Aerial work

I have been doing a lot of aerial the last days. Yesterday, I did a ropes and silks workshop and today afternoon we had supervised aerial practice. My biceps really hurt and I am worried that I might soon catch a cold, so I didn't go to tonights beginners aerial class.

During the workshop we mostly focused on the basics, which I as a former figure skater now never can be trained enough. We did some experimenting with the Russian climb: big, small, straight or bent leg and with a twist. The teacher encouraged us to explore and invent our own versions, and I like how the course and everything is going towards inventing, create and explore your own things.

In the morning we had performance and we are now creating work for the show. Our group had been a little stuck, but at least we had less problems today than last time. We found that when we where doing different kind of games or exercises is was so easy for us to come up with ideas, but now when we can create freely we tend to make things a little bit to complicated when the key seems to be to keep everything as simple as possible.

In the evening there were the parcour class, where I tried hand spring for the very first time. I also did some more assisted back flips. I am still very bad at this but I wasn't even half as scared as I was last week which is a huge step forward for me.

Supervised acro practice - back flips on a tumble run!

On Fridays we only have half a day of class, and today we were scheduled for supervised acrobatic practice. Even though I didn't chose to specialize in acrobatics, we are required to attend all the classes anyway, but we can practice whatever we want in our chosen areas and the teachers will help us the best as they can since they often know many circus skills beside their specialization.

For today, I chose to join the acrobatics practice since I still like acrobatics and it is fun to try different things. At the moment I see acrobatics more as a compliment to my other skills, and I don't think that I can become an acrobat. But acrobatics can easily be mixed together with almost any other circus skill and be a nice spice to juggling, equibrilistics and aerial.

During class. To the left he is attaching himself to the security lines, standing on the tumble run. In the middle there are aerial straps and a trapeze.

I was very excited today when the teacher said that we would try the inflated tumble run. It was bouncy and felt like when you were a child jumping around in one of those jumping castles. I did some handstands forward rolls, rond offs and tried some head springs.

Later, I also tried to do some back flips attached to the security lines. It was scary and I was not close to do it by myself, but were securily catched by the lines. I don't think I did any better, but at least I fought my inner fear of jumping backwards in the air. In many of acrobatics, aerial and other circus skills there is the fear that stops me, and to defeat it I just have to push my limits slowly, which I really felt that I did today!

A cut out from one of the filmed clips of the backflips. 

I did as usual (if there is anything usual with back flips?): tried to overcome my fear by jumping and hope for the best!

Peak district

Last weekend I was very happy to get the chance to visit the Peak district together with my landlady and her boyfriend. We drove there through a beautiful wavy green landscape with nice view to do walking in Castleton.

We started walking along one of the green hillls. It was like I imagined the English countryside with green hills, stone houses and sheep. The road was wet and slippy, but it didn't rain as we started to walk.

These are all picture from when there was nice weather, but as we had walked a little bit more it started to rain. We rested in a cave to eat some sandwiches and hope that the rain would fade out, but instead it started to rain even more. Then we decided to turn around and not continue walking since the road would be quite dangerous to walk on.

To escape the rain we decided to go on the guided tour in Speedway cave, which was very exiting since it was like a combined mine and cave, and since it got flooded as the mine went into the cave system the tour was on a steel boat in the old mine tunnels. I will write more about the cave.

After the visit to the cave we went to eat tea and scones. It was very nice with tea, scones, strawberry jam and whipped cream that was almost like butter, and it was all very English.

On the way back we drove past Chatsworth House which is a big house of the same type as the one in the TV-series Downton Abbey.

It was a nice day trip even though there was a lot of rain that made us change some plans. I highly recommend a visit to the Peak Disctrict and if I got a chance I would like to go there again.

Aerial and silks

This morning when I came to Greentop the rigging ladder was up, and they were rigging up some old new silks for the aerial day. Almost everyone wanted to do aerial, and since there are so many different aerial equipment we had to chose our first choice and second choice. Surprisingly, we are very evenly divided between the equipment: static trapeze, rope, silks, aerial hoop, static cloud swing and straps. I think it will be good with such a variety in the show.

