Saturday, May 22, 2021
I often get asked why I chose this stage name... My "everyday job" involves working with birds of prey, and one of the first owls I had the priviledge to work with was the incredible Great Grey Owl. I was and still am fascinated by them. Strix Nebulosa is actually the latin name for this wonderful species ! You may recognize it on my logo...
By definition, a rope dart is a dart (blade) on a rope. Rope darts are used as a tool in martial art, but have evolved into more of a "flow" art for some of us. You will still find some amazing traditional dartists out there, using sharp metal darts and doing target training. My style isn't really martial, I usually use silk darts or fire darts. (A fire ball on a rope ? Sign me up !) There is a lot to it, it is a very intricate practice, but extremely satisfying as there is always more to learn. I had to learn "alone", with the help of videos and of course the amazing rope dart community on social media, but I always regretted not having a "real life" teacher to help me master the tricks I couldn't understand. This is part of the reason why I want to host rope dart workshops : it will give students the opportunity to learn new things more easily than with online tutorials, and will spread the love for this amazing artform !
It all started with rope dart. As mentionned previously, I work as a falconer, and one of the aspects of this job consists in swinging a lure (leather pad) on a rope for a falcon to chase. It is like a game between the bird and the falconer. Flying a falcon is often the highlight of my day. When I came across a video of Sam Tobey (@flowmayhem) on social media, it immediately caught my eye because of the similarity with lure swinging, and I decided to start learning some rope dart moves with my falconry lure. I was hooked pretty much straight away and ordered a silk dart from Rope Dart Academy. At that stage I wasn't even considering fire to be an option ! But after watching many videos of fire darts, I finally got one for myself and started going to fire meetings in Dublin. There, I got to try many different props, and made some real connections with many other performers. Fire spinning brings people together, it is a lovely community where everyone is willing to share their knowledge and get others to discover their practice. I started performing for my local community (Clonbur, Co.Galway), got my fire performer insurance and here we are ! I now perform for all sorts of events, solo or with other performers, and I have many projects on the go !