The final show of the course on Greentops homepage

There is still a lot to write about an dpictures to show from the final graduation show!
Until I have written a nice entry covering it all, there is an article from Greentops homepage that can be read here.

The quote that "It seemed more like a professional show than a student showcase" made me really proud of all of us.

I still miss going to Greentop every day, but on Tuesday I was back at the poi spinning club here. It was nice to see everyone again, and we tried out some exercises and games I learned at Greentop.

I will eventually write more about the final show and the way there.

Back in Sweden

I have had a lot to do this last week of the circus course, which was fun but sad as I knew that soon there would be no Greentop every day anymore.

My family came to watch the final show, and then we looked around Sheffield and spent some time with my landlady and lodger.

After that, I had one more week in England until our flight left from London, so we went through Stratford-upon-Aven, Warwick and Oxford before we reached Heathrow to fly back to Sweden.

Now I am in Tyresö outside Stockholm and then we will fly back to Luleå late in the night tonight.

Soon there will be a boom of final show pictures and pictures from England.

Full time rehersals and performance tips

This week we are having full time rehearsals for the final show. It is quite different from the other parts of the course because the focus has shifted from learning to presenting. During every day of this week there is a "presenting time" when the teachers from each subject come in and "hand over" the different acts to the director. So far we have been doing aerial, clowning and juggling (and acrobatics for those who chose that).

This is the first time for me to be directed in this way, but I like it. Sometimes it is like the director is pointing out the obvious, like "remember to look at the audience", but it is so easy to get lost in your own performance that you actually forget to do that. It is also nice to have the director as the eye of the audience, and to me it also feels safer do be directed rather than trying to find out if things work or not by yourself.

To tips for performances

• Make things clear - everything you do has to be clear to the audience to avoid confusion.
• Do it more - this is connected with the previous tip to make it clear. If you are jumping - jump more. If you are happy - be happier. Sometimes it feels like you are doing it a lot but from the audience point of view it may not be completely clear.
• Look at the audience - Try to look at the audience at unexpected moments to invite them to share whatever you are doing

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!

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.

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. 

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!

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".

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?

Areal progress

Thursdays are areal days. This was the 4th areal class and today it felt like I actually have made some progress.

We started the morning with trapeze class, and we worked on the moves we learned. To pass our assessment we need to make a routine with at least seven moves, and now it feels realistic and not overwhelming as it did the first class.



Here are my friends on the static trapezes practicing. I took this picture because it looked nice when they where all standing in the same position. I actually use my cell phone camera quite much during areal class to take videos and pictures of different positions. Writing them down can help a little but most of the time the notes themselves without pictures don't make any sense at all.

Here I am practicing the "gazelle" move on static trapeze.

In areal class, you need tight fitting clothes. I use socks when I am on the trapeze, because otherwise me feet hurt too much from the friction from the ropes and the bar. When climbing the rope it is possible to wear socks, but it makes it harder. The rope is quite stiff and I am trying to get used to it for my hands and feet. When climbing the silks it is impossible to wear socks because they will makes you slide down. The reason I have long sleeves and legs covered is to protect my body from burns if I would slide down a rope, trapeze or silks.

In the afternoon we could choose what to do between rope, silks and more trapeze. I have always been fascinated by the silks so I went for that. I felt like I did considerably better than the last time, which was actually my first time. I learned how to go into hip lock from Russian climb, and then I worked with a series that my friend though me. This is another proof that the other students at this course are the best!

It doesn't look as elegant as I am feeling when climbing the silks but I really enjoy climbing them. You really need arm strength to climb the silks and rope, but professional arealists make it look so easy. I look forward to do the next areal class, and to master my new (and only) silk move.

My beginner top tips for silks for today:

• Before you start to climb, pull down the silks a little because the fabric is a little bit elastic.
• Try to not look at you feet when climbing, to learn to "feel" where the fabric is.
• In hip lock, keep you legs straight and even if you have to push our hips forward you should at the same time feel like you are in a pike position.

Feeling like a local

The day before yesterday was a fantastic day, because I watched instinctively to the right when I was about to cross the road. Today, I was able to give directions to a man who asked me how to get to a street near my house. I am not so awkward when I use the self check outs at the grocery stores and I now understand that "tea" can be both the drink and dinner.

Todays dance class was fun. We did everything we did the last times and also worked a little bit on our phrase. We also had a discussion about what we wanted to do at the final show. It was the first time we actually started to sit down and think about it. Everyone got so excited and had so many good ideas that we will explore the next dance class.

Yesterday was a super dramatic day in the afternoon. While we did standing on shoulder exercises, some young boys came to use the bathroom. We just assumed they were early for the youth acrobatics, but on the way out they pickpocketed two phones. But since one of them was an iPhone with a tracker, we called the police and tracked them. In the end they couldn't catch the thieves, but they found the phone in the forest with help of the tracker. It was like a television drama.

As usual I cannot take picures during class but here is another pyramid from last weeks acrobatics class. It is called a Spanish pyramid where the different levels go into each other.

Handbalancing for the first time

The subjects for today was equbrilitics and acrobatics.

