception .
November 07
Switch On of the Festive Lights at The Oracle, Reading
This was the second year that the group brightFX received a commission to produce a show for this event. I was responsible for co-ordinating and directing the whole stage show, as well as choreographing the new routines. Again it was so successful that we have been asked back to do the next event in November 2008.
October 07
Circus Tatovski at Warwick Arts Centre
We received a commission from Warwick Arts Centre to take the brightFX street show ‘It’s All About Me!’ and extend it to a 70 min theatre show. Ian Scott-Owens was brought in as the director and following an intensive 2 weeks of rehearsels we ran for 3 days at the theatre to very favourable reviews.
Great fun for all the family with laugh out load moments for children and adults alike……. Coventry Telegraph
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-TNPPhXC0U&rel=1]
September 07
International Bellydance Congress
The biggest European belly dance event of the year, offering a unique combination of teachers and performers from around the world. One of the highlights of my year was being invited to work with my belly dance teacher Jo Wise on a fire and bellydance collaboration for her new dance group Johara Dance. This was premiered in the Saturday night show and provided the desired ‘wow’ factor to the event. The audience loved it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1M4pDGT0Ss]
August 07
Norwegian Juggling Convention
I was invited to teach and perform both fire and poi skills at the Norweigan juggling convention in Stravanger. It was a fantastic festival and I was made to feel most welcome by everyone I met there. A great opportunity to introduce people to the flowing style of poi and flag spinning.
Herne Bay Festival
This month also saw us perform the BrightFx streetshow at the Herne Bay Festival
July 07
Pflasterspektakel in Linz, Austria
The Pflasterspektakel is a multicultural street arts festival that attracts virtuoso acts from all over the world. I was there as a performer in the new brightFX street show ‘It’s All About Me’.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGZgE15Ausg&rel=1]
Street Arts Festival, Jersey
An invitation to brightFX to perform their new street show and also to run a week long series of circus workshops with the local children which lead to their own afternoon show at the festival.
June 07
Winchester Hat Fair
The Hat Fair is Britain’s longest running Celebration of Street Arts and Community.
This was first performance of the new BrightFx street show ‘It’s all About Me’ in 2007.
April 07
This month I organised the fire show for the 20th British Juggling Convention, which was held in Nottingham. With so many amazing fire artists and groups emerging in Britain today, it was a great opportunity to provide a platform to showcase and celebrate this growing art form. So I persuaded the convention organisers (thankyou P’chi) to provide proper staging. Dream State Circus provided us with an amazing sound system. All acts where pre booked and performed fantastic routines showcasing the variety of props and styles of movement used in fire performance.
I also choreographed the finale. This was open to anyone, whatever their skill level, to have the opportunity to participate in the fire show in a highly entertaining way for both the audience and the performer. For many of the participants it was the first time they’d had peformed in a choreographed fire routine. For everyone it was a chance to express their inner cheesiness. Here’s footage of the finale [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAciG8MnU8s&rel=1]. Please remember this is the result of 2 hours of workshopping. The emphasis is on being part of it and enjoy it, not on producing a piece of tight and practiced choreography.
Sorcha is an excellent performer and event organiser, creative and competent. She organised the 2007 BJC Fire Show. It all went smoothly and was a big hit. Needless to say this is a complicated event to organise and all the fire safety mechanisms were is place and executed effectively. Sorcha also performed a beautiful routine in our Cabaret show. I would recommend her as a performer or organiser for future events if you want a great show that is stress free, fun and spectacular for your audience.
Peter King – BJC2007 Event Manager
March 07
Farida at Ford Castle
A full weekend event of bellydance held in a real castle in Northumberland. I was invited there to both teach and perform. 
2006
November 06
Festive Light Switch On at The Oracle, Reading
Our first brightFX commission for this event. It was so successful we where immediately invited back the next year.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXi5RN23b6g&rel=1]
September 06
Bristol Juggling Convention
I organised the fire show and choreographed the finale.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqAtTYfY9tw&rel=1]
August 06
Jwaad Residental Summer School
This is one of my favourite events in the annual bellydance calendar. A week long residental bellydance course held at a performing arts college in Tring, Hertfordshire. A chance to spend time living, learning and dancing with some of the most inspiring women I know. Here I had the opportunity to showcase my new fire bellydance show as well as teach some fire and spinning skills to the other dancers.
brightFX
In 2003 I joined brightFX as the fire poi soloist for the tour of their pyrocircus Ignite! which was sponsored by the Arts Council. Over the next 3 years we took this show all over England (see calendar) and also to Cyprus for the 2004 New Year celebrations in Nicosia.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juCmTYtwGlY&rel=1]
In 2005 we headlined the Fire and Dance stage at Glastonbury festival and were featured on BBC2 coverage of the festival.