The rigging ladder from another day when they were rigging.

Aerial classes are now turning out a little bit different as time moves closer to the show. The teaches divide their time between the different equipments, and in between we have practice time. I get along well with the other girl who chose silks, and we also listen to the rope instructions since rope and silks have some things in common. 

There was some "new" (at least to us) silks there today to replace the old ones. This new ones where so much springier, thicker so it was difficult to grab all of them at the same time and not slippy at all. My first climb in them was like climbing in sand that just fell down no matter how much I pushed them away to climb upwards. At least I will get stronger by using them. They also told by that doing drops wouldn't hurt as much with the springier ones, but I didn't try it out today.

Aerial class with silks in the foreground and static cloud swing in the background. On the left there is a trapeze and on the right there is a rope.

 We also did some creative exercises to start thinking about our routines for the show. I feel that I need a strong performance and theme since I cannot just rely on technique in silks since I still consider myself as quite a beginner. I still haven't decided what to chose as a theme yet.

The cradle (?)

 I learned some new moves today, and some better techniques to go to positions I already new. As you can see on the photo I wore new leggings that had a more cotton surface to make it less slippery, and I actually didn't fall down as much as last week. Maybe it is placebo effect, an actual effect or just the face that I have gotten stronger. I spent quite a lot of the practice time messing around to see what tricks that went well together and that could be possible combinations for the show.

Split!

After all this aerial I am very tired in my shoulders and arms so I will rest them tonight. In areal, I definitely feel that it was the arm strength that I lacked to be able to do everything, but it feels better every week.

Five balls and tightwire progress

I have been working towards five balls and I can now do six throws and catches, which actually means that it is more than a flash! I am so happy for this and feel that five balls might be within reach, even though I realize that there is much work left. Juggling is a discipline that really takes time a practice to get good at, as everything else.

Since there is only two of us doing equbrilistics, we are doing it together with the manipulation group, which I really like. I was worried that it would be lonely walking the tightwore back and fourth but it has been great. Today I was so sore in my whole body and realized that I had really underestimated how many muscles that are actually used when doing tightwire walking, but is is maybe more of static motions and to keep the body tense than the movements themselves.

I also practices how to get down at sit on the tightwire, and some ways up and down and how they affect the balance. In lunchtime we rigged up the tightwire on some stage pieces so it got a lot higher up in the air, and filled the space under with crash mats. It is so much less scary to walk that high up now that the first time I tried it; then my spotters kept talking about how sweaty my hand were (and they actually were from nervousness of falling down).

During practice I wore my new shoes to protect my feet from the wire. I think it is men's ballet shoes, but they work really well for tightwire walking too.

Together with the jugglers we did some creative exercises that was the best ones so far. I adopted the exercises to tightwire which worked out better than it may sound.

The Guardian Juggling article today

CircusFest: meet the jugglers taking the artform to dizzy heights

Gandini Juggling and Compagnie Jerome Thomas don't just keep multiple balls airborne – they explore ideas and emotion, and play with narrative

In todays internet version of The Guardian there is an article about juggling, where they meet juggler of today and discuss juggling as an art form. I especially liked the paragrapgh about drops as they are unenviable to do at some point. 

"Some jugglers become crippled by the fear of dropping," says Rod Laver, who juggles ping-pong balls with his mouth and who also teaches at the National Centre for Circus Arts. "They just can't take it. One of the things we try and teach students is how to deal with the drop, to work it into their act and even make a virtue of it. Otherwise it can finish careers."

I find it difficult dealing with drops and mistakes, but I have definitely become better at it during the course. I agree that there is a bit of shame dropping a prop and it doesn't really add any excitement or anything. At the moment, I tent to save drops by going into comedy. I still don't know how to save a drop or mistake in a serious routine yet, but I hope I will soon figure out. To me it seems like comedy or just any interaction with the audience can save a lot of mistakes.

