Episode 34: Where Did the Art Go?

Announcements

• White Label Whiskey launch party - May 30th — [WLW Instagram]
• Flourish Aerial Retreat — Learn More Here

Timestamps

• 0:00 — Intro & Announcements
• 4:35 — The Search for the Artistic Soul
• 14:38 — Rekindling the Creative Spark
• 24:38 — Closing Thoughts

Mentioned in This Episode

• [Paper Doll Militia Unhinged]
• [Billy Wilson-Coffey — Dissolving Girl]
• [Liza Rose Trapeze Duet]
• [Theatre Artibus]
• [Momix]

Connect with Fallon

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 🌐 www.inthewingsaerial.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to The Aerial Alchemist, where movement transforms into magic and stories take flight. I'm Fallon, dancer, aerialist, and storyteller, inviting you into a world where circus and dance meet creativity, resilience, and community. Whether you're here to be inspired, to learn, or to simply dream a little bigger, you found your place. I'm glad you're here. Welcome to the Arial Alchemist episode number 34. Before we jump in today, a couple of announcements, as usual, coming up on May 30th, which was in like a week and a half, I think. Anyways, we will be performing, and by we I mean myself and a few of the In the Wings company members at the White Label Whiskey launch party. It will be at Ironton Distillery in Louisville. And um, we hope you're there. It starts at 4:30. There will be a food truck there, as well as live music and some very awesome aerialists and aerial bartenders. And of course, the launch of White Label Whiskey, uh, which is affectionately called the Marshall Fire whiskey. Um, full disclosure, it is my husband's whiskey. And he has been working on this for, well, several years. If you come, you'll know the whole story. To give you the cliff notes of the story of White Label Whiskey, it has been a goal, passion, project of my husband's to distill his own whiskey for some time now. And he had been working on it before the fire. Because of the fire, we were able to connect with someone who is connected with Ironton Distillery. And because of this connection, my husband Fleetwood has been able to distill his own um whiskey brand. And this is his second batch. The first batch was just one small barrel. This time it's two large barrels, so there's quite a bit more. Um, and it is a he'll tell, I'll probably mess this up. It's a certain kind of whiskey, a honey wheated bourbon, I want to say. That that might be completely right. But what I do know is that it there's honey in it, lots of honey notes. And the first run of it that he did was aged in a old honey barrel. Well, it was a whiskey barrel, turned honey barrel, turned whiskey barrel. So it really infused with like these honey notes. And the second round, he did the same thing, but the honey wasn't coming through in the product. I don't know if you can hear my cat coming in and yelling. You're welcome if you can. He would like to be part of the podcast as well. And so what Fleetwood did was he sourced some local honey from this apiary in Louisville, and took their honey, took the whiskey out of the barrels, put the honey into the barrels, let the honey soak in the barrels, took the honey back out the barrels, put the whiskey back in the barrels, let it sit in there some more. It's really interesting, all of this, all of the creation of the whiskey to me, and how it makes different flavors and whatnot. So to get the product that he wants. And what ended up happening is this really delicious, tasty, smooth whiskey that also has very complex notes. So whether you are new to whiskey or seasoned whiskey drinker, you will enjoy it. I know that I am biased, but if I did not like it, I would not say that I liked it. And it is in my top two favorite whiskeys on the planet that I've tried so far. And if you know me, I've had a fair share of different kinds of whiskeys. So come join us that night. I will put a link to their to the white label Instagram as well as their website. You can kind of read about the story. It's very interesting. You can come to the event and my husband will tell you. You might be there for a minute because he's going to tell you the whole story, um, start to finish. But it is an interesting story um and a very cool story filled with silver linings. So yeah, so come see us, free, free to the public. Bring all of your friends. We'll love to see you there. Come say hi to us. And then, of course, we have flourish coming up soon. Very, very soon. And it's June 19th through the 25th in Umbria, Italy, where we are going to experience La Dolce Vita Italian style, which I think is gonna tie into our episode today. There's a reason that this that this retreat has happened when it's happening. I hope that you can make it with us. I hope you can come slow down with us, and that's that's gonna lead us ride it today. So here we go. So I've been thinking a lot about creation and my creation lately, and I've been losing my spark. Um I I all I can say is that when I go and I consume aerial content online specifically, but sometimes in person, I kind of just don't feel anything. I'm watching these technically perfect reels um and feeling nothing, not even envy, even though they're very talented people. And there's this fear that's underneath that. Me, someone who has built my whole career on telling stories and finding the soul, I can feel it slipping a little bit. And if that's happening to me, what does that mean for everybody else? So I just wanted to dive in a little bit today and talk about this. None of this is advice. It's not a fix. Um, if anything, it's it's a reckoning with myself and an invitation for you to reckon with me and talk about it. Yeah. So I've been watching different it's very easy to talk about this when we talk about social media. I think it's and I think in a way it's easier on the ego when we're talking about reels, which I'll talk more about in a minute. But what do I mean by no soul? So many things that are posted on social media are precise and they're beautiful, but there's just nothing behind them. It's like watching a professional athlete when you came to see a dancer. And that's not to say the dancers are not athletes, they are, but there's this other level to it, this artistic connection and this connection to the soul. And dance and and performing arts have always been this exchange of energy and this conversation. Um, it's always supposed to be this conversation between the performer and the audience and sharing this energy exchange in a moment. And I don't know when this shift exactly has happened or if it's just creeped in slowly with the way that social media has crept in. I spoke a little bit last week about how I used to be hungry for content, aerial content, and that when I found it on the reaches of the the YouTubes and the interwebs, it would it would scratch an itch. And now, even though there's this like we have more access to aerial art than we ever did, it somehow feels like it's not art. And