Uberevents began life by accident in February 2005, when I realised I had attended several juggling masterclasses but had never been to, or even seen a spinning masterclass.

I posted a question on Home of Poi asking:

‘If I were to to organise a 2 day workshop with me, Dave Knox, Dave Murray Rust and Antti Suniala teaching staff, would anybody come?’

I came back to my computer two days later to find irate messages from prospective students telling me they needed to book their tickets for the workshop NOW and could I please give them exact event details. I hurriedly asked the teachers if they’d like to teach, having failed to do so before asking the world, and Uberstaff was on its way…

45 people came to Edinburgh for the first event in April 2005, from at least 7 countries, and it was a great success.

By now the poi spinners and jugglers were complaining. When were we going to have ones for poi and juggling? I didn’t feel quite ready to take on Uberjuggle (and still haven’t…) but Uberpoi was next, in July.

Once again it was held in Edinburgh, with many if the same people coming back to learn. There was an amazing teaching line up, with Drew Batchelor, Arashi, Andy House, Cole Walker and myself, as well as guest appearances from Matt Terry and Nick Woolsey, all teaching workshops in weird and wonderful (and frequently useful) poi, body and mind skills.

65 people attended Uberpoi (gallery soon, i promise), and, exhausting though it was, I was already thinking about the next one…

I was planning to travel to Australia over new year 2005-06 to work with te POOKa and FEET theatre on several projects, including Woodford Folk Festival, and had thrown the idea of helping organise UberOz around a few of the Aussies I knew, when Dave Knox mentioned his mum…

(Enter the incredible Gabe Monson. Much cooler than her son, and sexier too)

…and three months later, the best teachers and most enthusiastic students were in the best venue in BrisVegas, being fed incredible food, with a pool party, having been ably and skilfully organised by the aforesaid wonderwoman. I had very little to do except get the teachers to turn up. Which they did, fortunately, masquerading as Nick Woolsey (rapidly becoming an important part of the Uberevents team), Dom, Matt Terry, Kyle McClean, me, Josh, Ben, with Yiam throwing in a guest workshop..

UberOz was the first multiprop Uber, with workshops in Poi, Staff, Clubswinging and Dance. This was reflected in the variety of people at the event, and the numbers showed a small increase, at around 75.

What next?

Well… My time with te POOka was drawing to a close, and the next Uber was destined to be somewhere other than Edinburgh.

Cue several weeks trying to organise a venue with the help of many lovely people. Eventually it was Fenfire who came up with what turned out to be an absolutely stunning venue, easily accessible and with great indoor and outdoor spaces in the suburbs of Vienna.

But what to call it? Hmmm. Tricky.

UberEurope!

Using the same model that Gabe had pioneered with UberOz, with a few additions, we (read they!) set about getting the wonderful spinners of Europe to come to Vienna. Once again it was multidiscipline, with poi, staff, meteor, physical theatre, and physiotherapy workshops for all the poor exhausted students…

Once again we saw the return of Nick, with Arashi, Antti and myself also sneaking in to teach again… but this time we had GIRLS!!!!! The wonderful and varied talents of Laura Egginton, Ros Vitkovitch and Meghan Pike made this Uber slightly more equal, and long may it remain so. Marcus Liszt and Sebastian Berger of Fenfire threw in their Austrian skills to amaze us all, on top of running the whole thing… Guest workshops this time from Ze and Olivier Masson rounded it all up nicely.

For the first (but hopefully not last) time we had shows at UberEurope. On Friday Night there was a teachers and friends fire show, soon to be documented in the (eventually) upcoming UberEurope DVD, and Sunday gave us a short but wonderful renegade.

Now what? Well, go and have a look at our upcoming events, UberFrog and 2berOz, or visit the teachers pages to see what they are up to…