"There is a huge level of competiveness among jugglers, and to get any good you have to spend a lot of time on your own, go into the zone and not think about other things. Most girls and women are far too social to want to do that for months, maybe years on end," says Kati Ylä-Hokkala. 

This quote I strongly disagree with, because sure it is true that it takes a lot of time getting good at juggling, I don't think there is an easy answer why women are less likely to do it. "Far too social" doesn't mean that you cannot practice and be social at the same time. I think there are both the type of jugglers who like to practice by their own and those who like to practice together.

Backflip - jump and hope for the best!

This day of CIP was filled with performance class, and now we saw what a progress we have done since the first weeks. We did many exercises with different levels of tension in the body, as well as more work and improvisation on "Obesession" which is the theme for the show.

At the parcour class we all tried to do an assisted back flip which was the first time for me. It was super scary! First, we tried it from a height down to a crash mat and then from the floor to a crash mat, but they where both equally scary. I don't think I tuck in my legs pr anything but just jumped and hoped that the teacher would spin me around and save me, which he did. I am very proud of myself though that I dared to do it and now it fells like I want to do it again!

Top tips for beginners of assisted back flips:

• It is easier to do it from a height down a to a crash mat, but it is scary since you are high up.
• When doing it from the floor, remember to jump up high in the air before you tuck.
• Commit to it! Believe that you can do it! It think fear is the biggest enemy when staring to to back flips, at least it is that for me. 

Slackers in botanical garden

Today I visited Sheffield Botanical Garden together with some friends from the course to do some slack line walking. It was a long time since I last tried slack line so it was fun, and it is very different from tightwire since the slackline can go sideways under you in a way tightwire can not.

Here I am on the slack line!

The slackline stand out quite much in the park and some children also tried it out, and they all looked so happy to do it.

We also juggled and did some other circus things together, and practiced some pass juggling. The weather was very unpredicible; it rained, was sunny as in summer and then it suddendly started to hail big ice marbles from the sky.

The pavillion that was used as a greenhouse. It was free entry.

Before I met everyone we ha a walk around the botanical garden and the pavillion.

No doubt it is spring times.

Specialization phase started

This week has been different to the previous weeks at the course, because we now all have chosen our specialization subjects among manipulation, acrobatics, aerial and equbrilistics. For me, it was quite a hard decision since i like everything and couldn't really decide if I wanted to broaden my skills or be better at the ones I already got.

After a lot of thought I chose equibrilistics and aerial and I will do there even more to progress and develop some kind of act that can be fitted into the final show. I like the idea that we are doing a show together at the end.

During the dance class we have been working on our pieces for the final show, and it is both difficult and interesting to create and choreograph your own things. It can sometimes be difficult to collaborate, communicate ideas and make movement to a beat but I am happy with what we have made so far. 

I have been doing a lot of tightwire lately, and juggling even if I didn't pick manipulation. I really want to learn how to juggle five balls so I am practicing that quite a lot. I also just discovered hat juggling, which was unexpected since I have never had any interest in that before. our juggling teacher said that that is typical for hat juggling; at first people think it is not sp interesting and then suddenly it comes up to you anyway. I did tightwire and juggling together that day since I had to rest my feet from the tightwire sometimes, but now I have bought soft sole shoes to protect my feet.

Today we ha aerial all day and I felt that I have become stronger in my arms. I am still super tired, but at least I did more things today than any other aerial class. I have become even better at climbing and doing different silks positions, even though I have never done any drops yet.

Tomorrow we will have another clown class as we have already had one in the beginning of the week. We used clown clothes for the first time which was fun and made me feel very clowny, which was a good thing.

Newton's architecture - A documentary about Swedish juggling

When I was surfing the internet looking for juggling things I stumbled upon this documentary about the Swedish style juggling:

Newtons Architecure - En film om nutida jonglering i Sverige (A film about contemporary Swedishi Juggling) with subtitles in English

It is a 30 minutes documentary about the Swedsih Juggling. Appearantly there is a special Swedish juggling style that both tries to be high skilled and artistic. The documentary contains interviews with some Swedish Jugglers at DOCH (University of Dance and Circus) and some nice juggling clips.

