The ultimate colors for juggling balls set

We have all seen them: These really professional jugglers that has like 9 white clubs and do amazing things. To me, having white props, black clothes and enter a black stage will give me some prejudices about what style of juggling the juggler will do.

I will soon order LEDballs, and last time I bought juggling balls I was thinking a lot about what colours to get. I was practising five ball flash quite a lot so I wanted the balls to have different colours so I could check that I caught the balls in the right hand. I wanted six, and they only had six colours, so I ended up with one in each colour. I still don't like that pink one.

So now I am buying LED-ball to use at performances, so I here are some suggestions if you like to have different colours when you juggle.

Don't get me wrong, I like when they are all in the same colour too.

3 balls
2+1 makes it possible to enhance special trick such as jugglers tennis.

4 balls
3+1 is one possible combination, but 2+2 is also an interesting one. 3+1 allows monochrome three ball if you want that, but 2+2 allows to have 2+1 with both chosen colours.

5 balls
I felt that it was difficult to fins some good combinations. with five balls, I don't see very often that any accent balls are needed. Maybe 4+1? 2+3 is also a good combination, because the both monochrome three ball is possible and also 2+2.

6 balls
I was thinking that maybe 2+4 would be a nice combination, because I can imagine that it would look nice with one accent ball in each three ball column when juggling? Also this makes many other good combinations for 4 and 3 ball patterns possible.
Also 4+1+1 is an interesting one, because it allows a three ball pattern with 3 different colours.

I wrote this article when I was thinking about what to buy considering LED juggling balls. At the end, I decided 6 balls, 4 green and 2 white like the northern light. It is going to be a nice juggling winter, and since I live in the northern part of Sweden there will be a lot of darkness to juggle in!

That is my thoughts on choosing ball colours for juggling sets. If you have thoughts about this it would be interesting to hear yours!

A guide how to make poi and circus choreographies

I finally have a new computer since my old one broke down! I spend a lot of time studying for the exam week, but we have also moved a little forward in the progress of making our own show with the poi at staff club at uni.

We will now start making choreographies and I wanted to share the process with you!

Before I started making poi choreographies I have competed with different choreographies in figure skating, which might have helped. I have also done some dance courses and played cello, so i feel that i have a good sense of music and beat.

I usually to things in this order. Below I will explain a little bit more about each point.

Suggestion on
how to make a poi choreography

1. Choose music
2. Cut music
3. Write the music down
4. Write a list of tricks
5. Pair up tricks with highlights
6. Play around to find transfers between tricks
7. Look for feelings and poses
8. Practice, film myself and evaluate
9. Rethink
10. Practice
11. Thinking about costume, light color
12. Perform

Choose music

When I chose music I always chose something that I like, because when practising you will hear this music a thousand times. It is good to chose a music that is not a super popular track on the lists, because since it will take some time to make your performance people will think that it is as old and outdated as the music. 

I also often chose something that has a good beat. Especially with poi, the beat is very important so try the music out to see if you can spin in rhythm with the beat. Remember that it is the length of the string that decides the period time!

It can also be a good idea to chose a music with many changes of style or one that contains some high light where you can put your best tricks.

Cut music
If your music is longer than 3 minuets, cut it down. I think about 3 minuets is how long the audience can hold their interest. When cutting music, make sure that the cut edition has a good start and finish.

Try to include some different moods, themes or parts from the music.

Write the music down
I always start with writing the music down. I count the beats, write them down and divide them into sections, and write out where the highlights are. If you are not so good at this or think it seems tideous, one way can be to print out the lyrics (if there is any) or just write "beginning", "flute starts to play" and so on.

I do this to get an overview over the music.

Write a list of tricks

Now, write a list of tricks you want to include. Write only tricks that you can actually do.

Pair up tricks with highlights

Now, put your down written music and list of tricks down next to each other and try to pair them up. Put you spectacular tricks on the highlights in the music. When you add in your trick, try to add them in an order so they contrast each other, like high vs low, slow vs fast and so on to make your choreography dynamic.

Play around to find transfers between tricks

Put on you music and try to do your tricks, and to find smooth transfers. If there are any empty spaces in the music, improvise and see what you think can fit there.

Look for feelings and poses

When playing around, try out some different start and finishing poses. Don't forget to put some applaud poses in the middle as well. You can also experiment with some dance moves or poses, or try to express different feelings and thoughts.

Practice, film myself and evaluate

When you are happy with your outline, it is time to practice. Just do it over and over again. Sometimes it helps to do this in front of a mirror, or in front of a video camera to watch how it looks like from the audience perspective.. You will find out what works and what doesn't.

Rethink

Did you fins something that needs to be changed? 

Practice

After the changes, continue to practice. If you want, you can continue to practice and retink until you are really happy with you piece. Then practice again until you can preform you choreography in your sleep.

Thinking about costume, light color

It is getting closer to the show. Think about what kind of costume you want to wear, what kind of fire or LED color you want, how you will enter and leave the stage and so on. How can you do this so it enhances your theme? Remember to practise in your costume.

Perform

Now it is time to show your amazing choreography. Good luck!

I know that there are other strategies on making choreographies, and there might be a continuation on this topic since I find it very interesting.

A calm plastic bag air ballet - An Afternoon of Foehn

An Afternoon of Foehn - Version 1
Umeå 7 Sept 15:00


Picture source

This might have been my favourite performance during the whole Umeå contemporary circus festival. The program said "A plastic bag dances across the stage". After seeing this show I now understand how plastic bags can dance.

An Afternoon of Foehn is a solo show and starts out very peacefully and slow. A man dressed like an old sailor entered the stage, and almost ritually he makes a "mini human" out of two plastic bags. The he slowly turn on the fans that surrounds the stage, slowly one by one. The fans make some whirlwind that the seaman can control i different ways to make the "mini plastic human" dance around in the wind to a classic music peace. It really is peaceful and beautiful.

The the story starts with more dancing platic humans, some interactin, and umbrella and different mood changes. The end is filled with melancholy and almost made me cry, so I don't want to give it away. In some was it reminds me of  Studie Ghibli films.

Picture source

This is sometimes labeled as a childrens show, but I would recommend this so any age. It is more of a performance than circus, but still full of emotions and afterthought.