During the equbrilistics class we could choose whatever we wanted to practise among the different things we have tried: strap on stilts, unicycle, rola bola and tightwire. I really like to do thight wire walking and I felt that I have improved a lot since last week. I could walk both backwards and forwards and do the half turns. We experimented quite lot how we could do different turns, and also watched an educational DVD from Cirque du Soleil on tight wire. I also practiced some other types of walking, and the two feet balance and slide walks.

In the afternoon we had acrobatics focused on handstands and hand balancing. We did more cartwheels and front rolls, and than we practiced handstands in different way for quite a long time, which was really good since I really want to learn the handstand. We also had an introduction on hand balancing which was really fun to try. Even though this photo is a bit blurry I am holding this position. After this acrobatics class I feel that I really need to exercise my core muscles more so I can keep my body straighter in different positions.

Top handbalancing beginner tips:

• Tension your body as much as you can.
• Keep your weight to the front so you don't fall backwards of the canes when balancing. That happen to me and hurt.
• Work on your shoulder flexibility and core strength to be able to do the exercises better.

Pyramid and tightwire

Today when I woke up my shoulders were achy and still after areal and acrobatics. Today we did equibrilistics where I mostly did tightwire walking. I can walk forwards and backwards, and sometimes even turn between them without falling off! 

On the equibrilistic lesson I also tried the rola bola for the very first time. It was hard to get on, but once there it felt ok after some practice, and at the end I managed to hold it for over 1 minute. We also tried to make a jump start on it. 

In the afternoon we had acrobatics where we review some forward and backward rolls, and then we did partner balances and pyramids. It was fun to do the pyramids and this one is not the coolest one we did.

In the evening I went to skill share but I was so tired again that I left before it was over. I don't know why I get so tired so quickly these days. I have also felt that I have started to need to eat and drink a lot more than I did before, and sometimes I wonder if I am a little underhydrated? But at the skillshare, I practiced my four ball exercises and also learnt a new pattern 4-4-1 and the whip catch with diabolo. I remeber that I though whip catch was really hard when I was younger but know I could do it a lot more easy thanks to some tips from the skillshare!

Clowning day and areal night

The week has started again and we are continuing with the circus training. We spent the whole Monday doing clowning exercises, which was all totally new to me so I had no idea what to expect from that class, but I really enjoyed it. At the same time as it was fun and enjoyable, it was also a bit frightening because as a modern clown there is really not much to "hide" behind, but you have to be a little bit of yourself in some way. We didn't do clowning as "clown with red nose slips and fall to the ground", but modern clowning where everyone was allowed to find what style they had. I must say that it felt surprisingly good when people laughed at me. 

We where also playing some games and discusses the differences between humans and clowns, like the way they think, act and what tactic they have in life. We also did many exercises in breathing and taking it slow, as a beginner clown can rush and do to many things to try to be funny. It is also very important to feel relaxed and like you enjoy life, because the audience will mirror you behavior on stage.

In the evening I went to a beginners areal class which was open for public, because I wanted to practice a little extra on my areal skills. I hadn't done any areal whatsoever before I came here so it is a real challenge for me, but very fun.

There are two hard things with the static trapeze for me, and they are strength and positioning. Areal performance requires a lot of upper body and shoulder strength, and uses muscles that I am not used to use. Yesterday night, I also had blisters on my hands and legs from hanging and holding the trapeze. The rest of the people at the areal class was really nice and I really liked the friendly atmosphere, and I got to learn some new moves as well.

At this photo you can see some silks, trapezes and ropes. This is when everyone is about to take away the equipment, because when they are used there are always a crash mat underneath.

Today, we had manipulation and acrobatic practice. My back is sore from making to many forward rolls, but I feel a slight improvement. We also did cartwheels, headstands and handstands.

On the manipulation class we continued with our exercises and I really feel an improvement from last week. We also introduced rings and clubs, and since I had only tried clubs but not rings I went for them. I learnt how to juggle them and do a trick where you out the ring on your head. It was very funny. I also feel a little better doing my four balls exercises now than last week when I only wanted to proceed to five as fast as I could, but if there is one thing I remember from my time as a figure skater it is that basics are really important.

This photo shows how nice our teacher had arranged our props in the morning. I especially liked the "club pyramid" with all the clubs.

I have also booked bus tickets for London next weekend to see some old friends!

Första dagen på Greentop!

Idag var första dagen på Greentop Circus In Performance course. Tyvärr glömde jag helt bort att ta några bilder.

Hela första dagen hade vi "perfomance", dvs vi  lekte lekar och gjorde olika teaterövningar för att komma igång och lära känna varandra. Dessa handlade mest om rytm, ytor och olika nivåer och var roligt och lärorikt, men bitvis också ganska svårt.

Jag blev mycket tröttare än jag trodde och nu är jag så slut att jag knappt kan skriva på englska, så ikväll ska jag vila så jag är redo för imorgon då vi ska ha "manipulation".

Det var dessutom väldigt roligt att äntligen få träffa alla de andra eleverna på kursen. Om det fortsätter såhär kommer jag definitivt att ha tre bra månader här i Sheffield.