Quote from Jay Gillian:

And for me, it is also about how the juggling looks, that’s what I like about it, it is not the skill.

I like this idea of artistic juggling. In the documentary that also say that there were really no discussion in Sweden whether juggling is a sport or an art, and most think that it can be both. I like to see juggling as an art or way to express something, almost like dance. Jay Gillian also talked about to be conscious about what type of juggler you want to be and what expression you want to have. 

Om jag gör ett vissts visuellt mönster med min jonglering, att objekten bildar någonting, eller jag håller objekten på ett sätt som bildar nån sorts… ja, en bild på det ena eller andra sättet. Det är ju samma sak som arkitektur till exempel. Det är ju samma sak, det är ju också en bild, som en front av ett hus eller liksom en allé med träd. Det blir ju också en grafisk bild på samma sätt som jonglering kan vara fast det gör ju nödvändigtvis inte att vi måste räkna in det som jonglering.

Free translation by me:

If I make a certain visual pattern with my juggling so the objects makes something, or if Ii hold the objects so the make up some kind of... picture in some way. That is the same thing as architecture for example. That is the same thing, that is also a picture, like a front of a house or an alley with trees. That also makes a graphic picture in the same way that juggling can be, but that doesn't require us to count it as juggling.

There are big contrast between juggling and architecture, but they both is a kind of art focused around patterns, and this could in fact be applied to almost all art forms.

For people interested in juggling I recommend this documentary.

Lost in Hillsborough

Yesterday I slept as long as usual to recover from a week of circus. In the morning I joined Im to go out running. We ran for maybe one hour and it was a nice sunshine but still windy so it was perfect running weather. We ran along the canal in the old industrial areal which was a nice path.

Since I chose equilibrilistics as one of my specializations I plan to do a lot of tight wire, but the wire is made from twinned metal wires and after 2,5 hours of constant walking my soles are hurting. Therefore I planned to go to some dance shop to see if they had some kind of dance shoes or even martial art shoes that could be suitable for tight wire walking. I was told it would talk maybe 20 minuets to walk there, but after 45 minuets of walking I felt that I was not even near or in the right areal. I had seen a lot of Hillsborough area though, but I never found that dance shop.

Then I met a friend in town to watch some photo exhibition from travelers which was small but nice. The we also watched the Millennium galleries since he had never been there the last two years even if he lives in Sheffield. I really understand this since I am not very good at doing tourist things in my previous hometowns, except when guiding friends and family.

Aerial practise and choreography

I think I have become a lot better at climbing the silks that for my first time three weeks ago. In the aerial class the day before yesterday we did our assessments tasks which was spotting someone and then do a trapeze routine.

My trapeze routine was quite simple, but I am still happy with my performance and the feedback I got from the teacher. I did the trapeze moves gazelle, angel, reverse angel, candlestick, mixed grip straddle, up to sitting, balance, lamp post, coffin, birds nest.
This picture is a screen shot from the movie of me going into this position, but I think I have become a lot better at climbing the silks that for my first time three weeks ago. In the aerial class yesterday we did our assessments tasks which was spotting someone and then do a trapeze routine.

My trapeze routine was quite simple, but I am still happy with my performance and the feedback I got from the teacher. I did the trapeze moves gazelle, angel, reverse angel, candlestick, mixed grip straddle, up to sitting, balance, lamp post, coffin, birds nest.

Finally I mastered a nice silks position

On Wednesday afternoon we had aerial choreography. Unluckily, I was unable to participate for a very funny reason. I was jumping and dancing around at lunchtime, and just when my foot was in the air a diabolo from one of the other students flew in under my foot. When I landed I hit the diabolo and strained my ankle, so then I decided to rest to not risk the rest of the course.

