Swansea - ENI

Don't forget that Elephants Not Included will be having it's fortnightly meeting this Sunday in Swansea 11am -1pm at St Phillips Community Centre 11 Clarence Terrace, Swansea, SA1 3QT. If you have never done any circus skills before but would like to have a go at juggling, hooping, poi spinning, staff etc, come along. We have equipment you can use and we are happy to help you on your path to learning a new skill. If you have any anxiety about looking foolish or worry you won't be any good, don't worry. We all started at the beginning, dropping things and falling over and we totally understand those feelings. You will get better as you practice and will celebrate every milestone you make with you and pick you up and dust you down when you need it.

Come & Play

The Joy Of Sharing Your Hat Skills

Thomas Waymouth (AKA Tom Thumb), in kathmandu, sharing his love of hat manipulation. A great fun video showing how sharing your skills brings a smile to many faces. Thanks for the Video Tom!

The Butterfly Circus

Juggling hoops

Sometimes people come along and use a prop you love in a different way and you see a new path opening up in front of you. I feel a little like this about this video. I now see a way of getting the addicted club jugglers within ENI to appreciate hoops much more.

Good Stuff Is Coming

They are at it again. The fabulous Gandini Jugglers are working on a new show. Here is the trailer.


Credits: An edit of rehearsals for 4 x 4 the Gandini's new piece which premieres January 2015 Recorded at La Brèche - Pôle national des Arts du Cirque de Basse-Normandie Direction: Sean Gandini Choreography: Ludovic Ondiviella Lighting: Guy Hoare Dancers: Kieran Stoneley, Kate Byrne, Erin O'toole, Joe Bishop,  Jugglers: Kim Huynh, Sakari Männistö, Owen Reynolds, Kati Ylä-hokkala Music by Nimrod Borenstein.  Editing of the trailer: Jean Francois Valentin Cameras: Jean Francois Valentin et Leonid Kharlamov With Juggling help from Iñaki Sastre, Doreen Grossman and Svetlana Zueva.  Music: Nimrod Borenstein: Concerto for violoncello and string orchestra opus 56b Denis Shapovalov, conductor Sandra Belic, cello The Belgrade Strings Live recording of the world premiere in Belgrade on the 5th of July 2013 Project funded by the Royal Opera House, Circus Space, the Arts Council and Agit-cirk Finland, Jackson's Lane and Shoreditch Town Hall.

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!

Speed Ball Dating Night

Together we learn and have fun.

This Thursday (24th July) at the Alltwen Community Hall (SA8 3BY), we will be playing the Speed Ball Dating game. Now for those of you that have never played this game, it really isn't as rude as it sounds. Think about how speed dating works. You get to meet and chat to someone for a short period of time, where you find out all about them before moving on to the next person. In Speed Ball Dating, instead of finding out lots of stuff about the person, what you do is attempt to learn something about 3 ball juggling from them. It doesn't matter if you are a complete novice at juggling that can barely keep a 3 ball cascade going, because you may still have something to share with the other person about juggling that they have never thought of doing and they may have something they can teach you about how to get better at keeping that cascade going. It's all just a bit of fun that helps all of us to do something different with balls. Even if you cannot juggle at all, you can join in with the game. Come along on Thursday 7pm - 10pm, we will get the game started at around 8pm.

Hope to see you there!

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.

Interactive Dance and Film

I think I may have posted this before, but a long time ago. I was reminded of it by someone posting the shortened version of it, that was entered into the USA's Got Talent show, and I was reminded of the total beauty of it and wanted to share that with any of you that may have missed it. Grab yourself a cup of tea and treat yourself to 20 minutes of beautiful dance, with a twist.


Blue Journey
Dancers : Johanna Nielandt, Dianne Steenbrink, Daniela Cruz, Uri Eugenio and Miquel Fiol
Music : Street Spitit(fade out) - Radiohead, Pir - Clint Mansel, Like spinning plates - Radiohead, PIR2 - Clint Mansel, Video tape - Radiohead
App designer for the Animation : David Middendorp and Marcus Graf

Levi Stick Tutorial

A while ago the club purchased 3 levi sticks/flow wand and they haven't been all that well used and I think that might be because not many of us have that many ideas of how to use them, so over the next few weeks I'll add a few tutorials to the blog so people can gain some ideas of how to use them. This tutorial is for complete beginners being taught by Crycan. If you already can do these moves solidly get over to You Tube and try out some of the other tutorials.

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!

The Beauty of Precise Movement

There is dance and there is dance. So many styles of moving your body. So many ways to express yourself. All of which grab my attention. From the drama of Argentine Tango, through the sheer joys of being alive swing dance, the elegance and emotions of Ballet and the power and precision of Krump, it all gladdens my soul and thrills me. Hence I felt the need to share this TED talk about The LDX with you all. Enjoy!