Leura circus artist Tahmour Bloomfield has toured 17 countries with her comedy cabaret act and has even been in local group, Thundamentals’ music video, but she was especially thrilled to get a call recently to perform in a very different setting – a TEDx talk in Sydney on the weekend.
TEDx talks are generally short talks about Technology, Entertainment and Design.
Someone had heard about her latest creation – Hula Illumination – where she performs with up to four moving lit-up hula hoops in complete darkness. She was also ask to speak about her act.
“Hula Illumination is a new style of performance,” she said.
“As with LED technology, the performer is removed from the act – I am in a sense invisible as the lights are out, and all you can see are the hoops.
“Being invited to speak has given me back my voice as a performer – sometimes we never know what jumping through life’s hoops will bring.”
Bloomfield has been creating her own work, which includes designing costumes, writing scripts and choreographing tricks for about 15 years. She even won the Grand Jury 1st Prize for Street Theatre at the Vevey Artists de Rue Festival in Switzerland in 2011.
She performed at the TEDx UNSW 2018 Turning the Page conference on the weekend alongside a host of UNSW experts, as well as one of Australia's most awarded artists, Wendy Sharpe winner of the Sulman and The Archibald Prize.
Bloomfield said the act was developed with a lot of local support, including Fiona Mary Wambath – costume maker who has recently worked on Ladies in Black and Katy Perry’s tour, as well as photographers Adam Scarf and David Brazil. There was also extensive electrical engineering support from Innerlock Systems in Katoomba, she said.
During her talk Bloomfield said her hoops had made it easier to forge her own path.
”Some people would say life is about jumping through hoops: School, first job, university, marriage, career, family, superannuation, insurance, retirement… uh uh. For me – no thanks,” she told the audience.
“This piece of rural B19 mm irrigation poly pipe taught me that I could make my own hoops. Because with this, some balloons and bird seed I could make a circus anywhere in the world.
“And that changed not only my life, but the lives of others.”
The international street artist said busking was “becoming defunct as less and less people carry cash, but events like VIVID are becoming more popular, and forums like TEDx allow ideas to be shared around the world”.