So instead I took a lot of notes in the choreography lesson. I have some experience of choreography from dance and figure skating that I practiced when I was younger, so it was interesting to hear how this teacher thought about it.

We discussed different starting points for a choreography, like space, context, character, equipment, budget, duration, music, theme, safety, costume, narrative, solo/duo/group and so on. We also talked about the importance to know who is in charge of making different decisions when making the choreography. Sometimes the buyer want to make them, sometimes there is a director and sometimes the artist. Then we did some exercises in tempo, when they did the same series of aerial moves but in different tempos.

Watching an exercise in aerial choreography class

Chorepgraphy top tips

• Be present and do the moves worth watching
• Have a clear ending and a clear end
• Don't be afraid to use the ground as well as the air in aerial performance
• Choreography doesn't have to be complicated, just clear
• We like patterns
• Don't be afraid of repetition
• Try to vary the tempo pf the moves from static holding to flowing moves
• Don't be a slave to the music
• Try to create contrast in speed, shape, pace
• Audience see shapes, not moves
• Slowness and still points give confidence to the performance

And most important of all:

• Audience don't remember tricks, they remember moments. Create great moments!

Circus in media after Circus Space name change to National Center for Circus Arts

11th of March Circus Space in London changed its name to National Center of Circus Arts, and circus artists now will get the same recognition as artist as dancers or musicians in the UK. The name change has was written quite a lot about in English media, so if you want to read some circus related articles here are some:

Al Jazeera - UK circus school recieves high wire status

Standard - National Circus center promises an art form to rival ballet

BBC Circus school gets new national status 

NBC Circus center teaches hights

Buzzfeed - There is a circus school in London and its amazing

I think it is great that circus is getting higher recognition as an art.

Assesment week

This week is the last one on the course before we specialize, so we have had a lot of assessment to fullfill.

In manipulation class I was "Harry Potter's Swedish cousin" who waved my wand to my diabolos. In equbrilistics class I walked between Big Ben and Sheffieild Hallam University High building with a lot of wind, and once I fell down and "died".

Todays acrobatics class also contained an assessment and we did a water themes group performance to the song "Under the Sea". We also started to do some exercises for flips which was really fun.

In the evening I went to a dance show in Sheffield city Hall. I got really inspired and just was to burst out in dancing.

Game is good, play is better in clowning class

Today, we had another full day of clowning. I had no idea what to expect from the clowning classes that are compulsory in the course, but they are getting better and funnier now compared to the first class I think. It is both frightening and fun to do clowning, but sometimes you just feel stupid, boring or vulnerable. It sounds like a cliché, but the clowning classes actually helps you find out more about yourself since we have nothing to "hide" behind, and in our clowning classes we don't use any costumes or props or other things.

Some good things that you get better at in clowning class is to always be positive, give it another try and to learn to try to sens the subtile sens of how other people are feeling or thinking, and then try to follow them.We have also learned to be enthusiastic and never reject other people ideas, how crazy they might be.

List of things our techer likes to say:
Game is good, play is better
Clowns are not gold medal winners

Clowns alway go for another try

What I have learned from this is: To be a clown is to dare to fail.

We actually did an exercises when we were suppose to hide under a blanket, the pop out and try to surprise the audience, and then just wait for the fun to die and the do something about it. The exercises was about to try to be funny, but fail and then try to solve it.

Our clown classes basically consistes of five hours of playing silly games, improvising and speaking nonsens. It is a fun way to start the week!

In the evening I went to the new parcour course, at is was very fun to run, jump and roll around, but to do these thing on the concrete seems far away at this point. Then I did trapeze beginners class but I forgot my phone at home, so there are no picture. Thats is really a shame since I learned a nice move called "the unicorn".

Circus Space in London gains status as "National"

Article from The Guardian:

Acrobatic artists find new status as London circus school goes national

Directors hail victory for campaign to keep world-class talent in UK as London centre leads renaissance in big top skills.

Link to the article from The Guardian.