I think this is this is because the algorithm doesn't reward art. It rewards attention. So you have to have that hook within that first two seconds, the big tricks and this like fast visual payoff where people will scroll. Like people don't have the attention span when they're on social media to get sucked into something like you can if you're sitting in a theater. And that's why I think that really this conversation is really leaned toward social media. I I think I have already said that like I'm not feeling things when I go and watch it. It's it's less so there. And I think that that's just comes from I think that's maybe a discussion for a different day. And it has nothing to do with the artist making the art and everything to do with myself as an artist turning art into a business. So I do believe that's a separate, that's a separate discussion. So today we'll we'll stick with social media. But when we're cre so when we're creating there, because so much of us feel this pressure to have to. A lot of times when you're uh auditioning or submitting for work, people want to see your Instagram, whether it's a corporate gig or something else. People want to see what you do. And even your even your sizzle reel has to be like quick. And there's there's not really art to it. It's just like, look at these tricks that I know. Look at the people clapping for me. And when we're having to make that kind of work and we're looking at the metrics of it, and how well did each one perform, then you start bending towards that instead of staying in your authentic self. And then something that also I have succumbed to in the past, and I think several people have, is the comparison trap. It's its own, it's its own thing because you're not just making work, you're making work inside a feed of everyone else's work. And that's a completely different psychological experience that doesn't really happen outside of that. There's there's realms where it does, like festivals and things like that, and potentially competitions, which that's a that's a podcast for a different day, because I have lots of feelings about aerial competitions. But when you're in in the social media feed and you have all of these different people, you're comparing yourself, maybe not even just to like the work they're making, but the views that they're getting. That is then linked to your validation, which it shouldn't be. That doesn't make you a valid artist or not. I want to be clear about that. But our brain does dumb things sometimes. There's also in social media this pressure to be like consistent and prolific, like you have to post every day to stay relevant. And that's fundamentally at odds with how like really good creative work actually gets made. People are always shocked about how long it takes me to create a show. The one that we're working on this year, we've started in January. Now, granted, we have a different kind of rehearsal schedule than other companies, but we will have been working on this show for 10 months by the time it goes on stage. And this is the second time that this show will have been on stage. So if you want to add in the creation period that went into the first time around, plus this one and the editing of it, that's, you know, we're looking at a couple years to make something into something close to what I want it to look like. Meanwhile, we're over here on social media cranking out things every single day if we can, if we have time to do that. And it I at least for me, it's it's sucking me dry. And part of that is that we start self-editing before we even begin, which I don't think is a great part of a creation process. And instead of the question of what do I want to say with my work, what do I want to express with my work, it's will this perform? And that's and that's the soul-sucking part of it. Because now we're just performing monkeys for circus peanuts. And this isn't about blaming social media platforms. Yes, this is happening because of social media platforms, but I it's more about being conscious of the water we're swimming in so that it doesn't reshape us without our permission. So, what I have built my career and my company on is story over skill. It was something that I learned about myself like fairly early on in my aerial career. When I first started, I really I was like an adrenaline junkie. And I was looking for the next drop and the next trick, and I got to a point where it became more scary than fun. And that is where I've seen like aerial go and trend in the last several years is more towards the dynamic, the beats, the drops, the big power moves. And that's not me. I have a handful of drops in my back pocket that I use that I feel extremely comfortable performing. Um, and I am always willing to learn a new one, but it's not what I'm chasing anymore. I have so many skills I probably don't even remember half of them. And I think that after some time, most aerialists will tell you that they just kind of have a handful of go-to's um and then just add one thing at a time in it. So very early on, I started just moving more towards the story of it, the art of it, and not the skill of it. Am I clean in my work? Yes. Is that important to me? Absolutely. But it's more important to me to be able to make people feel something. I want the audiences to feel anything. And I want them to feel what I want them to feel. So if I want them to feel happy, then I want that. But I sometimes I want them to feel angry or creeped out or sad or just generally icky or joyous. There's all of these like range of emotions. I want people to feel something. And I think that's part of what we're losing on social media. But this has been the foundation of how I teach, how I perform, and how I build my company. And then this culture, especially in social media and in our world, like everything is so fast paced in this society. But it's going in the opposite direction. And if you're someone like me, it's a challenge to your whole artistic identity. Because have I ever been tempted to play the game? Yeah. Have I played the game? Yeah. Am I currently playing the game? Uh-huh. And it's exhausting because my values are pulling me so hard in the other way. And I think this is where, you know, going to Italy and having this new experience in a place, in a culture that embraces the dolce vida and the slow life and the sweet life and the savoring that I am so excited for. So, in thinking of all of this, I've been thinking about how to find my way back and some things that I am trying or am planning to try to reignite the spark spark. So, if you're feeling this way, maybe you might want to try some of these too. And I would love to know how they work for you, how they resonate for you, or if you have other ideas. So, my first thought was to go back to the beginning. Oh, please. Zina is very upset that probably someone is going for a walk across the street. Yes, the people are walking around the business park. Here, I'll let you listen to her.

