Choreography - Magnetic Baton Manipulation

If you are going to use music in your act I think it is important to choose the right composition and choreograph your performance to fit with it. It is all to easy to work out a routine and then try to find music to play whilst you do it, but do you really want the music to just be an add on after thought. I have always preferred performances that are built around the music. They are the most memorable acts for me, the ones I will say "Do you remember the hoop routine that..." or "I'll never forget that staff routine I saw 7 years ago at..." Skills with props may have moved on and I may have seen lots of technically more exciting routines, but it is always the ones that are, in my eyes and ears, more roundly fitted together that stick in my mind. I will never forget the contact routine that Tom did at Play. The music and his movement fitted so perfectly together that it is ingrained in my brain. If I can find video footage of it I'll post it up here.

Today I saw this video on Facebook and wanted to share it as Shao's routine perfectly shows what I mean. The overall tone of the music is metallic, like the baton ends. Shoa's motion fits perfectly to the sound track and echoes the sounds you hear. Try watching it without the sound and you'll see how important it is to the whole routine. Enjoy!

Static Trapeze Fun

This is a very sweet static trapeze 3 person routine. I like the switching places, the clowning and the general interaction of the three women. I hope you like it too.

EXIT 13 - Valpuri Kaarninen / Maria Peltola / Ronja Vilponen from ESAC on Vimeo.

Stick and Ball

If you are a contact juggler that feels they need a new direction to go in or a staff spinner that hankers to play with balls, this combo could be the thing for you. I don't know much more about the performer than his name is Noah, so if you know who he is and would like to give me details I'll add them here for all to see.

More than just walking - Walking Globe Inspiration

This one is for Stephen, who has amazed us all by the speed he has learned to globe walk. The video is of James Allen's performance at his end of year show at Circomedia "You take my breath away" in 2009. Nice work James!

Fishy Tails - Staff Inspiration

If your staffing has got in a rut and you need some ideas of where to go next, this video from Simon Janson is a very good place to start. Watch, ingest and enjoy!

Strength, flexibility and balance.

All too often you see acro-balance routines with a big muscly man and a skinny wee flexible girl. The big macho man lifts the wee girl and throws her about whilst she bends herself into ever more eye-wateringly, hyper-flexed poses and balances. Well this video is a little different. Enjoy!
(skip the first 55 seconds. The Ringmaster doesn't do anything very exciting)


Thank you Igor Gavva and Iuliia Palii. Great work!

Mini Hoops & Acrylic Balls

Inspiration for those who want to become good object manipulators. Pilolip's website is a good place to start. Lots of practice and patience and you could be this good.


Enjoy!

Staff Challenge 2013 - Day 3-4

Not much progress to report here. I didn't have time to post yesterday, but in all honesty I had a day of being frustrated with the staff and myself because I just feel like I should be better at this than I am, but I think I just need to get past that and get on with it.


 Today I have woken up with a raging toothache, so have absolutely no desire to do anything. So instead of picking up the staff I have gone in search of videos that can make me go WOW! and make me want to keep going, rather than picking up the hoop instead and ignoring the staff. This is Meast doing a double fire routine at Summerflame juggling Fest, Novi Sad, Serbia.

No doubt, later I will guilt myself into practising, but until then this is as far as I have got on day 4.

Oh Yes, Contact Staff.

Here is a video that makes me more determined to practice staff even though I don't seem to have a flare for it. Chazz Parham posted this on Facebook earlier and I want to be able to do all of it!


Practice! Practice! Practice!

Thank you Chazz for the inspiration!

My Inspiration

I have lots of people that inspire me in the circus skills and hoop world and I try to show various individual videos by those people here on the blog all the time, but today I just felt the need to link you to the whole You Tube channel of Pam Theobold. Pam is a fantastic lady, who I admire greatly. She is suffering from osteoporosis and is using hooping to help strengthen her bones with exercise. She grabs hold of life and hoops it up until it is dizzy. She has shared a HUGE number of hooping tutorials on You Tube, for free. If you want to learn lots of new moves, and you need someone to break down in detail how each move works, I can recommend Pam's teaching style. She gives detailed explanations and shows you close up shots of grips and motions as she goes along. She is also mindful to inform you how the moves can impact on your body.