A quote from the article:
" British tightrope walkers, acrobats and trapeze artists are to be given the same recognition as the country's leading troupes of musicians and dancers. Circus Space, the training centre in London's East End, is being elevated to "national" status by the government in a move to show that "circus arts" are being taken seriously."

I like this since it means that circus slowly is getting more and more recognition as an art form. I recommend to read the article.

The Moor Market and street dance

Yesterday I walked down to town. First I visited the main library of Sheffield and the Grave Galleries, where I watched ther exhibition about Polish artists the fled to UK duting the second world war. It was mostly quite heavy oil paintings. One thing I really like with the exhibition was the informative signs next to every painting, and the text on each was a good length but still contained some interesting information about the work. In some museum there are no or little information, or just too much. I also saw the rest of their exhibitions.

Some art in the stairs of the main library.

Then I went to see the Moor market. It was a nice market area that was number 7 on VisitSheffield.co.uk top visitior attractions. It was a nice, sunny Saturday with many people walking around, and I liked the atmosphere of the area.

There was some street dancers performing in the streets, and they both were really good at dancing and to enjoy themselves. After some time I realized they promoted their one night only show on Wendsday at Sheffield City Hall and I had already planned to go there together with some other students from the CIP course.

Inside the actual Moor Market was a mixtore of food and other stalls where you could find almost anything.

In the evening I went to Greentop to see the Cabaret "Sailors and Mermaids". It was fun to see some performances that could inspire us to our final CIP course, and the average level of the acts was good. One of our areal teachers did a performance and I liked to see how she did a very nice areal hoop performance

The flying teapots and fire spinning

It is already week five of the course. I am really getting used to do this and I really like going to Greentop every day.

I have had a beginning of a cold this week so this Monday I didn't go to beginners evening trapeze class. instead, I went for Sheffield University juggling club "Flying Teapots" juggling practice session. It was very nice to see a room full of enthusiastic jugglers and object manipulators. I learned some new nice devil sticks moves and also some new poi moves ("the wrong weave" and "the antispin vetruvian man").

In poi, I have reached the point when it can sometimes be difficult to know what to learn next or where to head next, but there were some really skilled and nice poi spinners there that I talked to. I have never been to any juggling conventions but now I understand how you can learn a lot from them!

After the practice session we headed to West Park to do some fire practice. I had brought my fire poi from Sweden so after I had watched the other people I also had a go. My poi was burning a lot more than usual, and I don't know if it was because it was hot in the air or if it was the paraffin fuel that was different.

At the end A did some fire breathing. It looks really cool, but I think I will never dare to do it.

When I first started doing poi, I don't know if i was even aware that it was possible to do fire spinning. I had been doing poi for many years (hmm summers) when I tried fire for the first time with the jester club in Luleå, and I was really scared of the fire.

Now, I quite enjoy spinning with fire, but I still have a lot of respect for it. I like the sound of the flames when they move through the air, and still get a little adrenalin when I do it, even if it is not as much as when I was less used to fire spinning. It was a good evening.

Choosing props for this week's manipulation class

I our manipulation classes we have until now had the opportunity to try many different juggling props just to get a feel for them. For this week's manipulation class we must make a difficult decision: We need to choose two props or "areas that we want to practice more. I think it is good to first broaden you skills by trying everything, and then go deeper into what you find interesting.

I know that not all my family and friends are so into manipulation as I am so here is a list and short explanation of all the props when have had the opportunity to try during our manipulation class (but of course there are many more not listed in this list).

Balls, rings and clubs.

List of props we have tried in manipultaion class:

Balls

Balls are what most people typically thinks about when they are thinking of juggling. They can be made of different materials such as fabric and leather and be "constructed" in different way in the same was as there are different "football constructions" where the pieces not necessary look like you just cut an orange in four pieces. They come in all sizes, colors and weights. A typical juggling ball weights about 100-200 g.

Clubs

Clubs are... clubs. They are more difficult to juggle because you have to control the spin so it makes the number of rotations in the air that you want. They can be used for club swinging almost like poi.