unknown 15:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Good job. That's enough. Thank you. Sorry about that, and you're welcome. The joys of working from home and owning a guardian breed. Kidda guard dog, they said. Where was I? Right. I was thinking about going back to the beginnings. Thinking about the first moment, Ariel made me feel something. And for me, that was a long, long time ago. I mean, truly kiddo watching Wrangling Brothers. Um, and then in my early 20s, watching Cirque de Soleil. And then when I finally learned that I could learn how to do this, watching Frequent Flyers and being s and and seeing like a local company and knowing that it was something that w was actually attainable. That was something that I could do. And I'll link a few of those first YouTube videos that I had watched way back in my baby aerialist days, but the ones that like come to my brain first is Paper Doll Militias Unhinged. I believe that was called. Unhinged, yes. And there was one Billy Billy Coffee, I want to say their name was, and that was the dissolving, the dissolving girl, I think it was also called. And then the last one that I'll link is Ooh, I'm blanking, I'm blanking on her name. Something, Rose, Rose, something, and it was a duo trapeze. So I'll d I'll do those three. Those were some of like the beginning ones that like I was like, ooh, I and I watched them 80 million times. 80 million. I still watch them sometimes, especially the Paper Doll Militia one. Man, that one is still just oof, so good. The other thing that I've been doing is consuming art that has nothing to do with Ariel going to see theater. I saw Theater Artemis a few weeks ago. So good. A few weeks ago, a couple months ago. I don't know. What is time? And this last weekend I went to a comedy show. Uh I love comedy. Love comedy. But taking in music, I was telling Christine today that my days of big concerts are gone. Um, I they're so peoply-y, and I'm not into it. Uh, but small music venues sound great. Um yeah, but if whatever is your jam, theater, poetry, painting, music, comedy, any other forms of art, um, dance is also, if you're a strict aerialist, dance is a great one. Um, clowning, other things, you know. Um, but those other forms can remind your soul what it feels like, so you can find find it again on your own and in your own art. I've been thinking about making something with no audience, like just choreographing something that I'm never gonna perform. I'm never gonna like post it anywhere, I'm never gonna perform it anywhere. And I do that from time to time, but I don't think that I do like I'll do like an improv and maybe record it for myself, but never go back and edit it. And so I plan to do that. And it's so funny as I'm sitting here, I'm like, and then maybe if it's good enough, I'll post on Patreon for the the time like that defeats the whole freaking point. Isn't it funny that your brain just automatically goes to that? At least mine does. Um, another thing, if you teach sitting with a student and watching them fall in love with it for the first time, their spark can reignite your spark. And yeah, I'm having that happen currently. I have one student who wants to perform, and she's awesome um and and new to this and working so hard and just watching her be so excited, it just reminds me of me 15 years ago when I was like, oh my god, I can't wait. I can't wait. And I just the hunger and being so excited and so inspired by it. I'm a big fan of journaling. So I didn't used to be. I didn't used to be. Uh, I've talked about that on the podcast before, but now with my morning ritual, I journal every day. And the biggest thing, at least for me with journaling, was to let it go, let it go of what it's supposed to look like. And it doesn't need to be perfect. Well, recovering recovering perfectionist over here. But journaling about what performances have generally moved you, like in the last year that you've seen, like really thinking about it and what what did they have? Um, I saw Momix recently. There's another one. Momix was so good. I pulled a lot of things out of that show. Um, what is it about that art that moves you that social media doesn't have? And then thinking about curating what you consume. So the algorithm will feed you more of what you're looking at. So if you if it's not making you feel good and it's not filling up your cup, then don't watch it. Scroll away, keep going, unfollow, and limit your time. And if you're finding that you're scrolling away from a lot, then that's your cue. Turn it off. Go outside, touch some grass. And when we say touch grass, I mean touch grass with your bare feet, your bare hands. Hug a damn tree. It's so good. And then I'm also thinking about being the countercurrent current. None of this will fix itself. There's this thing that I've been thinking about about finding a balance because it's a hard thing when society and culture is like leaning this way, and you do have to do the thing to run your business, or at least you feel like you have to. I know there's people who don't. And man, kudos to them. Um, and I assume they just put