Here is an example of one of her tutorials



I say YAY for Pam Theobold! You are a fantastic tutor and a great inspiration.

Staff Inspiration

In a blog post earlier this month I explained how, in the New Year, I am going to challenge myself to learn a new prop. I am still trying to decide between learning contact staff, Diabolo and after last nights flowerstick workshop, devilstick. To help me choose I have been looking though lots of You Tube videos and for staff inspiration I went straight to Meg's channel. Meg, or MCP, as she is more commonly known online, has been staffing for many years. She is inventive, devoted and, I think, amazingly talented. I hope you enjoy this video of her from earlier this year. If you get motion sickness you might want to skip the very end of this, but it is only the very end.


I know that I'm never lightly to have on 100th of the skill Meg has, but even that much would make me happy, so maybe staff is the way to go...

Another tutorial From Steve Bags.

Here is another fabulous hoop tutorial from Steve Bags. If you want to learn the 'happy spider grip' and the 'chicken grip', amongst others, to enhance and advance your figure of eights with your hoop, Steve is here to explain it all.


You can see more of Steve's hoop videos and tutorials on You Tube and his twin hooping and partner hooping on Hoopcity. If you want to keep up with what Steve and a whole bunch of other hoopers are up to, check out The Hoop Hub blog.

Never Stop Playing

How often have I had someone say to me "I'm too old to hula hoop" or "I'm too old to learn to juggle"? Well, if I got a pound each time in the last year I have heard "I'm too old to...", I could probably get several good meals in a top restaurant out of the money.

I don't believe in being too old for anything. I think if you work on it, you can do anything you like, whatever age you are. I also believe that playing keeps you learning, your brain active and your body fit and healthy. People that are active and play definitely appear to live longer and also appear to age more slowly. This video from Stephen Jepson demonstrates just what I mean.


Circus skills aren't just for children. Adults can benefit a lot from doing them, not just physically but mentally too, not lease because you laugh a lot as you are learning. If you have ever thought "I'd love to learn to unicycle,but I'm too old." STOP.You are not too old. Go and find a local circus skills group, like Elephants Not Included, and give it a go. Learn to juggle or rola bola. It might just bring you a whole new lease of life. Stephen Jepson learned to juggle at 48, snowboard at 60, and skateboard in his late 60's. He is now 72 and he still does it all, tightrope walking, unicycling, knife throwing, juggling... There is no reason to stop playing, learning and training to be able to do whatever you want, whatever your age.

Juggling at it's best.

Thank you for linking me to this Rob Bluecat. This juggling video is fanflippintastic! Enjoy!

UK Spaceliners - Slackline on a bigger scale!

The first space-anchor highline rigged and enjoyed by Nadeem Al-Khafaji, Jacob Hirsch-Holland (Maverick Slacklines), and James Clulow. It was rigged in North Wales at Llanberis, a place I love.

UK Spaceliners! from Jacob Hirsch-Holland on Vimeo.

Partner Ball Juggling

Juggling on your own can be fun but as a pair it's even more fun!

Juggling patterns for 5 balls and up

Wow- Acrobalance

Keep watching until the end. Yes she really does do that. Wow!

Happy New Year!

Hello all, I hope you've had a fabulous festive season and that the year 2012 brings you good health and lots of joy. To start off the year I've stumbled upon this strange combination of hand balance, balalaika, & accordion all in one act. It has some great balances, strange 80's style dancing and hair cuts to match.



Iryna Verezubova, I admire your balancing and flexibility. I even applaud your choice of early 80's fashion victim punk style costume, BUT there is something about you joining the dance as the arrow head that just made me squirm in my chair as I watched it. Ah well, over all it's a great combination of music and handstands. Enjoy!

Juggling with Guy Kaplan

This is Guy Kaplan demonstrating his club, ring and bounce ball juggling in various venues. The lighting in the first venue is a bit annoying, but you can see if you full screen it what Guy is doing.



I love so many of the bounce ball patterns. Hannah M, get practising!