Rings

Rings have some possibilities that balls and clubs doesn't have; for exapmle you can catche the on you head or other body parts. They can have one color or different colors on the two sides, and are usually made of plastic. The typical size of a juggling ring is 32 cm in diameter.

Cigar boxes

Cigar boxes where real cigar boxes in their early stage. They are about the size of four pocket books glued together. They are not "thrown" as balls, but it like you are letting them move in a quite strict vertical motion up and down.

Diabolo

Diabolo is an hourglass shaped yoyo-resembling thing that are spun on a rope between two strings. Then, the diabolo is thrown and caught on the string and sometimes on the sticks. The diabolo can be made of either rubber, plastic, metal or even wood, but the center part where the string lies are almost always made of metal in modern diabolos. The sticks can be made by coal fibre, metal or wood.

Two diabolos and sticks from first person view

Hats

Juggling hats have the advantage that they can be caught on different body parts.

Contact juggling

In contact juggling there are no or very little throws. In contact juggling the juggler manipulate the ball so it looks like it is floating or isolating, or like it is controlled by some magic power.

Poi

Poi is a manipulation tool that looks like a ball attached to a string. Then you hold one of these in each hand and swing them around your body in different patterns.There is a branch of poi that is called contact poi that has similarities with contact juggling.

Staff

Staff is a staff that is spun in different patterns around the body. It has similarities with contact juggling.

Devil/flower sticks

Devil sticks or flower sticks consists of one bigger stick that is manipulated with help of two other small sticks, one held in each hand. The difference between devil sticks and flower sticks is that devil sticks are hourglass shaped while flower sticks are straight and narrower.

Scarves

Scarves fall down very slow in the air which gives another effect when juggling with scarves.

Hoola hoop

Hoola hoop is a big hoop that is either swung, spun or hooped around the body.

Spinning plate

Spinning plate is a plate that is spun on a stick and then manipulated, twisted or thrown.


On the mat from left to right: Juggling hats, isolation hoops right to the right of them and the boxes for the crystal contact juggling balls.
In the first box from left to right there are diabolos and some poi, the a box of clubs and another box with various juggling equipment like scarves and rings.
On the floor in front of the boxes there are juggling rings with balls, and in the rings to the right there are some crystal contact juggling balls.
In front of the rings there are three colorful juggling cigar boxes.

I think I will chose "juggling in general" (which means balls... I think) and diabolos as the areas I want to develop more. I want to choses juggling so I can continue to do my five balls exercises and then maybe do some juggling passing. I think passing balls or clubs are very interesting because I haven't had anyone to practice this with before and I didn't know any patterns. I want to choses diabolo since I am working on my two diabolo spinning and I want to be able to do a two diabolo trick. I used to do a lot of diabolo when I was younger so it is very nice to refind the joy of doing diabolo again.

Juggling balls?

Switching back and forth from work, studies and hobbies

At the birthday party I talked to a friend who said he had given his circus interest a proper go for the last five or six years, and worked as a self employed circus artist. He said that during his studies circus was always his biggest interest, but when he started working with circus he suddenly found that he had no hobby anymore.

My friend M and I had a poi photo shoot in December in Luleå, showing how much we love poi spinning.

I was interesting to hear his story because I am now doing the same thing: I am turning my hobby into something I do full time. Now when I do circus all day, I must do something else as a hobby. And happily, as you blog readers might have realized when i visited London, architecture suddenly become my hobby. I didn't realize this until I had this talk at the party, but now my hobby (circus) and studies (civil engineering and architecture)  has switched place.

I am dancing in front of the UFO cottage at the Three Hotel i the small village Harads, proving how much I love architecture.

I am so happy that architecture has become my new hobby because it means that I in some way really like architecture and engineering and that it is not just something I studied to get a stable income in the future. It also makes me feel more motivated to maybe continue my studies because then I will do the same thing as I did when I came here: turn my interest into something I do full time. I can tell you from this experience that it is wonderful to do that. .