their energy elsewhere and that works for them. And if that is you and you found ways to that to make that work, I would love to hear about that. Please reach out to me. But for me, I'm trying to find a balance, especially in what I create. And part of that has been asking for help. I have asked my company members, if you follow us on social media, you may have noticed that it's not just my face all the time. And that is because my company members are giving me one to two reels a month from themselves, so that it's not just me, but like that you see, but also making all of the content. So it also helps us promote each other because we I make it a collaborative reel and or tag them, and that pushes it out the algorithm a little bit better, which helps both of our accounts, which is great. So that's been one way of finding the balance. And the other way of finding the balance is not always doing the reels and posting the things that I know are gonna hit. Sometimes it's just because I A checked the box of posting something today and I posted something for me. I don't care if it's gonna hit or not. Honestly, everything I post, I don't care if it's gonna hit. I do I mean, I say that, and then I and then in the next thought, I'm like, mm, except for when I'm promoting the shows, because I want You to come. I want that to hit so that people can come experience the real art that we make. Yeah. So there's that finding a balance between all of it. And so sometimes when I'm promoting the shows, I'm like, okay, I gotta make the thing that's gonna hit. I'm gonna pick someone doing the drop and put that in the first two seconds of the reel and hope that people will stay for five more seconds after that to see that there are tickets that they could buy in the link in bio. But I can't write link in bio because then it will suppress that. And honestly, it kind of just suppresses everything that has to do with real art, which is frustrating, but we're going to keep doing it. So if you are someone who is just a consumer on social media and you do see like someone promoting a small event, it's really, really kind of you to watch the whole reel and to smash every single button on there, comment literally anything on it, like it, share it. You don't even actually have to share it. If you didn't know that, you can just copy the link and the thing thinks that you shared it. So you can do that and then save it. I have a whole saved folder that's just F the algo where I save those types of things where I don't really plan to ever look at it again, but it's a way to help other artists and other creators. So, anyways, there's a tidbit for you there. Also on my social media, on the in the wing social media, I have posted a Friday flow here and there. And I plan to be more consistent about that. I will be alternating between Friday Flourish, where just make sure people know about um flourish, but also uh then flip-flopping it with Friday Flow. And then after after Flourish is over, it'll just be Friday Flow. And in those, I give a prompt where uh maybe I'll do roll for choreo or something else, but I'll give a choreography prompt. If you're not um a prof like a dancer or um aerialist, you could apply it to anything you do. Like take it and run with it. Um, and then if you make something from that, please tag me. Please, or or share it with me if you don't want other people to see it. But I'd love to see what you create out of those. And I'll be sharing what I create out of them too. So um I'll be doing more of my posts because in the past they've just been prompts, but not how how I've interpreted them. But I will be the one who leads leads the charge on that one, because it can be scary to do those. But the world does not need more perfect sequences. It does not. It needs human ones. And it's okay for things to not be perfect, and I really believe that that's where it gets interesting. And even if it doesn't hit on social media, who cares? Who cares? No one cares. So to close out today, just a little thought for you to simmer on. When was the last time that movement made you feel something? Whether as a performer, as a student, or as a watcher of the movement. And uh chase that feeling. That's where the art lives, that's where the resistance lives, that's where the change lives. Thank you so much for being with me today as I worked this out in my brain. Thank you to my patrons on Patreon. Thank you for supporting me in all the things, all the ways. I could not do this without you. If you have requests for future episodes, please hit me up. I am at In the Wings Aerial on all of the social medias because we can't quit it. And also at In the Wings Aerial on Patreon, you can reach me in all those places. If this episode resonated with you, I would love it if you rated, reviewed, and shared. And I know how counterintuitive that is after we talked about what we talked about, but it does help it push out to other people. And I really appreciate that. I hope you have a beautiful week, and I'll see you next week. This has been the Ariel Alchemist. Now go create some magic of your own. Happy flying.