We shift the BIG content around on virtual pages, dancing ideas and stories, images and artists between us in the late evening hours and found minutes of each day. We are finally coming in to land with the BIG 'pagination' and watch as the pages fill up with visible renderings of our BIG dreaming come to life. We talk in quiet calm as we barely contain our excitement at the artwork and articles flying in from our featured kids and artists. We focus on what needs to be done, and occasionally remember to breathe. By Sunday the first draft will be complete. It will be almost 9 months from when we first began. We are, right now, making a magazine. It feels like we are at the beginning of the next BIG chapter. And so, we take this opportunity to introduce our own beginnings:
Following an early childhood in Zululand imbued with dance and song (my mother was a folk singer) I landed in Australia and looked over the fence at my new world. Her name was Emily, and she was older than I with 2 small siblings. Together we created a world under her house which kept our secrets. When I wasn’t peeking under the circus tent across the road I was scrawling in journals and taking my dolls for walks in the washing basket on wheels. I first quit ballet at the age of 5, but by 15, I knew dance would be my career. My passion is improvisation and yes, I am good at making it up as I go along - earning a Master of Arts degree on the subject which I plan to finally frame on the BIG wall somewhere!
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| Jo and Emily's little brother watch the circus roll in |
When I was 10 I directed a Circus performance under the liquid amber tree in our backyard. I illustrated the invitations and hand delivered programs to the neighbours inviting them for pre show spiders. There was a tightrope strung up under the washing line, clown acts and my younger brothers famous magic show. I was the ring master both behind the scenes and on stage, conducting the enthusiasm of siblings and cousins, trying to keep them interested in the rehearsal process when they lure of the pool became too great. None of the neighbors came, but the day is remembered as a great success and preceded hundreds of shows and exhibitions in makeshift tents and on bedroom walls. In fact, my life today looks incredibly similar!
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| Lilly and her younger brother, pre-show (a few years prior the mega circus production) |
