Blog: Great Things Come In 'Teeny Weeny' Packages!

Remember the internet trend “poorly explain your occupation?” Perhaps it’s a bit dated (though I suppose anything not on TikTok is most likely considered dated) but although it was just a silly internet trend, it can be comical to explore.

Here were some examples that went viral on Twitter:

Paramedic: Strangers call me, I load them in a truck, sometimes briefly electrocute them and they thank me for doing that.

Boxing Coach: I help mildly dehydrated people in their underwear punch other people within a metal enclosure.

Actor: Getting paid to be anything but myself.

So to think about all the various, comical ways a dance artist could this question may potentially give me a headache (and I’m all out of Neurofen!) but one certainly springs to mind this week:

Dance Artist: Half an hour after meeting someone for the first time, we can’t tell whose sweat is whose and my feet hardly touch the ground.

This was no truer than the very first week of R&D for our new show ‘Teeny Weeny’ – a dance production for under 5s all based around the astonishing world scurrying below our feet and soaring above our heads. Myself and our wonderful new dance artist PJ are performing the piece together as a duet in which we explore the movement qualities and personalities of creepy crawlies, bumbling bugs and how to become at one with our own little insect-y selves. However, given the events of the past year, this past week has been of course exciting and lots of fun – but not without the strangeness echoed in our “poor explanations” example.

Due to remote working where possible still in place for most of us, PJ and I met over the computer screen a few weeks ago; meeting in person was somehow quite jarring – to see strangers in Asda with their Jaffa Cakes and reduced courgettes in the flesh? Not a problem. Seeing friends, coworkers or family members you have exclusively Zoomed for around 13 months in the flesh? It’s a bit weird!

So within the first hour or so of face to face how-dya-does, to be rolling, lifting, spinning and tumbling over each other as little insect hybrids (after confirming a clean and negative sweep of COVID tests of course!) is perhaps one of the strangest and, simultaneously, most incredible feelings after dancing with myself, Billy Idol style, for over a year. With our first performances already scheduled, we cannot wait for Teeny Weeny to reach its huge finale!